Pentagon to free up 5 million respirator masks and 2,000 ventilators for coronavirus efforts

Defense Secretary Mark Esper has announced that the Pentagon will cut loose 5 million masks and 2000 "deployable" ventilators.

Esper said the Pentagon is able to offer up to 2,000 deployable ventilators but that the machines are different from those used by civilians and will require training before operation. He added that the U.S. government would need to seek support from industry on procuring more ventilators. www.cnbc.com...

The training piece is going to be an issue. The details a not available but I think these are similar to the SAVeII combatmedical.com... Its basically a Volume Control only type vent

Its a pretty rudimentary ventilator which is better than nothing but has the potential to cause as much harm as good. For example our transport team uses the Hamilton T1 www.hamilton-medical.com... which is as sophisticated as most ICU vents.

Nevertheless this is going to be an all hands battle in the coming weeks so any help will be welcome

a reply to: FredT

They know. Appearance of a valiant effort but they know. Without a vaccine it will spread. Slow, fast doesn't matter. It will spread, many will die with months on end to a containment solution shot.

I don't know why this is so hard for people to get. Nobody is ever blamed for these events. It's just happens periodically. Go ahead and blame it on one person. Decades from now nobody will blame it on him. Bubonic plague, Spanish Flu, AIDS. Who was blamed for the spread of it. That would be NOBODY. It's just a part of being alive since recorded history.