4 ms·

So mothball them the same way the military does equipment. We don't have a shortage of land in this country.

• jschwartzi 7y ago
  Because the equipment requires very sensitive measurements on the order of tenths of cmH2O and tenth of a milliliter of air, a very small leak in any one of the seals can cause a significant inaccuracy in ventilation and especially in the alarms which govern whether the equipment isn’t overinflating your lungs. This isn’t like a car where you can just start it up periodically to keep seals lubricanted. You need to maintain them or to have a plan for how you’ll check them before putting them into service. And you need biomedical technicians who are trained to repair them and clean them. If you mothball the equipment there is a very real danger that without re-qualifying the equipment it will kill or injure patients. The biggest effect GMs announcement seems to have had is convincing people that a car company that builds to PSI tolerances can build anything to the kind of tolerance needed to safely ventilate patients. I think this is a PR move and GM and Tesla will study the problem enough internally to determine they have no idea what they’re doing. Worst case we get ventilators from Tesla with the same manufacturing defects and quality issues which their cars have had. I personally would not feel safe on a Tesla or GM ventilator built without FDA oversight.
  • ethbro 7y ago
    Absolutely on requalification. IYHO, would that be more or less time that manufacturing fully new units?