Can we make more ventilators?

[janterry]

It seems like one of the manufacturers that should have been at Trump's let's meet and greet business leaders presser

should have been one that makes ventilators

[RandySF]

1. The Chinese built ten fucking hospitals in the space of a couple weeks

and we can't get ventilators.

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. This

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

25. Yes, but did they have ventilators?

Or just beds and wifi?

[greenjar_01]

2. Honestly, why Trump hasn't asked for an emergency order

converting factories to ventilator production is beyond me. He would get A's and praise for that from EVERYBODY.

It's a common discussion in medical and lay circles, and everything we see in Italy is telling us it will be necessary. Why the fuck nobody is moving on this is a great mystery, but certainly contributes to the sense of nobody being in charge. Set minimum weekly production targets and exercise some damn command and control, for fuck's sake. Make a war bond type issue if needed; I'll run right out and buy one.

[htuttle]

3. There was a factory building one plane per hour in 1944

The capacity is there. The leadership to do it is not.

[greenjar_01]

5. EXACTLY!

[lapfog_1]

6. A lot of parts

many of which are likely manufactured in China.

Now would be the time for a domestic assembler of medical devices to check what the have in the warehouse and build out as many as possible in the next 7 to 10 days.

But that sounds a but on the fantasy side of things

[janterry]

10. I just googled this

https://www.fastcompany.com/1661942/mit-students-invent-100-ventilator-for-disaster-zones

[crickets]

31. That's pretty amazing. nt

[Brother Buzz]

23. But, but, but the orange anus says he ordered 'a lot of different elements of medical'

So we should assume he's got that covered. But then again, what do they say about assuming certain things?

[milestogo]

7. I work for a company that makes a ventilator for a specific purpose

and I heard that the Feds have asked if they can ramp up production so it can be used for coronavirus patients.

I have no idea what their answer was. But I imagine its not that easy to ramp up production so that you have more ventilators in a matter of weeks.

[janterry]

13. I hope they can

but yeah. I'm sure it's complicated

[procon]

18. You'd expect the govt would be pumping major

funding into maximizing production. All hands on deck, 24/7 shifts, big overtime, employee hires and training, new machinery to ramp up output.

During WWII my grandpa's small factory had a handful of workers that made boilers for home heating, then the govt came calling and they were mandated to retool to make boilers for Navy ships as part of the war effort.

Trump could use the same existing laws to compel companies to ramp up production. He wont because he's scared those businesses will criticize him and make him look bad.

[Newest Reality]

8. We don't even know...

We don't even know how much of what is in our strategic stockpiles right now and they are going to be very important soon.

Has anybody heard anything about that? We are supposed to have those stocked up and kept in secret places for times like these which is why they are called strategic.

Or did the money for the stockpiles go to some corporate GOP, wealthy folks thing? I wouldn't be surprised.

[janterry]

12. Estimates are 4,000

How many ventilators does the stockpile have? Burel won't give a figure —just says it's a lot. Some sources suggest that it's at least 4,000, and professional groups have trained respiratory care experts to use the machines.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/14/814121891/why-even-a-huge-medical-stockpile-will-be-of-limited-use-against-covid-19

[Newest Reality]

16. That's very low, then.

We may need many times that number.

From what I know, we have about 75,000 available right now and may need 178,000 or more.

Four thousand is almost nothing if you consider it as a percentage of what is currently available.

Thanks for the link.

[janterry]

22. That might be slightly low, but I've read it is certainly under 10,000

So, yeah. This terrifies me.

[hlthe2b]

14. There some ventilators in the national stockpile, but the total amount is unclear.

I actually heard a former Obama admin emergency response person on MSNBC yesterday. throw out a figure very quickly, but I didn't catch it and the video was not archived.

Suffice it to say, the number will be insufficient to need.

[Claritie Pixie]

9. Making them is one thing, training people to use them is another.

Limited number of people who know how to use one.

[janterry]

11. I saw that, too

I suppose it's possible to train medics?

[hlthe2b]

15. Exactly. Even if states bring back retired respiratory therapists, anesthesiologists and

nurse anesthetists, as some states will try to do with emergency streamlines for licensure/insurance, it won't likely be enough.

[janterry]

19. I think that was what Cuomo said during one of his press conferences

sadly, I live in Vermont. And we have exceedingly limited capacity, a small budget -

I hate to say it, but I'm scared.

[Hoyt]

24. I don't think it's that difficult to train someone to operate/manage a ventilator.

Obviously, we’d be better leaving it to Respiratory Therapists or trained nurses, but that might not be possible. Family can even be trained in a pinch. Hope it doesn’t come to that.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

17. One would think all medical device and supply manufacturers.....

are running at capacity and have put on extra shifts. That would be the moral and humanistic thing to do.

That, unfortunately is a dream world. They will only produce what's being ordered, and who knows what the hell that may be.

If we had an administration that was normal (like an Obama or Clinton one), they would be holding top-level meetings with all the crucial equipment and medical supply manufacturers and hold their feet to the fire to get-er-done. This is a national emergency and our government can use it's powers in many ways and provide funding to help those efforts.

The same applies to major hospital, lab and clinic corporations and we should be coordinating their preparations on a national level.

The fundamental problem is that vast sums of money need to be spent in preparation for treatment levels that we're no sure of, so that it's preemptive in nature. Big business is not into preemptive movements, they only deal in just-in-time (JIT) methods in order to insure their profits. JIT is not appropriate for this situation.

KY..........

[flamingdem]

20. NPR - Will there be enough ventilators?

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/14/815675678/as-the-pandemic-spreads-will-there-be-enough-ventilators

[KY_EnviroGuy]

27. The short answer is there's no way to know.

We're asking a question for which there can be no valid answer because we currently have no clue how many people will contract this disease or if we did, there's no way to know what percentage will need a respirator or other treatment.

We must remember this is a brand-new virus to science and we have little published history on the nature of its spread in different cultures. We're learning everything on the fly.

To prevent massive numbers of deaths, our nation would need to take extreme preemptive measures to fund (and perhaps even force) the production of massive amounts of equipment and medical supplies. If we were very lucky, much of that stuff would not be used but it would not be wasted. If we were unlucky, it wouldn't be quite enough but at least we tried to do the right thing.

I don't believe America has the political will to do that and the GOP won't even talk about it because they would label it as "socialist" and laugh in our face.

KY..........

[Hoyt]

21. From what I've read/heard, oxygen is the treatment for most patients

who actually have to seek care. Many patients who need O2, won’t need a ventilator. Of course, many will.

I think — more precisely, hope since I don’t know — we won’t need millions of ventilators. Again, who knows and we should try to ramp up production.

If you want to read a plan for allocation of ventilators, read the NY State plan below from 2015. It even includes discussion of a lottery.

https://www.health.ny.gov/regulations/task_force/reports_publications/docs/ventilator_guidelines.pdf

Personally, I wouldn’t read it.

[CanonRay]

26. Our hospital here has 3. Three.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

28. Approximately what population does that serve?

TIA........

[CanonRay]

30. 10 to 12k in the area

50 miles to the next hospital

[applegrove]

29. Hopefully when they replaced older ventilators in hospitals over the last two decades

they kept the older ones. I'm sure theumy did that.... almost sure.