Cypress River Advisors.org COVID-19 Response
April 19, 2021
With the arrival of vaccines, it would appear that the end of the pandemic is near. However, the public health data shows otherwise. COVID-19 has mutated. A more contagious variant B-117 has become dominant. Furthermore, the distribution of the vaccine is uneven in the United States, and globally, as well.
We advise our clients and the public to refrain from unnecessary business travel, wear a mask, practice good hygiene, ventilate indoor spaces, and to continue social distancing. We also encourage readers to continue supporting communities in need and as well as each other.
To find out more what Cypress River Advisors is doing to help communities in need and to join the fight, please scroll down below. The only way through this pandemic is with each other.
— the Team @ Cypress River Advisors
Cypress River Advisors’s “Good Mask” PSA
At the beginning of the pandemic, our Team began to ask questions: What constitutes a good mask? Should I wear an N95? We consulted public health experts and even called factories around the world. We’ve compiled these questions and answers into a series of short videos that we are making public. We are also partnering with STCNext.Health to provide silver nano-coated mask to communities in needs.
Strategic Planning Support
As a data-led organization, businesses rely on Cypress River for intelligence and strategic advice. Managing uncertainty due to an outbreak is not new to the Cypress River team. Many of us were in APAC during the SARS epidemic. We’ve provided on the ground intelligence on local business conditions and regulations.
In conjunction with The Atlantic Council GeoTech Center, we’ve published a Pandemic Survival Guide to facilitate strategic planning. We’ve been through SARs and MERs. Whether you are a corporate or an NGO, these are time tested strategies to help you lead your organizations. We are optimistic that the Biden Administration’s science-based approach will positively impact here at home and abroad. Read our guidance on how to interpret testing data and what it will take to open with confidence.
Data for Good
In the spirit of open data and “data for good,” we believe the public needs the same vetted data we provide our clients.
We encourage everyone to understand the complexity of the problem and build resilience against active disinformation campaigns worldwide.
The user interface allows you to drag and post customized graphs to your PowerPoint or social media feed. Our visualizations provide a global and regional view. US state/county-level data is also available.
You can find the link to the dashboard is here.
Personal Protective Equipment
Healthcare professionals are our first line and last line of defense. Our essential workers, grocers, sanitation, and transit workers are the backbone of every nation. They don't need praise. They need our support. Our team was frustrated by the shortage of PPEs in the US and elsewhere around the world. We are frustrated by the continued shortage.
When people tell us something is impossible, and our experience says otherwise, we’ll commit to proving naysayers wrong. So we contracted a company in Taiwan (one of the safest places on the planet now) to produce face shields that have directly helped hospital workers and other essential workers in New York City, Kyoto, San Francisco, Syracuse, and Detroit.
We are proud to support some of America’s hardest hit-hospitals and supermarket workers who can’t afford 15 dollar face shields. To find out more, read below:
Intubation Boxes
In conjunction with Dr. Ee Tay, from NYU Langone Health’s Pediatric Emergency Medicine department, we have modified the Taiwan“Aerosol Box” design to support adult and pediatric intubations. (Plans for the original design can be found here). The modified version, we’ve also maintained as open source and can be found here
It is easy to assemble these boxes if you have access to Lexan or acrylic. Any signboard shop or maker space has the equipment and supplies to manufacture this.
Face Shields For the First Line
The shortage of PPEs continues to be a problem globally. Cypress River Advisors has contracted a factory to produce single-use emergency face shields for donations in the US and Japan to augment goggles and face masks.
Face shields should not cost 10-15 dollars. Most essential workers can’t afford that kind of expense. 3D printing is too expensive and slow. We need to be able to produce and distribute quickly at scale.
Many told us that it would be impossible to scale up quickly or cheaply. Our supply chain experience told us to ignore the naysayers. We have distributed thousands or face shields New York City, Kyoto, San Francisco, Syracuse, and Detroit.
Inspired by resourceful and scrappy Makers and DIYers around the world, we turned to them to create an origami style solution that doesn’t require 3D printing and assembled easily.
Through May 2020, Cypress River Advisors covered the cost of tooling, production and distribution (FedEx and DHL you better love us!). In June, we’ve started a fundraising page to help scale production even further. One hundred percent of the funds donated to Cypress River Advisors will go toward producing and distributing face shields for essential workers. (Please note, donations are not tax-deductible.)
