Note: I am republishing this diary from a few days ago, since not many people saw it. I’ve added some information, but the ProPublica article is excellent. It’s important to slam the door on the “No one could foresee” argument from Trumpers, not to score political points, but to force people to confront reality. Otherwise, RepublIcans, who have subsisted on a diet of saccharine and lies for so long, will slink back to Fox mumbling about how unfair the media is and how a quarter million dead isn’t really so bad under the circumstances, kind of a win, really...
Good news everyone! A few decades ago, the US government foresaw, in the event of a respiratory pandemic, they would need thousands of ventilators. And about five years ago, they put out a bid for a low cost, simple ventilator that would be easy to maintain and store for years. They thought it should be easy to use because, in a pandemic, the machines would probably be used by non-specialized medical staff. In addition, they wisely required the winning company to be able to ramp up production in an emergency, like say, the aforementioned pandemic.
After some false starts, Philips was awarded a contract for 10,000 with the ability to produce 1,700 a month on short notice in an emergency. The design was approved by the FDA last fall and production is set. How many will we have to fight COVID-19 by next month?
Zero.
Well, how many for COVID-21?
Zero.
The contract specifies delivery in 2022.
But... good news! The company has made a fancier commercial version from the design we paid for, and those are already available at just 3-5 times the price. In fact, they are shipping around the world. Included (for free!) is a software patch that prevents the unit from shutting down without warning. Fewer dead patients! Good stuff.
I’m sure we will at least have a chance to bid on some of those sweet, hotrod Philips ventilators though, because that Kushner boy is involved.
Taxpayers Paid Millions to Design a Low-Cost Ventilator for a Pandemic. Instead, the Company Is Selling Versions of It Overseas.
As coronavirus sweeps the globe, there is not a single Trilogy Evo Universal ventilator — developed with government funds — in the U.S. stockpile. Meanwhile, Royal Philips N.V. has sold higher-priced versions to clients around the world.
www.propublica.org/...
IN OTHER VENTILATED NEWS: GM is just days away from production at their plant in Kokomo, no thanks to Trump.
As a side benefit, GM thinks it can use the safety procedures they developed at the plant at other factories to get actual car production restarted. Reuters
Two things the Trump Administration can do that would really help with production is:
1) Drop the 25% tariff that is in place on freaking ventilator components from China. Yes, that’s still in place as of today. Trump can change that by stroking his Sharpie. WSJ
2) Tell GM how many damn ventilators the government is going to order. Trump’s grandiose tweet of a week ago said he was ordering GM to produce the ventilators they were already working on. Not included was any positive integer describing how many they want. USA Today