Texas Leaders Call for Science-based Technology Solutions along with Vaccine and Masks to Fight COVID-19 in Texas Schools, Hospitals and Restaurants

AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Former Governor Rick Perry, along with Texas State legislators (Phil King, Geanie Morrison, Cecil Bell, James White and Giovani Capriglone) and Texas school superintendents, with executives from the Texas Hospital Association, Texas Restaurant Association, The Hunton Group and public health leaders joined IVP leadership at the State Capital to call for local and state leaders to use American Rescue Plan Act funds on science-based solutions to help schools and businesses open and stay open as COVID-19 prevails. Watch the video of this event here.

"The time is now," said Monzer Hourani, Chairman and founder of IVP. "We must be on the offense, no longer on the defense, when it comes to COVID-19.  We need to look to proven solutions along with the vaccine and masks that are based on science to help protect us and prepare us for the future.  IVP's technology provides an additional layer of security to protect our children and teachers.  Our leaders have a moral obligation to do what is right."

"IVP answers this call to action with its proprietary technology as the only proven airborne solution shown in multiple research protocols, by top Texas scientists and in peer-reviewed publications, to effectively catch and kill, actual SARS-CoV-2, spores and other sub-micron viruses—like influenza or other future airborne threats.  IVP's game changing HVAC and mobile filters kill viruses (99.999%), using heat, instantaneously, in a single pass of air, without significantly impacting the ambient air temperature," said Dr. Garrett Peel, IVP's principal executive.

"This technology is not just about COVID-19, it's about every pathogen to come along.  School environments have been super spreaders of infections since the start.  The data are not very clear on the benefits of masks and there are unanswered questions about the vaccine.  We need a solution for these schools moving forward that is science-based and we know works.  IVP has a proven track record with installations across Texas and the US," commented former Governor Rick Perry.

"It gives me great comfort that the IVP research was conducted right here in Texas by some of the best scientific teams in the world. When you have the University of Houston, Texas Center for Superconductivity, the Texas A&M University Engineering Experiment Station, the federal Galveston National Lab at University of Texas Medical Branch (anchor for the National Institutes of Health), and researchers at MIT and Argonne National Lab standing up and saying this technology works, then what is the hold up?  Let's start using IVP now across Texas in our schools, especially, and provide some normalcy to our lives as best we can," Perry continued.

"This game-changing biotech offers an additional safeguard to the vaccine as an enhancement to indoor safety and wellness, with an upgrade to current HVAC filters that lack the science to kill airborne viruses," said Dr. Kenneth Thorpe, Robert W. Woodruff Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Policy & Management, at the Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia.

Dr. Taylor Williams, superintendent at Slidell ISD as well as Dr. Kelli Moulton, former Galveston ISD superintendent, and current executive superintendent of the Texas Association of School Administrators both commented on their experiences since the devices have been installed to both of their districts.  They verified there have been no school closures nor contact tracings of COVID-19 over the past year to those classrooms where IVP has been installed since August 2020.  In addition they corroborated that infection rates of other airborne diseases are way down on those campuses.

Both Fernando Martinez, PhD, President and CEO of the Texas Hospital Association Foundation and Anna Tauzin, Chief Revenue & Innovation Officer of the Texas Restaurant Association called for prudent use of American Rescue Plan Act funding to deploy widely IVP's proven air protection systems as an extra layer of safety to help mitigate indoor transmission of COVID-19 and other airborne threats.

About IVP

IVP's world-leading Biodefense Indoor Air Protection System™ has been installed in over 150 K-12 Texas school campuses, including Episcopal High School (Houston), Galveston ISD, Slidell ISD, Comal ISD, Banquette ISD, Fort Worth ISD and Hogg ISD, in True North Charter Schools in Miami, Florida and in child development centers, including St. Paul CDC in San Antonio, Texas. West Point Military Academy, Texas State University and University Texas Medical Branch are among the public universities who have also purchased the IVP technology. 

Over 100 US healthcare facilities have IVP technology on their campuses including: University Hospital System (Bexar County, Texas), Methodist Hospital (Texas Medical Center), Steward Healthcare, St. Joseph's Medical Center, Medical Properties Trust, Omega (nursing homes), Graystone Communities (the largest senior living community operator in the US), Post Acute Medical campuses across the US, including their COVID-19 areas, and Neuropsychiatric Hospitals nationwide.  IVP partnered with the Texas Hospital Association to help deliver scientifically proven technologies to enhance the safety of indoor air quality for patients, families and healthcare team members.

IVP is installed at the George R. Brown Convention Center (Houston, TX), University of Houston's Moores School of Music and Opera House and to the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts (Houston, TX).  The hospitality industry has embraced the technology with deployments to Canyon Ranch Spa (the world's largest) at the Palazzo and Venetian Casino Resorts in Las Vegas, NV, the InterContinental Houston Hotel Medical Center, as well as Hilton Hotel Corporate Headquarters in McLean, VA, and other Hilton Hotel flagships including the Hilton Tysons Corner Hotel and select Rosewood Hotels, to name a few. 

IVP has helped reopen entertainment venues, businesses and restaurants across the US, including the Hunton Group HQ, the American Airlines Integrated Operations Center, municipality offices to include Baytown, Texas and its courthouse and city offices, and to the Wayne County prison system, serving the most populous county in the state of Michigan.  The State of Texas Department of Public Safety and Texas Department of Emergency Management have also purchased the IVP biotechnology for high-risk service and healthcare areas across the state.

IVP mobile units and HVAC filters were awarded by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers as a top technology for the fight against COVID-19. Engineering News-Record named IVP's technology Newsmaker of the Year for 2020, and its inventor, Monzer Hourani, as its Award of Excellence recipient for 2021 (Engineer of the Year). The technology is also approved for emergency use by the US Federal Drug Administration during COVID-19 and meets ASHRAE and ISO standards for air quality and filtration. IVP's Biodefense Indoor Air Protection System™ is the only proven technology shown to catch and kill actual SARS-CoV-2 (99.999%) and anthrax spores (99.98%), instantaneously, with a single-pass.

SOURCE Integrated Viral Protection, LLC