Story in Forbes--"Ventilator Maker: We Can Ramp Up Production Five-Fold" [View all]

[Julian English]

Ventilator Maker: We Can Ramp Up Production Five-Fold

The U.S. could be on a crash course of increasing ICU capacity—if it had the will.

The German government just placed an order for 10,000 mechanical ventilators. What’s the U.S. government doing about a potential shortage here? Not much, it seems. President Trump alluded to the matter in a press conference but did not spell out any plans.

Ventilators pump oxygen into the lungs of a failing Covid-19 patient. U.S. hospitals have something like 62,000 up-to-date machines immediately available, plus another 99,000 obsolete units that could be pulled out of storage in an emergency, says the Society of Critical Care Medicine. If the pandemic in the U.S. veers off in the Italian direction, that entire collection may be inadequate.

Could manufacturers of these devices boost output? Yes, but not overnight.

“We could increase production five-fold in a 90- to 120-day period,” says Chris Kiple, chief executive of Ventec Life Systems, a Bothell, Wash. firm that makes ventilators used in hospitals, homes and ambulances. He’d have to tool up production lines, train assemblers and testers and get parts. Accelerating the parts delivery might be the toughest task, he says.

The ventilator industry is getting a burst of desperate orders from China and Italy. The U.S. hasn’t seen that yet, although manufacturers are bracing for it. “The time for action by the government is now,” says Kiple. “[Covid] is most likely to get worse next fall.”

Compare the Trump incompetence & cruely to even the lackadaisical UK response in this story from The Guardian.

UK government sends ventilator blueprints to major manufacturers

More than 60 manufacturers have been sent a blueprint for making up to 20,000 ventilators to treat coronavirus patients, “at speed”, as Boris Johnson called on British industry to help the government prepare for a surge in cases.

Officials at the Department for Health and Social Care sent a document detailing specifications for the medical devices to the companies, Downing Street confirmed on Monday evening.

Johnson gave further details of the plan during a conference call with firms including Rolls-Royce, Airbus and Jaguar Land Rover, which the government believes can help address a potential shortage of equipment.

“The prime minister made clear that responding to coronavirus and reducing the spread of the peak requires a national effort,” a spokesperson said.

“He asked manufacturers to rise to this immediate challenge by offering skills and expertise as well as manufacturing the components themselves. Businesses can get involved in any part of the process: design, procurement, assembly, testing and shipping.”

The NHS has 5,900 ventilators, according to the DHSC, but might need more than three times as many in the worst-case scenario for the spread of Covid-19.

Plans to plug the gap involve designing what the DHSC called a “basic, functional ventilator” that can be made cheaply using available components. Prior to the call, several firms had already received a two-page specification document setting out the requirements, according to industry sources.

Trump and his lackey are criminals.