Kobach teamed up with Wichita businessman to sell COVID-killing device. An investigation found no ..

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Kansas Reflector

Business COVID-19

Kobach teamed up with Wichita businessman to sell COVID-killing device. An investigation found no validity to their claims.

By Jeremy Fassler Nia Yancopoulos - March 14, 2021

NEW YORK CITY -- In early October, Kris Kobach, Kansas' former Secretary of State, and Daniel Drake, a Wichita-based venture capitalist-turned-CEO, made a sales pitch to Kansas legislators. The duo wheeled in what looked to lawmakers like a "refrigerator" -- a shiny metal box Drake called a "revolutionary" device that would "kill COVID" and bring "several hundred jobs back to Wichita." ... "This stuff is very cutting-edge," Kobach said. The local development of such exciting technology was why, he told lawmakers, he wanted Kansas to get the "first bite at the apple."

This project was a collaboration between the Kansas Reflector and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. The students who led this reporting were part of a fall investigative journalism program, which is part of the Masters of Science degree at the journalism school. Questions about the reporting can be directed to the Kansas Reflector, or Columbia adjunct professor Jessica Huseman.

During their pitch, Drake explained that his company, MoJack Distributors, had developed a line called "Scent Crusher" that uses aerosolized ozone, a tri-oxygen molecule, to sanitize hunting and sports products, "only to realize that we weren't here today to be able to get hunters or sportsmen to be better athletes or better hunters, but to kill COVID." He told lawmakers the sample product next to him was part of a new line called "Sarus Systems."

The former, controversial secretary of state and his new business partner made sweeping claims before the Legislature about the efficacy of Sarus System's products, but experts say the claims were misleading. After a two-month investigation, Columbia Journalism School was unable to verify the vast majority of their statements. ... There is no evidence Sarus Systems has made material steps toward rehoming hundreds of jobs to Kansas, and shipping records show products are currently being manufactured in China. There is also scant evidence their machines, or ozone in general, can safely eliminate SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. And while the pair have hyped the products' popularity, claiming a three-month backlog and international interest, we were unable to verify any purchases -- from the state of Kansas or otherwise.

{snip}

Macy Bayern, Alaa Elassar, Israel Fontoura, Susannah Hills, Joseph Lovinger, Alix Publie and Hayley Zhao contributed reporting.

Read more: https://kansasreflector.com/2021/03/14/kobach-teamed-up-with-wichita-businessman-to-sell-covid-killing-device-an-investigation-found-no-merit-to-their-claims/

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Dave Weigel Retweeted

https://twitter.com/daveweigel

Kris Kobach helped a buddy pitch a cleaning device to the Kansas legislature they said would "kill COVID" and bring "hundreds" of jobs to the state. The problem? It does neither.

Excellent reporting from my
@columbiajourn
fall investigative class:

Link to tweet

-- -- -- -- -- -- --

Also see:

Kobach Pitched Lawmakers On “COVID-Killing” Device
March 14, 2021

https://www.joemygod.com/2021/03/kobach-pitched-lawmakers-on-covid-killing-device/

[dalton99a]

1. "Shipping records show products are currently being manufactured in China"

[Cirque du So-What]

2. Ozone harms lungs

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/how-ozone-harms-lungs

They should get sued to hell and back.

[Maxheader]

16. I use an 03 generator to kill odors in the car...

Instructions caution about rubber deteriorating...

Imagine the cloroxchuggers might buy this...

[MuseRider]

3. Smarmy assed little freak.

He will never leave us alone. We will always have him waiting in the wings for something he can weasel his smarmy self in. Creepy little freak.

[AZ8theist]

4. Kobach selling snake oil????

How stupid.

He should know better. He should know the ONLY WAY to kill Covid is to inject bleach. This was discovered last year by a jean-yus former *preznit.

[DENVERPOPS]

9. No Way

you are going to inject bleach in me! I would rather have a flashlight shoved up my butt........
Or take pills produced by a Pharmaceutical Corporation that all my friends bought tons of stock in last week!!!!!!!

[AZ8theist]

10. Well, yes, OK, there may be other equal treatments.....

Just make sure the flashlight up your butt is UV light....

And the hydroxy cocaine pills will DEFINETLY make you feel better....

[thenelm1]

5. Will this idiot ever just go away? Let's see, a refrigerator type device...what could go wrong?

I presume one needs to isolate/expose the whole body for this miracle "cure" to work, i.e. get enclosed inside this device for a time to eliminate the virus entirely from the body? And once the the door gets closed? Presumably the door can be opened from the inside - but what happens if that doesn't work? Or you're overcome by the 'ozone' or whatever chemical gets dispensed inside and that doesn't kill you first? If I'm getting this right, they were proposing entering a small box with a toxic atmosphere. Please Kris, give us a live demonstration. This is just too weird. (So of course Kobach would be promoting it.)

There is a reason that the doors are removed from refrigerators during disposal. Any living creature inside tends to die. Then again, I suppose that result is a sure fire cure for Covid.

[keithbvadu2]

6. "Masters of Science degree at the journalism school"

"Masters of Science degree at the journalism school"

Yeah!

That sounds legit.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

11. This article is written in a strange way ... or it's presently oddly in DU format here

The people who researched and wrote the article are these Masters' students. Nothing to do with the device or Kobach.

[keithbvadu2]

7. Trump's Christians say they have Trumpvirus killing technology.

Trump's Christians say they have Trumpvirus killing technology.

https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALeKk00dkTi5b4178__YzYSEEVcKttYpvw%3A1592960966681&source=hp&ei=xqfyXurUJpupytMP4pONiAo&q=phoenix+church+safe+rally&oq=phoenix+church+safe+rally&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQAzIFCCEQoAEyBQghEKABOgQIIxAnOgUIABCxAzoHCAAQFBCHAjoFCAAQgwE6AggAOgQIABAKOgQIABADOgYIABAWEB46BQghEKsCOggIIRAWEB0QHjoHCCEQChCgAVCOGlixWmCZaGgBcAB4AIABngGIAcsOkgEEMjQuMpgBAKABAaoBB2d3cy13aXo&sclient=psy-ab&ved=0ahUKEwjqz7qEopnqAhWblHIEHeJJA6EQ4dUDCAg&uact=5

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142521178

Church leaders of venue hosting Phoenix Trump rally claim they've installed technology that kills '99.9 per cent' of coronavirus in ten minutes

‘So when you come into our auditorium, it’s gone - killed’

Surely Trump's Christians would not lie.

Yet you still have to sign a waiver.

[dlk]

8. Once a grifter...

[Mr. Evil]

12. Anytime Kris Kobach is involved with anything,

you know it's bullshit.

[Jonah Ide]

13. Snake Oil Salesman

The preferred profession of Trumpies.

[bucolic_frolic]

14. Kobach is the next Trump

Marketing hype should never be wasted on products that actually work

[OldBaldy1701E]

15. I tell ya

One thing that is funny to me is how, when these rethugs can't grift you out of your entire socioeconomic position while in office, they come up with ways to do it in the private sector. There is nothing but lies and greed in that party (regardless of whether they are in political office or not), and it is time it was removed from the public discourse. And, the public eye. And, the public in general, for that matter...

Oh, and I will leave this right here...