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President Trump threatened to use executive actions if Republicans and Democrats can’t reach a deal on the next round of stimulus, The Washington Post (subscription). How much he can accomplish unilaterally is unclear, however.

What he said: “We’re negotiating right now as we speak, and we’ll see how that works out,” Trump said. “In the meantime, my administration is exploring executive actions to provide protections against eviction . . . . As well as additional relief to those who are unemployed as a result of the virus. Very importantly, I’m also looking at a term-limited suspension of the payroll tax.”

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill: Democrats and Republicans intended to come to a deal by the end of this week. The latest word is that it “in the near future,” according to Senate Majority Leader��Mitch McConnell.

51�Թ��� connection: The 51�Թ��� has been urging Congress to include liability protections in the next stimulus package. To that end, it organized a “Day of Action” yesterday on social media, calling for “commonsense protection from opportunistic lawsuits in order to fuel our recovery and help creators respond to this crisis.” A range of groups and organizations participated in the Day of Action, including the , the and the

Are we paying enough attention to the cleanliness of indoor air? has a deep dive into the importance of ventilation, including what we know—and what we don’t—about how COVID-19 travels.

The rise of super-spreaders: As the article says, “The super-spreader–event triad seems to rely on three V’s: venue, ventilation and vocalization.” That means most events that tend to infect a large number of people occur in an indoor space—and especially one that isn’t well-ventilated—where people might talk or sing. One list of super-spreader events includes only a single event categorized as outdoor transmission—out of more than 1,200 events.

The article raises important questions—such as whether reopening schools safely requires the installation of air filtration systems and whether we should be looking at indoor and outdoor transmission as different problems to solve. Read the

The manufacturing angle: 51�Թ���.org recently profiled Carrier Global Corporation, a Florida manufacturer of heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, which created a portable air-cleaning device that can convert normal hospital rooms into air isolation rooms. The company also hopes its OptiClean devices will be used in homes, businesses and other facilities in need of safer air.

Others in the market: In addition to Carrier Global Corporation, Trane Technologies plc and Honeywell International Inc. are, according to a recent , “offering everything from air-monitoring sensors to portable filter machines to help make up for deficiencies in ventilation.”

On a long flight home from a women’s business conference, Arbill CEO Julie Copeland and IPAK CEO Karen Primak fell into conversation about being mothers, CEOs, entrepreneurs and getting it all done. So when the COVID-19 crisis began, the two leaders—now good friends—knew they were the perfect collaborators to make an innovative safety product: a personal kit full of protective gear.

The idea: Though Arbill has a 75-year history of making and distributing safety products for industrial workers, when the pandemic hit, the company started thinking about protecting people in their everyday lives. It decided to produce an easy-to-ship kit of essential products, which employers could brand and purchase for their workers and customers—for use at home as well as at work.

The kit: Arbill’s team thought that shipping out bulk product was too impersonal. So IPAK, as a specialty packaging company collaborated with Arbill to package the protective products in a retail-like box. According to customers, employees appreciate the tailored presentation of the kit, which includes:

• Cloth masks: Arbill’s antimicrobial fabric masks, which protect users from particles as small as three microns, and can be washed over 50 times without losing their effectiveness. The masks also have high testing scores for breathability and are extremely comfortable.
• Cloth gloves: Instead of disposable gloves, Arbill developed a washable and reusable option for everyday use.
• Sanitizer: Arbill produced sanitizer that can be used on hands and surfaces, based on CDC recommendations.

Special delivery: Hundreds of thousands of these safety kits have already shipped to customers across the country. With millions of masks already made, and new orders in production, it’s clear these products have hit the mark.��

The last words: “IPAK’s ability to create custom packaging helped us take the industrial product category of safety and make it personal,” says Copeland. “The Truline Safety Kit now provides companies a wonderful way to connect with their employees. It’s compassionate, sensible and safe.”

“IPAK was open during the heat of the pandemic in NJ,” explains Primak. “7 percent of our workforce was infected before our governor declared a state of emergency in March. As an essential business, we were permitted to stay open…but the only way I would stay open was with the right protective products. Partnering with Julie and Arbill allowed me to protect IPAK personnel as well as help other companies protect their own employees. Since we have been using the fabric face coverings, we have not had another case of COVID.”

