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HI! I’m a robotics engineer with mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, Linux and embedded programming skills, and I have 8 3D printers at home including two Prusa printers, a high resolution resin printer, and a large format printer.

I’d really like to help! But there’s no central organization for this. I think we have to quickly organize ourselves!

If anyone has any ideas please add them here in these hacker news comments, AND/OR I’ve just created a thread on my website which we can use for focused discussion: https://reboot.love/t/coronavirus-thread/281

I’m working from home and have some freedom to delay my normal work and assist with this. What should I do? Is it ventilators that are most obviously needed?

We could 3D print the air pumps, but where do we get a vast supply of cheap motors? Or in another case hospitals just needed replacement parts for existing ventilators. How do we get in touch with hospitals and determine their needs? People have also suggested multiple people can be connected to one ventilator with some success. Could we make an adapter to help with that? How would we determine requirements?

The bottleneck with distributing new ventilators isn't physically producing them - it is getting them tested and approved by the FDA.

So the use-case here is people putting their loved ones on these ventilators at home because the hospitals are full (which is entirely possible).

Ideally, we should be working with existing ventilator manufacturers in the US to have them increase their current output.

If that's the case we need a whole DIY course of treatment, not just the machine itself. Playing doctor with only the tools and none of the rest is going to be a losing game. :(

1. There’s no treatment other than supportive care.

2. Ventilators aren’t dumb iron lung machines. Current ventilators are large, complex and very much specialized machines which require special training to operate.

Once you get to the point you need a ventilator the ventilator is the least of your problems.

"Supportive care" is not something I or most people know how to offer. That's my point. What does supportive care consist of? For example, I know from reading the news that pronating ventilated patients is considered preferable. What else?

But really, I think this "home care in case the hospitals are full" thing is a pipe dream. A uniquely American pipe dream. For one thing, how are you going to hydrate and feed your loved one while they're on your homemade ventilator? Do you know how to insert an IV? Do you have saline solution on-hand? Ventilated patients in the hospital are being sedated, to my understanding. Do you have an anesthetist on hand to manage that? Etc. The American impulse to independence and prepping is so silly sometimes.

The only practical use for these ventilators is in a hospital context, employed by real doctors and nurses. And then only if the number of available ventilators ends up being the bottleneck (as opposed to the amount of healthcare worker labor available or some other factor). Any other imagined use is just a safety blanket, IMO.

You forgot the Respiratory Therapists.

As a former respiratory therapist I understand you concern about a project like this. I doubt anything beyond a CPAP machine is helpful for home care without risking a ventilator lung injury which is often characterized as the same lung pathology that COVID-19 creates in the acute respiratory cases.

That said, at home you could help at home patients relieve some symptoms until proper medical attention is available by doing positive breath holding exercises and chest percussion therapy to recruit more alveolar activity.

Paging Dr. Scott Weingart

https://emcrit.org/emcrit/some-additional-covid-airway-manag...

I just wonder to what extent an emergency would change that situation. Let’s say I had a really nicely working design that some medical professionals helped test. Let’s say I was able to fabricate hundreds of them. I feel like some emergency exemptions could be offered if the alternative is people dying due to lack of ventilators.

FYI, I tried to comment on the thread you linked, but it does not allow me to make a new user and then comment. Using Chrome on a Mac.

Hmm. I'll have to look in to that. Thanks. :-/

Thank you so much. Ive just done some server maintenance and tried the new user flow with another email address. I was able to sign up, confirm my email, log in and post. Hopefully it’s fixed now.

Also I’ve worked out a potentially simple functional solution. I’m going to try to make a YouTube video to appeal for input.

> Where is the core team of 12 people plus 108 collaborators that should have been assembled a month and a half ago

You don’t understand where things were at a month ago. I had a fight with my wife at Costco because she thought I was wasting money and overreacting when I purchased the 50 lb bag of rice (among other items).

She understands now. We all do. But a month ago people were in absolute denial about the inevitable and it was impossible then to convince them otherwise.

The beds aren't really anything special. "Beds" is code for capacity in an ICU ward with ICU level medical equipment and doctors/nurses trained to provide that level of care.

Any hospital bed + a ventilator is probably good enough. Sounds like the government and hospitals are putting in orders wherever they can.

But I imagine hospitals aren't going to buy slapped together untested products unless its really really bad.

It's going to be really really bad in a few weeks.

There aren't nearly enough ventilators.

This isn’t a ventilator.

In Norway at least it isn't the beds themselves that are the issue it's the infrastructure needed for this in the hospital rooms of which the most important seems to be oxygen outlets. I'm not sure how safe it is to hook up gas tanks directly to DIY respirators.

Not that we are in a shortage yet, there are only 50 people hospitalised but it's expected to rise.

You cannot wait until the shortage hits to build more - obviously.

It will come very quickly.

> WHERE IS THIS TEAM?

Now they're all sheltering in place in their homes.

It's amazing how big a difference you can make in the world if you can just get started... a month ago.

Exactly. Still, with prioritization, this team can be assembled, isolated, and funded without limit, even now during shutdowns. But there's too many such leverage points to ... leverage. So, we use the same response Europe had to the Plague.

The bubonic plague killed 50% of infected and the septicemic plague killed 100%.

This one is trending towards 0.6%-0.1% so you can see why the response may not be the same given the 3 orders of magnitude lower estimated fatality rate. Yeah it’s serious but don’t kid yourself, it’s not the plague.