At the end of the day, to slow the spread of COVID-19, people need masks. Neck gaiters and bandanas are not nearly effective as double masking. Dr. Faucci of the CDC has emphasized the common sense approach to double-masking. Cypress River Advisors has partnered with STCNext.Health, a nanotechnology company to make available antimicrobial PPEs available to the public. A portion of the proceeds will go toward Cypress River Advisors continuing mission to make PPE free to essential workers.
Pandemic Survival Strategies: A leadership guide for organizations wanting to weather the COVID-19 storm
Jason Wang, Cypress River Advisors and David Bray, PhD, Director
Atlantic Council GeoTech Center
Both of us witnessed the impacts of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, though from different perspectives. Jason was in East Asia and witnessed the fear and market collapse that happened then. He drafted this initial version of the guide. David meanwhile was in the U.S. with the Centers for Disease Control’s Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Program and saw the outbreak from a public health emergency response perspective.
Fast forward to 2020 and now we have a global pandemic with effects that will change the way we work, live, and interact for some time to come. At the time of writing, some 20% of the world’s population find themselves under lockdown and the economic powerhouses of Europe and North America grapple with the realization that they are now the epicenter of the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic. The prospect of global economic depression looms.
While the pandemic is serious, however, we can and will get through this. This article is about more than business continuity planning for organizations, be they in tech or NGOs, that seeks to provide value to people. This guide is about good leadership in turbulent environments. If we act smart and if we are willing to invest in each other, we may all come out of this situation faster — and potentially stronger.
Jump to the full article here:
Data for Good: COVID-19 Dashboard
This dashboard represents the consolidation of the latest data feeds from legitimate public sources. This work is the culmination of work conducted by reporters, scientists, healthcare workers, and researchers around the world. They are doing the work to ensure all of us understand the magnitude of the pandemic and the challenges we all face. Currently, we are incorporating the public data set released today by the heroic reporters at the New York Times. As analysts, we give a heartfelt thanks to these individuals who are collecting data at the county and state-level.
Please know that this project is in active development. Some features may occasionally break as we are responding to the rapidly changing landscape of the outbreak and any revisions to the data integration pipeline.
The process of obtaining, cleaning, and updating data from a variety of data streams is challenging. Should you identify more reliable sources than the ones we have listed, please let us know. Each day we are identifying and evaluating new sources of data. Please send suggestions or data sources to mailto:inquiries@cypressriveradvisors.com.
Pulling together, staying home to “flatten the curve,” and supporting each other’s families and business is how we are are going to get through this.
Stay safe. Stay home. Let us support the medical professionals that are risking their lives on the front line.
The Team @ Cypress River Advisors
OPEN SOURCE Personal Protective Equipment
Intubation Boxes designed with Ee Tay, MD of Langone Health
When lives are at stake, every second counts. At the request of Dr. Ee Tay of NYU Langone Health’s Pediatric Emergency Medicine department, we’ve modified the original Taiwanese Aerosol Box design. This intubation box is optimized for adult and pediatric intubations. It includes larger and oval shaped holes so a medical professional can insert their hands and instruments into the work space.
The original design has been modified to:
enable quick production by minimizing the number of cuts (Two Pieces)
minimize the plastic used (we recommend lexan or acrylic)
disassemble easily for cleaning
stack multiple units for shipping
We want to thank and acknowledge Dr. Lai Hsien-yung, an anesthesiologist with Mennonite Christian Hospital in Hualien, Taiwan, for creating the original plans and making it available to the open source community. Without his low-cost and ingenious design, much time would have been wasted in prototyping. We also want to thank Tracy McSherry and Sovann Neak at GiveNeed.org for producing the open sourced design files for the NYU version. Download the plans here!.
EmeRgency One time USe Face Shields
Essential workers don’t need our praise. They need our help.
Given the shortage of PPEs, we again turned to the open-source community to generate easily manufactured designs. Cypress River Advisors has contracted a factory in Taiwan (one of the most successful countries at managing the COVID pandemic) to produce these shields at scale. These face shields are to be used in conjunction with masks and goggles.
These shields fold flat, mail flat and we can produce and send at scale. They are manfactured in Taiwan. Face shields shouldn’t cost 10-15 dollars. They should be cents on the dollar. We’ve included handy instructions on how to put them together. Its like origami!
We are donating these face shields to essential workers and communities in need around the world.
Should you want to contribute to the effort, please send mail to: inquiries@cypressriveradvisors.com.
The Team @ Cypress River Advisors