Dispelling concerns of shipping Corona.
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I do hope no one is stupid enough to clean Pimax Vision 8kX lenses with a chemical that dissolves them. I suspect they may be acrylic, so do not use any kind of alcohol.
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This article imho isn’t conclusive. First they say from their point of view there is almost zero probability that the virus survives shipping conditions. Then they cite the paper and suspect that SARS-CoV-2 could survive under similar conditions (the paper indicates that survivability increases with lower temperatures…), but it’s no problem because it can easily be killed with desinfectants. And how should this practically look like? If you look at the procedures in a laboratory, they don’t simply tear open packages with contained material outside of a BSL3/4 room…
I don’t think end customers should cope with that, much too risky. The step that would make most sense is a quarrantine for a safety period. Which costs of course money. Potentially a lot of money.
I am with them that panic isn’t desired. And I’m usually quite immune to conspiracy theories. But in that case I think the likelyhood that this is very well possible is high. As well as the desire to downplay it.
But us discussing this won’t help. If it’s a problem then it has to be tackled, no matter the cost. And if it is no problem then I expect a very fast refutation - there should be a high interest behind refuting that, so if it is possible, it should happen fast now.
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I wouldn’t be so quick to dispell those concerns, of you read the article you cited carefully you’ll see there’s a disclaimer put in there most likely so the severity of the matter can be downplayed to minimise the fear surrounding the issue.
“Keep in mind that there is more than one type of coronavirus. SARS, MERS and HCoV, for example, have been shown to live on “inanimate surfaces, including metal, glass and plastic, for as many as nine days, but can be disinfected within one minute,” as recently detailed in The Journal of Hospital Infection and reported on by Forbes.”
Here’s the actual evidence of interest
“## Abstract”
“Background. The primary modes of transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus (SARS-CoV) appear to be direct mucus membrane contact with infectious droplets and through exposure to formites. Knowledge of the survival characteristics of the virus is essential for formulating appropriate infection-control measures.”
“Results. SARS-CoV GVU6109 can survive for 4 days in diarrheal stool samples with an alkaline pH, and it can remain infectious in respiratory specimens for >7 days at room temperature. Even at a relatively high concentration (104 tissue culture infective doses/mL), the virus could not be recovered after drying of a paper request form, and its infectivity was shown to last longer on the disposable gown than on the cotton gown. All disinfectants tested were shown to be able to reduce the virus load by >3 log within 5 min.”
“Conclusions. Fecal and respiratory samples can remain infectious for a long period of time at room temperature. The risk of infection via contact with droplet-contaminated paper is small. Absorbent material, such as cotton, is preferred to nonabsorptive material for personal protective clothing for routine patient care where risk of large spillage is unlikely. The virus is easily inactivated by commonly used disinfectants.”
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Coronavirus is destroyed with commonly used disinfectants such as alcohol, but we can’t entirely be sure that applies to nCov.
The evidence shows that dormant resting sars-coronavirus particles on surfaces survive longer on non-porous surfaces such as plastic and metal up to 7-9 days (refer to first paragraph of the above post), however sars-coronavirus can survive on porous surfaces such as cotton and paper for 24 hours, although this was not a damp cotton medium which was tested. The virus lasted for 2 days when placed on the impervious non-porous disposable gown. (Refer to table below)
Virus samples which are contained in mucous water droplets from the respitory system last up to 7-10 days, or even up to 21 days at a controlled temperature of 4 degrees celcius. (Refer to table below)
Conclusion: Any surface (porous and non-porous) contaminated with moisture which carries virus particles (such as mucous and spit from coughing or sweat contaminated with mucous from the respitory system transferred onto the hand and then onto the sweat) is therefore likely to remain infectious for up to 10 days.
Whatever risk exists can be mitigated and controlled even if facial foams provided in the headsets are damp with infected sweat or infected respiratory mucous particles, providing that Pimax uses the longest shipping methods to ensure packages take more than 10 days to deliver.
