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So, there are ventilators sitting around useless, because there may be needed "in a week or two" and the EU is not able to organize and coordinate the JIT dirst

• adrenalinelol 7y ago
  Not saying it ought not to be that way, but the EU isn't known for their bureaucratic efficiency.
• jacquesm 7y ago
  It's the trolley problem, but now in real life. Also, you're not helping, you just use this crisis to further your own goals: to paint the EU in a negative light. And it's not like you weren't warned about this before: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17266468 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17266468 Flagging both your comments.
• evanextreme 7y ago
  ventilators aren't iphones
• mft_ 7y ago
  Most countries in Europe are tracking the same infection rates as Italy [1] just with a few days' offset (as they effectively started later). Thus it doesn't take a genius to realise that where Italy is now, most other countries will be shortly. So, that being the case, does it really sound like smart governance for a country to ship its ventilators to Italy? Even ignoring the time taken, loss, breakage, and other issues (training? compatability? would Italy have sufficient trained staff to operate them?) what would then happen in a week when the donor countries suddenly needed their ventilators back? Demand that the critially-ill Italians using them are woken up, and the ventilators be shipped back again? It might sound cruel, but a government's first priority is usually the care of its (own) citizens. And there's almost nowhere in Europe that won't be needing every one of its own ventilators, very soon. [1] http://nrg.cs.ucl.ac.uk/mjh/covid19/ http://nrg.cs.ucl.ac.uk/mjh/covid19/