Community Chat

[MorningLover]

wrote....according to articles in the Wall Street Journal and CNBC, a big problem is the hand sanitizer is one of the medical products needed here that is impacted by the tariff situation with China. The makers of Purell has actually requested it be removed from the tariff list ..

Looks like that has changed.

The maker of Purell hand sanitizer was granted exclusions from U.S. tariffs on components it imports from China, in a reversal by the Presidents administration aimed at lifting barriers for products used to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. Trade Representative’s office notified Gojo Industries, the inventor and manufacturer of Purell-branded products, that its requests to avoid tariffs on two imported pieces of its sanitizer dispensers had been approved.

Gojo builds its hand-sanitizer and soap dispensers in the U.S., but key inputs made in China were subject to a 25% import tax that was part of Tarriffs...

~msm

[pitdakota]

@MorningLover, good!  Sorry though that Portman had to get involved to get him to reverse his earlier decision not to remove it from the list.  Time was a wasting!   Important thing it has been removed.  We have had too many SNAFUS already.

Now, they need to get that production rolling!  

[MorningLover]

pitdakota wrote:

morning lover, good!  Sorry though that Portman had to get involved to get him to reverse his earlier decision not to remove it from the list.  Time was a wasting!   Important thing it has been removed.  We have had too many SNAFUS already.

 Rob Portman is on the Finance Committee and therefore deeply involved in where tariffs need tightening and where they need loosening.

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Part of Transcript:

 Rob Portman said, "We have tariffs in place against China, still. Some were removed during phase 1, and some were not put in place that would have. But there’s still tariffs in place for a lot of products, including a 25% tariff for two items that the hand sanitizer company, Purell, was using. So they’ve got one product that goes into their little hand dispenser, you know, the one you’d have at your home, and another one that would go into a dispenser that you’d find, say, at an airport. And so they were paying an additional 25%. This means that that gets passed along to the consumer, and the prices were higher for Purell. It also, they said, had some impact on the supply, in other words, that they were having more difficulty getting it because of the 25% tariff.

So we went to U.S. Trade Representative Bob Lighthizer. He understood immediately that this is a product that is part of responding to the Coronavirus issue, so we worked through what’s called an exclusion, basically a waiver of that 25%. And you know, the idea is eventually, as you well know, Hugh, to bring this kind of production to America.

But in the meantime, the Chinese have the patent on this particular part of this dispenser, and so we wanted to be sure that that wasn’t going to make it harder for us to respond to Coronavirus. And Purell is a great Ohio company. They’re running three shifts right now. You know, they’re just going full bore trying to produce more hand sanitizer.

Hugh: Of course. So that’s good. Did Bob Lighthizer get that lifted, then? That’s successfully done?

Rob : Yes. Yes, that was done yesterday. 

[pitdakota]

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@MorningLover wrote:

pitdakota wrote:

morning lover, good!  Sorry though that Portman had to get involved to get him to reverse his earlier decision not to remove it from the list.  Time was a wasting!   Important thing it has been removed.  We have had too many SNAFUS already.

 Rob Portman is on the Finance Committee and therefore deeply involved in where tariffs need tightening and where they need loosening.

---

Part of Transcript:

 Rob Portman said, "We have tariffs in place against China, still. Some were removed during phase 1, and some were not put in place that would have. But there’s still tariffs in place for a lot of products, including a 25% tariff for two items that the hand sanitizer company, Purell, was using. So they’ve got one product that goes into their little hand dispenser, you know, the one you’d have at your home, and another one that would go into a dispenser that you’d find, say, at an airport. And so they were paying an additional 25%. This means that that gets passed along to the consumer, and the prices were higher for Purell. It also, they said, had some impact on the supply, in other words, that they were having more difficulty getting it because of the 25% tariff.

So we went to U.S. Trade Representative Bob Lighthizer. He understood immediately that this is a product that is part of responding to the Coronavirus issue, so we worked through what’s called an exclusion, basically a waiver of that 25%. And you know, the idea is eventually, as you well know, Hugh, to bring this kind of production to America.

