[stupac2]

At this point we're just left hoping that various engineers can come up with solutions, whether Dyson or GM or Ford or the various philanthropic groups forming about this. But I'm very, very afraid that there will be places where even a dramatic increase in supply won't be enough. What happens if 50% of Mississippi catches this by mid-May?

The engineers and scientists don't much matter right now. We know how to build the Ventilators. It is production that is the issue, and in the next two weeks or so production will not change enough to matter. There is no "magic bullet" that will solve this problem. The idea that GM and Ford can do ANYTHING in less than a month is absurd on the face of it. They simply aren't nimble operations. There are lots of contract manufactures in the US that can "rapidly" tool up to build somebody else's design, but as anybody who has ever done this can tell you, a couple of weeks is just barley enough in the absolute best case to maybe start production of units to be validated by QA so real production can start. This all assumes that the required parts/raw materials are available. The parts suppliers for ventilators are already at capacity. They too would have to seek contract manufactures to increase output. In a month, there may be a noticeable increase in supply. In six months, for sure, all the ventilators you could ever want.

I mean, I'm aware, the contract manufacturer for our definitely-not-a-medical-device alpha particle counter took over a year to actually make one. But hopefully a pandemic concentrates minds somewhat. I guess we'll see.

[stupac2]

At this point we're just left hoping that various engineers can come up with solutions, whether Dyson or GM or Ford or the various philanthropic groups forming about this. But I'm very, very afraid that there will be places where even a dramatic increase in supply won't be enough. What happens if 50% of Mississippi catches this by mid-May?

The engineers and scientists don't much matter right now. We know how to build the Ventilators. It is production that is the issue, and in the next two weeks or so production will not change enough to matter. There is no "magic bullet" that will solve this problem. The idea that GM and Ford can do ANYTHING in less than a month is absurd on the face of it. They simply aren't nimble operations. There are lots of contract manufactures in the US that can "rapidly" tool up to build somebody else's design, but as anybody who has ever done this can tell you, a couple of weeks is just barley enough in the absolute best case to maybe start production of units to be validated by QA so real production can start. This all assumes that the required parts/raw materials are available. The parts suppliers for ventilators are already at capacity. They too would have to seek contract manufactures to increase output. In a month, there may be a noticeable increase in supply. In six months, for sure, all the ventilators you could ever want.

I mean, I'm aware, the contract manufacturer for our definitely-not-a-medical-device alpha particle counter took over a year to actually make one. But hopefully a pandemic concentrates minds somewhat. I guess we'll see.