Manufactured antibody treatments could be the next big thing in the fight against COVID-19, reports. The therapy is often used against illnesses like cancer, and a range of biotech companies are working together to test this approach.

Who’s involved: Several companies have been allowed by the U.S. government to combine resources to manufacture supplies, should any of the companies’ drugs succeed. Those companies include Eli Lilly and Company, AstraZeneca, Amgen and GlaxoSmithKline.

Meanwhile, (subscription) reports on a Lilly study involving antibody drugs in nursing homes.

• The study, which aims to enroll up to 2,400 subjects in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, is intended to test whether the company’s antibody drug can reduce rates of infection.
• If the study is successful, Lilly hopes its drug could receive government approval by the year’s end.

Go deeper: Revisit our recent writeup of an important new study on America’s effective policies for pharma development—and how these should be preserved.

Smart watches and smart rings are the newest COVID-19 detectors, according to (subscription). Devices like Oura rings, Fitbits, Garmin fitness bands and Apple Watches pull in vital information that may predict an infection.

How it works: Tech companies are taking in wearable sensor data from smart sensors on both healthy people and those afflicted by COVID-19, comparing results and looking for patterns. They’re hopeful that they can use this information to create artificial intelligence that could alert people with early signs of the virus.

The metrics: There are a range of measurements that might help to detect COVID-19 early on, including:

• Temperature tracking, which can help give early warnings about possible fevers;
• Heart-rate tracking, which can reveal an infection early; and
• Blood oxygen and cough tracking, which keeps an eye on specific COVID-19 symptoms.

Go deeper: Independent testing laboratory UL is at the forefront of these developments, and we recently talked to one of its leaders about how it’s helping to get such devices to market. Read the whole thing.

In some good news, an Institute for Supply Management survey released on Monday showed U.S. manufacturing activity reaching its highest level in more than a year, according to .

• The index of national factory activity reached 54.2 in July—up from 52.6 in June. A reading above 50 indicates growth.
• New orders increased to 61.5 from 56.4 in June—the highest since September 2018.

But don’t break out the party hats yet. The resurgence in COVID-19 across the United States could halt manufacturers in their tracks, which is why face coverings and��other precautions remain critical.

Meanwhile, we’re seeing a reduction in construction spending, which dropped 0.7% in June after decreasing 1.7% in May. More discouraging numbers included the following:

• 0.7% drop in spending on private construction
• 1.5% loss in spending on residential projects
• 0.7% drop in spending on public construction projects

51�Թ��� Chief Economist Chad Moutray has the numbers for manufacturers: “After declining for six straight months, private manufacturing construction spending rose 1.7% from $70.86 billion in May to $72.07 billion in June.”

Related: In another milestone, New York City retail rent fell below $700 for the first time since 2011, according to . With fewer people shopping in retail environments, rents are dropping, and retail stores are reevaluating the way they serve the public.

In honor of Friday, here are some interesting and amusing stories about life under COVID-19 and in this generally surreal year of 2020.

Pixelated pilgrimage:��The annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca has been restricted due to COVID-19, so many people will be unable to go. But it wouldn’t be 2020 if enterprising developers weren’t trying to��create a

Fashion masks:��You know you need to wear a face covering (if you’ve been within a lightyear of the 51�Թ���’s Creators Respond communications campaign, that is), but who says it has to be a boring, scratchy surgical mask? What about a mask cover made of pearls? Or a mask that “serves as a combination walkie-talkie, personal secretary and translator”? If you’re curious about your options, The New York Times (subscription) has you��

Bioprinting: If you can believe it, researchers are����“tiny replicas of human organs—some as small as a pinhead—to test drugs to fight Covid-19,” according to The New York Times (subscription).

And last, if you’re looking to distract yourself from earthly woes:

• NASA’s latest mission to Mars is����The rover Perseverance and helicopter Ingenuity were launched yesterday morning.
• The Pentagon’s U.F.O. Unit����the public some of what it’s found.

The FDA announced new standards for companies seeking regulatory approval of rapid at-home COVID-19 tests, Bloomberg Law.

Why it’s good: Creating a fast, cheap test that can be used regularly at home would allow people to test themselves once or twice a week, or before coming into contact with others—giving them the ability to quarantine when necessary and reduce the likelihood of spreading the illness.

But not so fast: The FDA’S rules for rapid at-home COVID-19 tests , which could discourage some companies from giving it a try, according to USA Today.