But in the meantime, the Chinese have the patent on this particular part of this dispenser, and so we wanted to be sure that that wasn’t going to make it harder for us to respond to Coronavirus. And Purell is a great Ohio company. They’re running three shifts right now. You know, they’re just going full bore trying to produce more hand sanitizer.

Hugh: Of course. So that’s good. Did Bob Lighthizer get that lifted, then? That’s successfully done?

Rob : Yes. Yes, that was done yesterday. 

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@MorningLover, like I said...sorry Portman had to get involved.  This was an easy one. Can't believe it was denied when they first requested it.

 Your nurses, doctors, and respiratory therapists need hand sanitizer and PPE.  The rest of the public needs hand sanitizer.  Really a no brainer to release these things from the tariffs right at the start in order to be well positioned to respond to the crisis. 

[Abrowneyegirl]

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@esmerelda wrote:

@CrazyKittyLvr2  Make your own. Make a bleach solution, put it in a spray bottle and spray surfaces or cloths/paper tpwel and use as needed. 

I think the recommended dilution is 1 part bleach to 4 parts water. You may want to double check that. 

eta...CDC recommends 5T (1/3 c) bleach in a gallon of water or 4 tsp in a quart of water. 

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BLEACH WATER solutions are NOT stable!

To be used as a disinfectant against COVID it should be mixed in small quantities (do not use hot water) and disposed of after 60 mins. 

[bandaidinmysalad]

@pitdakota Can you please tell me your opinion of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for illness. Thank you. 

[pitdakota]

@bandaidinmysalad, hyperbaric oxygen therapy is beneficial for several different conditions.  Are you asking about COVID-19?  If so, I don't know much about that.  I only know I heard somewhere?, they are doing a clinical trial with it.  But that is the limit of what I know about that.

I have kept up more with the ECMO since I am really familiar with that process.  

[bandaidinmysalad]

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@pitdakota wrote:

@bandaidinmysalad, hyperbaric oxygen therapy is beneficial for several different conditions.  Are you asking about COVID-19?  If so, I don't know much about that.  I only know I heard somewhere?, they are doing a clinical trial with it.  But that is the limit of what I know about that.

I have kept up more with the ECMO since I am really familiar with that process.  

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@pitdakota yes, I was referring to covid-19.  Thank you for your response.  

[pitdakota]

@bandaidinmysalad, I am so sorry I just don't have any specific information on the hyperbaric oxygen treatment with COVID-19 other than they are doing a clinical trial on it somewhere.  So that means that someone thought it might be something to try.

I do know they are really fighting the damage to the lungs that many experiencing the pneumonia with this disease are experiencing.  And they are looking at different therapies to try and get blood levels of oxygen up without relying on the ventilator 100%.  Makes sense that they might look at something like this.

That is what they are trying to do with the ECMO.  Unfortunately there are consequences of having to keep people on ventilators for a long time also causing damage to the lungs, so the goal is to look at something to aid in maintaining an adequate oxygen level along with the ventilator.

They are now seeing a number of younger patients that had pneumonia requiring ventilators that survived.  And many of those individuals have compromised pulmonary situations several weeks after hospital discharge.  Meaning they think the damage to the lungs may be a persistent problem after discharge.  Too early for them to tell, but I think that is really motivating many docs to try and see if more aggressive treatments might to increase that blood oxygen level during the critical phase.

I hope that makes sense?  But I just don' have any specific information about the hyperbaric oxygen treatment.  

[GrailSeeker]

I tried the home made hand sanitizer recipe just yesterday.  I already had a bottle of aloe vera for sunburns and the 91% isopropyl alcohol in the medicine cabinet.  Two parts alcohol to one part aloe vera, into an empty Soft Soap dispenser. 

It turned out real nice, all green and smelling like wintergreen. The aloe did help with the drying skin that alcohol can leave.  

I never felt so handy.  When this gets over I will be first to restock my medicine cabinet with common first aid products.