So, Elon Musk has kept his promise to provide 1,000 ventilators to hospitals in California, assisting them in treating Covid-19 patients suffering from respiratory distress. This information was confirmed by Governor Gavin Newsom at a press conference today.
“I told you a few days ago that there was a possibility [California] would receive an additional 1,000 ventilators this week,” Newsom said. “And now they have been delivered to Los Angeles… That is a heroic effort.”
Last week, after Newsom mentioned that he had spoken with a “celebrity entrepreneur” about the supply of ventilators, Elon Musk hinted on Twitter that his Tesla factories were manufacturing and producing this essential medical item.
“We are working on ventilators, although I think there will be no shortage, we will produce them in time.”
Contrary to this attitude, Elon Musk had previously downplayed the seriousness of the Covid-19 pandemic. In early March, Musk made a controversial tweet suggesting that the panic surrounding the coronavirus was “ridiculous“.
The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla also made a mistake by claiming that children are “basically immune” to the novel coronavirus. Scientific evidence later indicated the opposite.
Musk then continued to email SpaceX employees, stating that the new coronavirus was not concerning. He also continued to operate a Tesla factory in Fremont, California, despite the “shelter in place” order issued by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.
This led a Twitter user to ask whether Elon Musk intended to use his factory to produce ventilators during the Covid-19 pandemic.
At that time, Musk replied that Tesla was fully capable of producing ventilators for Covid-19 patients, but he didn’t want to proceed immediately because there were no hospitals lacking ventilators.
“Tesla makes cars with sophisticated HVAC systems. SpaceX builds spacecraft with life support systems. What’s so difficult about ventilators, but they can’t be produced right away? Which hospitals are lacking ventilators?”, Musk replied to a comment on his Twitter.
However, many other medical experts quickly informed Musk that reality was not as he had speculated. A report in February from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security estimated that the entire United States currently had about 160,000 operational ventilators in hospitals.
A national stockpile still holds about 8,900 unused ventilators. But one expert warned that as the virus continues to spread across the United States, it is estimated that up to 1 million Americans may need ventilators as a life-saving device.
To address that potential shortage, not only Tesla but also General Motors and Ford have announced that they will participate in ventilator production.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated on Sunday that it has reduced some procedural barriers in the medical device approval process. This will allow manufacturers of new ventilators to quickly bring their products to market to assist Covid-19 patients.
Source: Business Insider