For instance I don’t think the UK would be contemplating just giving it to everyone young enough if it were to kill half to all of them. I don’t recall Thanos getting elected prime minister.

Hello from Montreal, Canada!

My employers are industrial equipment dealers who remember WW2, and the pivoting of industrial production that it took to win the war.

We can still make a major difference if we are able to manufacture open source ventilators en masse.

What am I doing about it? First I'm reaching out to the engineering departments of two major academic institutions to find local engineering leads that can help in conceiving or identifying sound open source plans for a ventilator. The goal being to find consensus and validate a ventilator design that we can mass produce as fast as possible in North America. In parallel we would reach out to our provincial government to pitch this initiative. For this to be a success we need local as well as national government support. Not delegating the work to government but rather getting their legal support.

My employers know some local manufacturers, some in the USA, and in Mexico; all of them capable of manufacturing various parts as well as assembling on site. The knowledge, equipment, and production facilities are scattered. We just have to identify who can do what part in their shop as per plans that have been reviewed and approved. Ultimately we could use this production model for all essential equipment to fight Covid-19.

About patents. No patents were required during WW2 if governments had to produce equipment that would win the war. The Covid-19 pandemic might be worst than war so to win it patents should not be an impediment.

There are multiple online forums where a low-cost or open source ventilators are being discussed. I'm not seeking to add noise to this very important endeavour but I do feel the need to at least contribute towards a coordinated, structured effort.

I'm actively searching for open source ventilator initiatives all over the world to identify the most promising ones: I need your help in getting this done, the world needs your help, so please reach out via opensourceventilator@gmail.com along with your suggestions and advice.

Last but not least, I just registered opensourceventilator.org and will gladly donate it if needed to centralize efforts in this fight.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow.

PS: Elon, how ya doing?

re: patents

I agree. I wish the system did as well. :(

https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/17/21184308/coronavirus-ital...

> Medical company threatens to sue volunteers that 3D-printed valves for life-saving coronavirus treatments

> The valve typically costs about $11,000 — the volunteers made them for about $1

Minor detail, but why 12 people plus 108 collaborators - is there some significance to these numbers I'm unaware of?

> There's your startup idea for the next 2 weeks.

all medical startups are legal heavy, there's not much space for gung-ho attitudes.

imagine the shitstorm that would ensue if someone dies on a makeshift ventilator. and they will, because being ventilated gives no guarantee of survival.

> every single fully functional ICU bed that can be brought online in the next 2 weeks is probably going to save 2 lives.

Yet nurses and doctors probably won't be able to keep up even with all the beds and respirators.

Here is one. I have the experience, network and know how to make any medical device one would want. What do you want to make? Let's do it

Hello from Montreal, Canada! Your expertise would be much appreciated. Please feel free to reach out via opensourceventilator@gmail.com

As far as i understand a lot of people are working on this.

calling Elon

Elon has been consistently playing down the risk from coronavirus/

https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/13/21179291/elon-musk-corona...

Who would have thought that a loudmouthed self promoter with an overinflated sense of his own intelligence and a history of making thoroughly unrealistic and unscientific predictions would get this one wrong too?

> a history of making thoroughly unrealistic and unscientific predictions

I thought you were going to say "a history of making thoroughly unrealistic goals come to fruition" because that seems more accurate.

How're those Mars flights treating you? https://nypost.com/2018/03/11/elon-musk-flights-to-mars-will...

Good place to hide out from COVID-19, I'd reckon.

Musk has missed just about every goal he's ever set by a wide margin and has only managed to pull through because hordes of taxpayers and investors continue to line up to dump money into his black hole projects on the back of his self-aggrandising.

> Musk has missed just about every goal he's ever set by a wide margin

Yes, but everyone else in the space sector has missed by a bigger margin.

How’s the Bush Mars mission coming along? Bush senior that is, initiative announced 1989.

> and has only managed to pull through because hordes of taxpayers and investors continue to line up to dump money into his black hole projects on the back of his self-aggrandising.

You mean the rockets which are half the cost of any other provider including both government and private launch agencies?

Or do you mean the car company which turned electric cars from a hippy fantasy into a rich person fantasy and just made its millionth vehicle?

> Bush senior that is, initiative announced 1989

That seems like a disingenuous comparison given how much control a President has vs a CEO in this context. Bush Sr. had less than four years.

This isn’t meant to bash Musk, just to point out the somewhat unfair comparison. I actually think entities like SpaceX are necessary to combat the political risk inherent in administration turnover

You have a valid point; however the point I had been trying to make was more along the lines of “Musk isn’t particularly bad even when he doesn’t meet his own goals; the goals are really hard”.

Yeah it’s hard to knock the man for failure when he did shoot for the stars and landed on Mars instead.

With the cars, I've come to the realization that most people just don't realize how hard it is or how many people have tried. I'm a big fan of the car industry and have looked at many of the past attempts (eg, Tucker, Bricklin, Delorean, Fisker, and now Tesla).

I can only think of one that topped 20,000 units, and they've hit 1 million. Being the only company since WWII to startup and do that is not a small feat.

Sure, I could listen to all of his hype and crazy rosy projections. I could also listen to the things his worst detractors say sometimes. Both sets are just as wrong, though, so I prefer to pay attention to what his businesses are actually doing.

It's good for the stock market.

Musk is probably right. I seriously doubt the UK would be considering just infecting all the youth with nCoV if he weren’t.