Madcap Compatriot
| While I agree this isn't necessarily the be-all end-all, I've heard recent calls for innovation and not accepting limitations and that "we can't do it" shouldn't be our mantra.
Basically I completely agree with you. But we are talking about highly specialized machines in an "knifes edge" - life or death- Situation here. This is when you need a tested, reliable be-all, end-all machine.
There is no need to construct a new type of ventilator by a firm that builds vacuum cleaners.
Just licence an existing type to a competent firm, let them build it under supervision, test the quality, and voilá, more ventilators for everybody. On the plus side, you have even trained medical personnel for this type of ventilator.
I just hope that noone of us will actually need one. Stay safe, all the best to you. |
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Has Achieved Nirvana
| Martin's idea is a good one except for one thing... Innovation meets reality, or another episode of the Let's Make a Deal chaotic presidency. quote: The White House had been preparing to reveal on Wednesday a joint venture between General Motors and Ventec Life Systems that would allow for the production of as many as 80,000 desperately needed ventilators to respond to an escalating pandemic when word suddenly came down that the announcement was off.
The decision to cancel the announcement, government officials say, came after the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it needed more time to assess whether the estimated cost was prohibitive. That price tag was more than $1 billion, with several hundred million dollars to be paid upfront to General Motors to retool a car parts plant in Kokomo, Ind., where the ventilators would be made with Ventec’s technology.
Government officials said that the deal might still happen but that they are examining at least a dozen other proposals. And they contend that an initial promise that the joint venture could turn out 20,000 ventilators in short order had shrunk to 7,500, with even that number in doubt. Longtime emergency managers at FEMA are working with military officials to sort through the competing offers and federal procurement rules while under pressure to give President Trump something to announce.
But in an interview Thursday night with Sean Hannity, the president played down the need for ventilators.
“I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators,” he said, a reference to New York, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo has appealed for federal help in obtaining them. “You go into major hospitals sometimes, and they’ll have two ventilators. And now all of a sudden they’re saying, ‘Can we order 30,000 ventilators?’”
A General Motors spokesman said that “Project V,” as the ventilator program is known, was moving very fast, and a company official said “there’s no issue with retooling.”
A Ventec representative agreed.
“Ventec and G.M. have been working at breakneck speed to leverage our collective expertise in ventilation and manufacturing to meet the needs of the country as quickly as possible and arm medical professionals with the number of ventilators needed to save lives,” said Chris O. Brooks, Ventec’s chief strategy officer.
The only thing missing was clarity from the government about how many ventilators they needed — and who would be paid to build them.
The shortage of ventilators has emerged as one of the major criticisms of the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus. The need to quickly equip hospitals across the country with tens of thousands more of the devices to treat those most seriously ill with the virus was not anticipated despite the Trump administration’s own projection in a simulation last year that millions of people could be hospitalized. And even now, the effort to produce them has been confused and disorganized.
At the center of the discussion about how to ramp up the production of ventilators is Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and a senior White House aide, who has told people that he was called in two weeks ago by Vice President Mike Pence to produce more coronavirus test kits and who has now turned his attention to ventilators.
He has been directing officials at FEMA in the effort. Two officials said the suggestion to wait on the General Motors offer came from Col. Patrick Work, who is working at FEMA. Some government officials expressed concern about the possibility of ordering too many ventilators, leaving them with an expensive surplus.
Rest of the story here, should be accessible to non-NYT subscribers. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/0...ntilators-trump.html
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We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal proverb
Bazootiehead-in-training
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| | | Posts: 37794 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010 | 
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Serial origamist
Has Achieved Nirvana
| Maybe we can get ol' "heck of a job" Brownie (Mike Brown) back at FEMA. Maybe someday this clown car will run out of gas and we can get some adults back in charge. I'd bet my lunchmoney that if anyone with the last name of "Trump" or "Kushner" needed a ventilator, they'd find one (and a couple spares) toot sweet. I also read somewhere that there are only about 100,000 people in the U.S. who are trained to operate a ventilator. And I also read that about 15% of medical professionals have tested positive or are showing symptoms (or maybe that was in the U.K. since I get most of my news from Auntie Beeb). How big a crisis does this need to be before I-1 will figure out that it's a crisis?
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pj, citizen-poster, unless specifically noted otherwise.
mod-in-training.
pj@ermosworld∙com
All types of erorrs fixed while you wait.
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Has Achieved Nirvana
| So at today's presser he was asked about what went wrong with GM. He babbled on about how GM, before his presidency, moved plants to other countries ("I won't mention the countries"), and left a plant in Ohio high and dry. "I wasn't a fan going into this" (referencing the effort to get GM to build ventilators). I don't get it. Wasn't he crowing about a GM deal just like a week ago? Who got to him to piss on GM? This is infuriating.
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We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal proverb
Bazootiehead-in-training
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| | | Posts: 37794 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010 |
IP
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Serial origamist
Has Achieved Nirvana
| It's all about him. It always has been. It always will be.
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pj, citizen-poster, unless specifically noted otherwise.
mod-in-training.
pj@ermosworld∙com
All types of erorrs fixed while you wait.
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Has Achieved Nirvana
| I just caught the rest of the story. quote: President Trump on Friday compelled General Motors to manufacture ventilators to help handle the surge of coronavirus patients, using his power under the Defense Production Act.
Trump announced that he’d signed a presidential memorandum requiring the company to “accept, perform and prioritize” federal government contracts for production of the much-needed medical equipment shortly before signing into law a $2 trillion stimulus package to help prop up the economy during this public health crisis.
“Our negotiations with GM regarding its ability to supply ventilators have been productive, but our fight against the virus is too urgent to allow the give-and-take of the contracting process to continue to run its normal course,” Trump said in a statement. “GM was wasting time. Today’s action will help ensure the quick production of ventilators that will save American lives.”
Geezles.
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We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal proverb
Bazootiehead-in-training
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| | | Posts: 37794 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010 |
IP
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Serial origamist
Has Achieved Nirvana
| GM was wasting time???
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pj, citizen-poster, unless specifically noted otherwise.
mod-in-training.
pj@ermosworld∙com
All types of erorrs fixed while you wait.
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Minor Deity
| 100,000? Well if WE have extras, we can take care of other countries... He means SELL them...
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The earth laughs in flowers
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Minor Deity
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Minor Deity
| MIT has an open source plan as of yesterday.. MIT's ventilator
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"Wealth is like manure; spread it around and it makes everything grow; pile it up, and it stinks."
MillCityGrows.org
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Minor Deity
| quote: Originally posted by LL:
100,000? T asks...
Well if WE have extras, we can take care of other countries...
He means SELL them...
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The earth laughs in flowers
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Has Achieved Nirvana
| quote: Originally posted by Axtremus: quote: Originally posted by Steve Miller:
And our local billionaires are...
What are they doing exactly?
Coronavirus: Tesla donates hundreds of ventilators to New York https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52071314
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Life is short. Play with your dog.
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| | | Posts: 34852 | Location: Hooterville, OH | Registered: 23 April 2005 |
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