Xtra help: On Tuesday, The XPRIZE—a nonprofit organization that hosts public competitions— announced a $5 million prize for “five winners who can produce a test that delivers results in as little as 15 minutes and costs less than $15” (also from USA Today). An additional $50 million will be available to help scale up manufacturing for any contestant.

The 51�Թ���’s view: “Long wait times for tests can present a personnel challenge for manufacturers that have workers who might have been exposed outside the workplace,” said 51�Թ��� Vice President of Infrastructure, Innovation and Human Resources Policy Robyn Boerstling. “The 51�Թ��� recently joined����to ensure more federal resources are committed to testing. We are focusing our advocacy efforts on solutions that will provide more robust and reliable testing solutions in every community.”

The internet may be saving our sanity (somewhat) with animal videos and Zoom chats . . . but there is a downside. With so much more happening online—such as retail and banking, not to mention all that working from home—hackers have a lot more targets.

The data depressingly

• Large data breaches have skyrocketed by 273% in the first quarter of 2020, according to data from cloud computing company Iomart.
• Ransomware is up 90%, according to VMware, while attacks that destroy data or networks have risen 102%. And last, “island hopping,” in which criminals infiltrate one company in order to reach its partners or clients, is up 33%.

And here’s a worrying wrinkle: according to Iomart, manufacturing is one of the hardest-hit sectors.

There can be a grim benefit to cyberattacks, in that companies can learn from others that have already survived. To that end, aluminum manufacturer Norsk Hydro’s experience with a massive ransomware attack last year provides a number of (very) hard-earned lessons. Bloomberg Businessweek (subscription):

• After the attack, the company had to make sure its employees got paid—but banks wouldn’t connect digitally with the company due to fears of cyber infection. So one executive, at Hydro’s Brazilian location, copied the previous month’s paychecks from their external payroll system, weeding out employees who had left or been fired.
• At a Pennsylvania plant, which lost access to corporate email and to the software that organizes its orders, employees received orders on their personal accounts. Then, having dug some old computers out of storage, they printed out the forms and distributed copies on the floor.
• At headquarters, Hydro had to rebuild their entire network. They were so worried about keeping these plans safe that they barred cleaning staff from coming into the room.

Hydro’s leaders consider themselves lucky to have only lost $60 million to the attacks, which unfortunately tells you a lot.

51�Թ��� with a plan: Though manufacturers should certainly prepare for the worst, they can also take many steps to minimize, if not eliminate, the danger. The 51�Թ��� provides many cyber-related resources for members, including most recently a new cyber-insurance program called .

And here’s good news: the 51�Թ���’s Cyber Forum, cosponsored by PwC and eSentire, is on for the fall, in a virtual format. It will be from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. EDT on four Thursdays in a row: Oct. 1, 8, 15 and 22. To learn more, email [email protected].

After a year of pushing back on an IRS rule that would have made it more difficult for manufacturers to invest in new equipment, the 51�Թ��� can declare a win, according to (subscription).

Here’s a recap:

• Before 2017, businesses could pretty much subtract their full interest payments on debt—but the 2017 tax reform law limited the business interest deduction to 30% of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for tax years starting in 2018.
• Starting in 2022, the deduction was limited even more, to earnings before interest and tax (EBIT). Excluding depreciation and amortization would make it more expensive for businesses like manufacturers to finance capital equipment purchases.
• Here’s where it could’ve gotten worse: The Treasury Department had proposed a rule that would have effectively imposed the EBIT standard now instead of two years from now.

For a capital-intensive industry like manufacturing, where businesses use debt to finance important investments in critical technology, that was going to cause a lot of strain even before COVID-19. Throw in a pandemic and a tough economic environment, and that proposed rule looks even worse.

The 51�Թ��� aggressively pushed back, leading more than 80 trade associations to oppose that change. On Tuesday, the Treasury Department released its final rules—without that provision.

The 51�Թ��� says: “Congress’s goal in reforming our tax system was to help businesses invest and grow, but the proposed rule would have had the opposite effect,” said 51�Թ��� Vice President of Tax and Domestic Economic Policy Chris Netram. “We are pleased that Treasury did the right thing, helping support the men and women who make things in America.”

The bottom line: Because of this rule, it will be easier for manufacturers to invest in their business, their employees and their communities.