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Comment by wikibob | Hacker News Reader

Note: This is for portable battery powered respirators for healthcare workers to breath filtered air.

NOT for Ventilators used to keep patients alive.

See the full Ford press release for more information: https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2020...

There are apparently plans in motion to work with GE Healthcare on "simplified" ventilators (under the guidance and direction of GE Healthcare). These ventilators will be produced at some Ford and GE Healthcare facilities.

This is in addition to respirators and face shields.

Going back to the patient kinds, there are several subtypes:

- mass casualty, which can run on batteries, compressed air, or line voltage, and operate outdoors. They're usually ruggedized so they can be used by in-theater military field hospitals or quickly deployed at pop-up field hospitals near major incidents.

- inpatient

- intensive care (ICU)

and then

- adult

- pediatric

- neonatal is sometimes broken-out from pediatric products

I would think the rarest combination would be neonatal mass-casualty.

Yeah, they mention ventilators a few times, but it seems they are talking only about respirators (ie protective N95 masks). Gov Cuomo just said today he has a projected shortfall of 30,000 ventilators and they aren't available anywhere. The FEMA stockpile is 20,000 of which they have been promised 400. Ford and GM can score some PR and help medical workers by producing respirators, but we could be facing hundreds or thousands of excess deaths unless the DPA is invoked to produce ventilators and needs to happen a month ago.

So Cumo wants all 20,000 ventilators for NYC, and I suppose the rest of the country can just fuck-off?

Considering NYC has about 8M population, that 400 is just about the proper allocation.

Well, there's a fourth dimension, time, and the number of _______ will vary over time in each geo______

I understand the stress we are all under but there is really no need for that language. If you heard his press conference he reiterated that NYC is just ahead of the nation and what is happening in NYC will repeat in the rest of the nation and he will ensure that the respirators are sent on to other parts of the nation once the peak passes in NYC.

"The governor also directly addressed the rest of the nation. He said he would not hold onto the ventilators in New York once the need passes and he pleaded for unity for amid a national crisis."

Source: https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2020/0...

Watch the video. He wants them all now because NY has 10x more active cases than any other state. All 20000 won't be even enough. They're projecting to hit a peak in 14-21 days. No other state is on pace to need them before then. Once the peak has passed, he'll pay to ship them anyplace else that needs them. They're not disposable, they are durable. If they don't all go now along with 10,000 then send body bags instead.

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