Foggy they've had ventilators for a lot longer than they've had modern digital electronics, sensors and feedback loops for control. The DIY ventilator post was a joke, but the one under it about the currass ventilators was interesting and reproducible in simplified form on a large scale. This is an extreme emergency situation and things can happen very quickly with the right person in charge of the program with the proper authority
I think the chinese have already done the heavy lifting on this and have anticipated market need if nothing else, I'm sure inquires are being made. This is a base all governments should have already covered. Like I said, we have to try, even if it's too late, and we don't need the latest greatest either, just good enough to do the job.
Ventilators weren't very good before the new electronics came into use. The old ones just moved air in and out by squeezing a bag. It worked for people whose lungs hadn't failed but couldn't breathe for another reason, like coma, or damage to the spinal chord. The problem a Covid lung complication causes is fluid in the lungs. With the older equipment, the patient dies. The newer equipment allows fine adjustments of timing of inhalation and exhalation. Also, enables fine control of pressure to keep the fine airway passages open. Exhalation pressure also affects fluid uptake to help the patient recover.
On the other hand, get it wrong and the patient suffers a lung blow out. Or during scale up, manufacturing defects can kill a lot of people. Defects that creep in during manufacturing are common in most product development projects.
Finally, the limiting factor is also trained nurses who know how to use the unit. Put a completely stone-age tool into the system and people won't know how to operate it yet there they are, trying to save a person's life. The whole idea is fucking crazy and detached from reality.
Let's open up the Baloney Detection kit. Oh, here it is: #4: Spin more than one hypothesis. How about we list alternatives instead?
Why don't we put our energy into discussing alternatives?
How about funding to the hilt whatever it takes to make existing, registered designs? I suggest that if the manufacturer says they can do no more, it's kind of nuts to ask Lucas Electric (do they still exist) to become proficient at medical device manufacturing overnight. Put a few billion into finding a way to make 30,000 new respirators using the existing designs. It's not cost effective, I suppose but it could save lives without creating chaos into an already chaotic system.
How about digging through the inventory of obsolete equipment that already exists but needs updating and repair?
How about doing something else? You name it.
