
Ask HN: How hard is a Manhattan Project-like effort to up ventilator production? - Vomzor
How hard would it be to open up new production lines to crank out more ventilators? Expanded mass production could save lives. Even simpler designs like this one: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fastcompany.com&#x2F;1661942&#x2F;mit-students-invent-100-ventilator-for-disaster-zones<p>The vaccine won&#x27;t be ready until next year. At best. Even if it takes months it could be worth it.
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rogerkirkness
Supposedly this can actually be done by current manufacturers, who are already
ramping as fast as they can. The bottleneck is trained users, which is
apparently much harder to ramp up as quickly. I will try to find the source,
it was an industry publication with quotes from the CEO of the biggest
manufacturer. [0]:
[https://www.forbes.com/sites/baldwin/2020/03/14/ventilator-m...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/baldwin/2020/03/14/ventilator-
maker-we-can-ramp-up-production-five-fold/#2dd4fdb85e9a)

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unlinked_dll
>Even if it takes months it could be worth it.

Anything short of "days" or "weeks" is frankly worthless right now.

If we want to take action, get our local governments to nationalize/commandeer
a significant number of our lab and chemical capacity to get testing capacity
up to where we can afford testing people who are asymptomatic, and not just
those at risk or those who may have been exposed.

The bottleneck is not people, money, or technology. It is simply the
incompetence of our leadership to get their shit together and make the hard
decisions that need to be made to close down our borders and businesses and
redirect our national efforts to the treatment effort.

For example. Governor Newsom should command the entire UC system to get every
single professor and student capable of manufacturing reagents and running
tests possible while they're closed down. Every business capable of
manufacturing should be directing it to making the PPE for doctors and nurses.
Healthy, low risk people should be conscripted and trained in respiratory
treatment. High risk people should be sequestered, and those with exposure
should be quarantined.

None of this is a tech problem or a medicine problem - it's a government
problem. Only none of our nations have a Churchill or FDR to drive the
efforts.

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runjake
There's numerous open source ventilator attempts going on. It'll be cool if
only one is successful.

Two have been on the HN homepage this weekend. Check them out.

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yellow_lead
Might cost less than 1.5 Trillion. Just some napkin math.