The above data however applies to sars-coronavirus. To implement the appropriate infection control measures which account for the risk that ncov (covid19) may survive on surfaces longer than sars-coronavirus, Pimax should use the slowest and cheapest shipping method of 21-30 days and ensure that all headsets are shipped with brand new unused facial foams and headstrap foams, and that every employee on the quality assurance line is wearing masks when quality testing the headsets to prevent quality testers who may be infected but are asymptomatic due to the virus still being in the incubation phase in their system from spreading the virus by coughing infected respiratory droplets onto headsets or onto their hands whilst feeling fit to work)
This is just ridiculous. No such incident has been recorded. Sick people are less likely to be handling your packages. If such an incident did take place, it would be immediate grounds for major policy changes.
Sure it has. I saw it on Fox. 
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@mirage335 you sound ridiculous for disregarding the peer reviewed evidence above and the fact this is a health issue affecting everyone
It isn’t ridiculous when there’s anywhere from a confirmed 85,000-100,000 cases and up to 1 million unconfirmed cases - when it can be resolved entirely by equipping workers with the appropriate particulate mask and using the slowest and cheapest shipping method.
We’re talking about making the most basic preventative infection control measures to ensure protecting everyones health and safety, and considering Shanghai is not too far from Wuhan and that the virus can be undetectable but transmittable for up to 14 days whilst infected persons have no symptoms, it’s not a ridiculous measure at all, its the most basic preventative measures you could take that would minimise the possibility of anything bad happening.
Pimax would save money on using the slowest shipping which they can use to pay for the particulate masks (not surgical masks) which cost less than a dollar each in bulk.
@Hasler I was careful to note in my second post that the 24 hrs/2 day longevity figures applied to a dry medium or a dry surface (porous and non porous). At the end of my above post I was also careful to note that the increased longevity and survivability of the virus occurs when it is carried in a wet medium (such as damp foam or mucous particles which are not as easy to evaporate)
You are essentially correct that ensuring the package is dry and will be dried with silica will reduce the longevity of the virus, but considering the 24 hours/2 day figure was not the figures for longevity of sars-cromavirus carried in respiratory fluid which can carry the virus for up to 10 days I estimated 21 days just to be safe because we dont have evidence for the longevity of ncov, it might survive longer or shorter than sars-coronavirus
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You are completely misinterpreting that study.
First let’s quote the actual conclusion from the study and not your interpretation
“A previous study reported that coronavirus 229E and OC43 can survive for a few hours after drying on 3 different surfaces (aluminium, cotton gauze sponges, and latex gloves) [13]. In the present study, we compared the survival of SARS-CoV on 2 types of gowns: disposable gowns and cotton gowns. Our results showed that, even with a high concentration of virus (105 TCID50/mL), the droplets will lose all infectivity after 1 h on cloth, compared with 24 h needed for the disposable gown. Apparently, droplets will be absorbed more quickly on cotton material than on fluid-repellent material. The present data show that an ordinary cotton gown offers reasonable protection against small droplets containing SARS-CoV.“
Note the findings that the virus is inactivated with in 1-24 hrs.
“We showed that, when virus-containing droplets were dried, the virus was inactivated rapidly on paper and cotton cloth. Transmission through droplet-contaminated paper and cotton gowns is unlikely, and common household detergents can be effective decontaminating agents for use in the laboratory and hospital.”
Note once again transmission through both paper and cotton is unlikely.
Your points of contention deal with a fundamental misunderstanding of the methodology. The terms NPA TNS and VTM all deal with taking and storing samples in a preservation medium. So yes in that case at room temperature they can last up to 9 days.
The other findings in the study dealt with survival in fecal notably diarrheal samples and the findings implicated danger for waste treatment facilities and workers.
So a normal shipped headset with a silica pack will be safe according to this study.
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This is well beyond ridiculous.
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