MIT team also works on low cost ventilator designs, Govt needs to take action now.
MIT Team is working on Open Source Ventilator designs and they say, "They designed it mainly as a tool for rural areas in developing nations, which have high levels of chronic respiratory issues but limited access to mechanical ventilators. Even then, though, they noted it could also serve an important role in the US in the event of a wide-scale pandemic like the one now unfolding."
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/615374/an-mit-team-hopes-to-publish-open-source-designs-for-a-low-cost-ventilator/
USA has 170,000 ventilators available right now compared to about 30,000 ventilators in India. Our Govt is talking to Automotive companies and Ventilator makers, however there are many challenges:
1) Normal ventilators are very expensive. 100,000 ventilators will cost almost 7000 crores (1 billion dollars).
2) One company in Mysore has a capacity to build only 200 ventilators a month.
3) Normal heavy duty ventilators production is also dependent on some imported parts. This is a big constraint.
4) We may need ventilators that can be easily transported in and around rural areas. Its doubtful, if normal ventilators are that easy to move.
The other related concern is, do we have enough oxygen cylinders and do we have enough medical oxygen available? Can we ask the Govt to focus on this issue as well? Production of 30,000 to 40,000 oxygen cylinders may also be needed, when we consider the need in rural areas also into account. It may become impossible to move sick people from rural areas to hospitals in big cities.
We need a multi-pronged approach to deal with this epidemic. A lot of techies, R&D scientists, medical practitioners and other concerned citizens have to get involved. This work can not be carried out by our Govt or one or two big companies. We need both traditional ventilators and also low cost ventilators as designed by MIT, other start ups and many open source groups.
We as a community can engage with the Government and 800-900 members of parliament and urge them to take action to consider low cost medical equipment options.