Curbing infections, not people—Part I

November 02, 2026

An exclusive CWN report by Phil Lawler

The Covid epidemic exposed a grave weakness—in far too many cases a fatal weakness—in our health-care system. Because public-health experts could not identify the virus, their unrestrained dire warnings created a climate of fear, encouraging people to see the invisible danger everywhere, to treat every person and place as a potential threat. Spurred on by the fear, governments locked down society, causing incalculable loss and suffering. But those policies did not protect the people most vulnerable to the disease.

If we had only had a way to know when the viral enemy was present, we could have planned our campaign against it rationally. If we could have known where the virus was lurking, before the symptoms appeared, we could have curbed its spread more effectively. We could have ensured that nursing homes really were places for care and treatment, rather than death traps. If we could have been reasonably sure that the virus was not present in our homes or offices or churches or schools we could have avoided the economic and social catastrophe of the lockdown.

If only we could see a virus!

Now a team of scientists and engineers affiliated with Ave Maria University in Florida are making it possible to “see” a virus—not just Covid-19, but any virus—with the help of a remarkable new technology.

After several years of research, development, and testing, Ave Maria Biotech is marketing a device it calls the “biodetector” for practical use. While testing continues and important new refinements are on the near-term horizon, the device has shown that it can detect a suspicious surge in viral activity.

The project at Ave Maria was spearheaded by two men who had served on the Covid-response team at the White House during the first Trump administration. Michael Caputo, the assistant secretary of health for public affairs, and Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control, had often argued unsuccessfully against draconian lockdown policies. They were determined to find a way to restrict a harmful virus without restricting an entire population, to protect the vulnerable without punishing the healthy. The web site of Ave Maria Biotech explains:

Ave Maria Biotech was established as a team of microbiologists, defense engineers, and biosafety policy experts who witnessed firsthand the catastrophic lag between pathogen exposure and institutional response. The [biodetector] was born from a single question: Why do we only detect biological threats after people are already harmed?

(For a fuller description of the motivations behind the Ave Maria effort—an effort guided by Catholic faith and moral principles—see Part II of this report, coming soon.)

The birth of the device

The story of the biodetector begins in Estonia, where an innovative researcher named Viktor Tomashov was pursuing a theory that biological particles in the air, though invisible to the naked eye, could be detected by high-tech instruments. He envisioned an instrument somewhat similar to a smoke detector, and by 2019, before the Covid epidemic struck, he had begun testing a device.

Tomashov did not live to see his invention fully developed. But he conveyed his patent to the team led by Caputo and Redfield, in exchange for a share in their fledgling enterprise, which was incorporated in 2022 as Ave Maria Biotech (hereinafter AMB). As CEO the firm chose Dr. Ron Freeze, a chemistry professor at Ave Maria who had previously led a global team bringing medical devices to the market.

“Science is hard,” Freeze likes to tell his students. Rigorous testing is needed at every step of the process from theory into practice. In his previous work he had seen “a lot of absolutely amazing tech that never made it to market” because of the difficulties of transforming a brilliant idea into a workable product.

Fortunately for AMB, the US Army took a keen interest in that project. Freeze was able to reach an agreement with the Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command, enlisting the help of “amazing scientists” at the Aberdeen Proving Ground and the Army’s “state of the art tech.” The joint research agreement helped to focus and refine the AMB’s development.

The fundamental concept behind the biodetector, the result of Tomashov’s work, proved sound, Freeze says. But his group “gutted the electronics” supporting the device. At that point, development of the biodetector became an engineering project. Now Freeze enlisted the help of Eric Frische, an MIT graduate and Air Force veteran who had demonstrated a genius for integrating different sensors into a single coordinated system.

In 2025, testing of a prototype at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds “ended very well,” Freeze reports. AMB installed a device in a classroom at Ave Maria University, and Freeze becomes visibly excited as he recounts how the test results there exceeded his expectations. Set up in an empty classroom, the device registered a surge in airborne activity, the normal result of human breathing, as soon as students began filing into the room for a morning class. The graph then reached a steady level which dropped off quickly when the class ended.

At that point, Freeze recalls, his device was not just a bright idea; it was a workable product. “I suddenly started to worry that I was behind on marketing,” he says.

How it works

The BD-500, AMB’s first product, has a patented optics system that uses fluorescence to detect biological particles in the air as it passes through the system. AMB advertises the product as “airborne pathogen detection to protect those at risk.”

The BD-500 is not designed to detect Covid-19 or any other particular virus. Instead it monitors the full range of biological particles in the air, including the normal presence of viruses, most of them benign. “We are ‘virus agnostic,’” say Freeze. “We expect to see a baseline that is normal, and then we are looking for a change. Having an infection would drive unexpected changes in levels of biological particles.” So, a surge in viral activity—a reading about the established baseline for the place where the device was located—would trigger an alarm.

The AMB team learned that some substances—diesel fumes, for instance, and certain chemicals used in cleaning—could mimic the “look” of a virus. They equipped the BD-500 with chemical sensors that would guard against such false-positive reports. A CO2 sensor is included as well, so the system cN recognize when a reading above the normal baseline is caused by an unusually large number of people in the area. The challenge of incorporating these sensors, and rendering their results in a simple readable format, was a herculean task.

