How Patriotic American Businesses Are Stepping Up To Beat The Wuhan Virus
American entrepreneurs are finding new ways to manufacture essential masks, ventilators, and other virus-fighting tools. We need to count on them if we want to win this war against the pandemic.
By Helen Raleigh
March 27, 2020
As confirmed Wuhan coronavirus cases in the United States surpass 60,000, our nation is in war mode. Winning a war requires all hands on deck. It appears American businesses and innovators are up to the challenge, however, as more and more private companies are contriving creative ways to play a part in beating this pandemic.
In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been making apparent his state’s dire need for more ventilators. In the most severe cases of those infected with COVID-19, patients’ lungs become inflamed and fill with fluid, making them unable to breathe effectively on their own. For these patients, the medical ventilator makes the difference between life and death. The coronavirus pandemic, however, has induced a staggering global shortage in the ventilator-to-patient ratio.
The U.S. government has 170,000 ventilators stockpiled strategically, but experts say this may not be enough if the number of cases continues to increase at its current rate. Cuomo explained his state needs 30,000 ventilators, and so far he has only 7,000. Cuomo has been vocal in demanding the federal government prioritize his state’s needs, but the federal government has more than one state to think about.
A ventilator is a complex medical device that costs $50,000 each on average. The Food and Drug Administration used to have strict oversight on which company is permitted to manufacture ventilators. Given the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak and increasing demand for the devices, however, the FDA relaxed its rules on the manufacture and use of ventilators on March 22. It also published a guideline the same day that offers “a streamlined path to market for automakers and other non-medtech manufacturers that want to repurpose their plants to supply ventilators.â€
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https://thefederalist.com/2020/03/27/how-patriotic-american-businesses-are-stepping-up-to-beat-the-wuhan-virus/
