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GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization

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Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization

#161

Post by jacquesm »

ajross wrote: post #138
BurningFrog wrote: post #80

Meanwhile, actual ventilator manufacturers are not getting many orders: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/18/ventilator-...

Right, because no one has stepped up to write a check. Hospitals are businesses, they're not going to do this on their own. GM is a business, they're not donating those ventilators, they're trying to make a sale into a new market. States, most of them, can't do it because their budgets are fixed by their constitutions and they can't take a loan or write a bond without a referendum. There's basically one entity in thi…

Whoever thought that running your healthcare system in a commercial fashion was the right idea in the first place? A lot of fundamental decisions are going to be re-thought in the aftermath of this virus' impact, but for now we can ignore all that and focus on what matters: eradicating the thing. And if GM making ventilators on a war footing is what it takes I'm all for it, let's divert some of those funds to them and give the hospitals what they need.

Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization

#162

Post by ethbro »

SiVal wrote: post #145

It already does a lot of inflexible manufacturing, often by outsourcing overseas, but I'd love to see part of the US military converted to a rapid-response, highly flexible, fully-domestic manufacturing system. LOTS of very flexible automation, so they could take a wide range of designs and raw materials and rapidly switch from making one thing to making another and the ability to hugely ramp up production on demand…

https://www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/Shipyards/Norfolk/Departmen...

Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization

#163

Post by sailfast »

syntaxing wrote: post #35

This is definitely great and uplifting news but I am not sure why GM or Ford is the one on top of list for this endeavor? There are a bunch of second source assembly houses that build medical equipment for the big players. Seems like it would make more sense for them to build it with some sort of FDA fast pass. Discretion, I work for a carmaker company but my opinion is of my own only.

Mary Barra volunteered in a meeting. That's why GM's getting the press. Later on in the article it mentions other manufacturers currently working to do this in Britain.

Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization

#164

Post by thwarted »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #55
MegaButts wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Having cultural capital to call on is invaluable. How similar is the culture today compared to 75+ years ago?

> How similar is the culture today compared to 75+ years ago? Doesn’t matter. “We did this before and must do it again” is a powerful call to action. That cultural capital spins up the bureaucratic flywheel.

I first heard the song "We Did It Before and We Can Do It Again" on some old Looney Tunes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veYIbxaU0A8

Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization

#165

Post by jacquesm »

ardy42 wrote: post #158
mgerdts wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, the regulatory regime needs to be relaxed to quickly bring on more manufacturing capacity. I believe it will be. Throwing it out entirely and allowing anybody to manufacture and sell medical devices from their garage is not going to happen. That being said, auto manufacturers likely have no experience manufacturing these devices. The don't know which optimizations will be dangerous. They may not recognize they…

> That being said, auto manufacturers likely have no experience manufacturing these devices. The don't know which optimizations will be dangerous. They may not recognize they are doing anything different from an experienced manufacturer. Given that this is a crisis, the existing ventilator manufactures need to send over a couple experienced ventilator engineers to help.

And open source all their blueprints, schematics and software.

Getting a supply chain for parts up and running is going to be the tricky part.

Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization

#166

Post by babesh »

chapium wrote: post #142
BurningFrog wrote: post #80

Meanwhile, actual ventilator manufacturers are not getting many orders: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/18/ventilator-...

Hospitals are hamstrung by their bureaucracies and financial policies. The best thing that can be done is an independent assessment of need and start "airdropping" supplies if a shortage is apparent.

Did no one bother to actually read the article? It says that there can potentially be a shortage but that there isn't currently.

The fed has 13000 and the military an extra 2000. It currently seems more hamstrung by bureaucracy or lack of information. Hospitals have to request their state governments which have to then request them from the federal government. Only one state has requested them so far.

"“We have received, so far, only, I think, one request for just several ventilators,” he said. In contrast to Fauci’s disclosure that the stockpile contains nearly 13,000, Azar said the number was not disclosed for national security reasons."

Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization

#167

Post by Slippery_John »

bagacrap wrote: post #114
adventured wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The federal government has placed an order for 500 million N95 masks. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-18/trump-say...

What does that even mean? Placing an order doesn't magically solve production shortages.

It protects the manufacturer against ramping up supply only for demand to suddenly disappear.

Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization

#168

Post by ajross »

yellow_lead wrote: post #156
ajross wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, because no one has stepped up to write a check. Hospitals are businesses, they're not going to do this on their own. GM is a business, they're not donating those ventilators, they're trying to make a sale into a new market. States, most of them, can't do it because their budgets are fixed by their constitutions and they can't take a loan or write a bond without a referendum. There's basically one entity in thi…

Don't states have emergency budgets that become available during state of emergency?

In some cases, it's complicated, yada yada. I'm certainly no expert on state-level budgeting in the US. In the case of NY specifically, I know it's been reported that Cuomo specifically asked the federal government for help getting ventilators and was rebuffed.

Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization

#169

Post by kevingadd »

yellow_lead wrote: post #156
ajross wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, because no one has stepped up to write a check. Hospitals are businesses, they're not going to do this on their own. GM is a business, they're not donating those ventilators, they're trying to make a sale into a new market. States, most of them, can't do it because their budgets are fixed by their constitutions and they can't take a loan or write a bond without a referendum. There's basically one entity in thi…

Don't states have emergency budgets that become available during state of emergency?

Yes and no, some states are constantly on the border of being insolvent. California has a big 'rainy day fund' but this recession is projected to eat into a significant chunk of it. The way hospitals are funded and administered may make it tricky for a state to buy a bunch of ventilators with state funds and then donate them to a hospital... if you "lend" them then after the crisis the state owns a bunch of used ventilators it needs to offload.

Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization

#170

Post by ethbro »

wolco wrote: post #137
dogecoinbase wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are not at war. We are +T two months since the first confirmed case in the USA and had warning nearly a month prior to that, and the Federal government has done almost nothing of substance other than reject tests and advice from nations who have been fighting this far better than we have, because they have functional health services.

Weren't they the first to limit then ban travel from Wuhan / China. To say they have done nothing sounds political. Good and poor decisions were made.

In addition to enacting the CDC effort to distribute tests.

That some of those tests were contaminated, or that the FDA may have made a hard call in proceeding with redistribution or calling an audible to multi-sourced testing, is a strategic problem.

But let's not say nothing was done. I'm sure there were plenty of sleepless nights at the CDC, before we even had confirmed US cases.

(Happened to drive by it today. And it's easy to forget that there are people, just like us, who are trying to do their best there. We all make mistakes. And sometimes we don't, but our bosses do, and we get blamed for it anyway.)

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