More refinements of the system, currently being tested, should allow future versions of the AMB product to identify specific viruses, matching their optical footprints. AMB anticipates that the identification would be done with the help of Artificial Intelligence, tapping into a central data base. A subscription model might allow users to enjoy quick identification of a virus, giving them access to an identification system more sophisticated (and consequently more expensive) than an individual user would want.

For now, though, the purpose of the biodetector is to alert users to a suspicious “event”—a surge of viral activity—in any enclosed space. Once the alert is given, users can make their own judgments on how to respond. Until now, administrators of a health-care facility, school, or public building have had no way to recognize an infection until the symptoms are evident—that is, people are sick and the disease is spreading. Even then, they must collect samples and wait for laboratory testing before they know how they should respond. With the biodetector they can respond within minutes. As Robert Redfield, the former CDC director and now chief science officer for AMB, put it: “Early decisions can lead to optimal responses.”

The biodetector is expensive. Pricing is complicated, since AMB now proposes a customized system for each installation. But the price of a single BD-500 approaches $10,000, putting it well beyond the reach of the average consumer. AMB expects that the price to drop considerably as orders come in and the manufacturing process can realize efficiencies of scale. But even now, with that hefty price tag, the system is attractive to large institutions where a viral outbreak would be far more costly.

The market(s)

From the outset, the AMB team saw their product as perfectly suited for assisted-living facilities, hospitals, nursing homes, and other places where vulnerable people would be gathered. Health-care facilities remain their primary market, and Gerald Boersma, who as vice-president for mission is responsible for keeping the corporate goals firmly in sight, says: “My hope is that we can get in these places in the next two or three years.”

However, early in the development process, AMB discovered another large potential market: the military. On bases or aircraft carriers or forward operating camps, military personnel are vulnerable to a fast-acting infectious disease. But a virus like Covid can rip through a military unit living in close quarters. More important, a military installation could be the target of a biological weapon. AMB has furnished a new product especially for the military. The BD-500 Mini is a portable instrument, about as heavy as a brick, roughly the size and shape of a household fire extinguisher, packaged in a hardened container, ready to withstand rough use. This handheld device can go anywhere troops are deployed. The military rates equipment on “Swap-C” standards: Size, Weight, Power, and Cost; the handheld device is recognized as a “Low Swap-C” device.

In a military environment, an ordinary virus is not a major threat, since most soldiers are young and healthy, their immune systems ready to combat an infection. Still a sudden spike in viral activity would call for immediate action and an early warning could save lives. In a nursing home, on the other hand, any new disease is cause for alarm; the rate of respiratory infections is a standard measure by which facilities are rated. Biodetectors strategically placed around an assisted-living community could provide early warning of any viral danger. “You could institute testing for flu or for Covid,” Redfield notes, and if any viral infection is found, act immediately.

“Nursing homes have set protocols that they follow when symptoms are identified,” says Freeze. “If a change is observed [in viral activity], it would trigger swabbing the residents of that wing.” The facility could employ UV lighting, extra cleaning, and better air circulation in an area where the suspect viral activity was discovered. These, Freeze continues, are “simple enough responses that follow established protocols for infection reduction.” Put into effect early enough, those “simple” measures could save many lives.

The biodetector might also play a role in blocking infections from entering a health-care facility. A sensor in the entry, or at a loading dock, could screen staff and visitors.

Beyond that primary market, the biodetector could also be useful for:

• Cleanrooms in hospitals and research laboratories, where any viral incursion could be costly;
• Hotels, convention centers, arenas, and other public buildings;
• Libraries, schools and dormitories;
• Office complexes and apartment buildings.

In short, in any confined space where people gather.

As currently configured, the BD-500 is not effective in open areas, or in places with a large numbers of transient visitors. The biodetector could not establish a reliable baseline in a hospital’s emergency room, where viral activity would jump up and down unpredictably; or in grocery store, where shoppers would come and go too quickly to allow for tracking of a viral source.

Nevertheless AMB has already received an order for devices to be installed on private jets, where presumably they will be used to ensure that the cabin is safe before passengers board. Even in a busy airport, Freeze could see a valuable use:

You could imagine, in the early stages of Covid-19, if we had these on commercial jets and had reliable data, we could have decided which flights to quarantine upon arrival until testing was done—allowing flights to continue with the right controls in place.

In fact, this is the ultimate goal of the AMB effort: to protect those who are truly endangered by a viral infection, without subjecting others to costly restraint. The biodector is intended to discourage any future thoughts of a lockdown. Where a harmful virus is found, quick action should minimize its impact; where there is no sign of the virus, a lockdown is senseless. Freeze explains:

By giving actionable, quantifiable data about emerging threats, we will enable earlier and more targeted reactions as well as reduce the fear that is caused by the unknown. In parallel, we reduce the opportunity for people to step in to amplify and/or monetize that fear.

Michael Caputo, whose vision launched the biodetector campaign, puts the same message in less technical language:

This device will transform virus response, even making lockdowns unnecessary. In our experienced view, if you protect the vulnerable, you free the rest to live normally.

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COMING NEXT, in Part II of this report: The motivations behind the development of Ave Maria Biotech. The corporate founders shared a strong Catholic faith, a profound dismay about the costs of the Covid lockdown, and determination to “never close another church.”

 

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