Ask HN: Engineering Community to Create Ventilators?

[charleshe]

Does anyone here know of any COVID-19 or coronavirus related community, forum, Slack channel that has many engineers?

My motivation:

Currently, the virus shows signs of spreading across the US at a speed that will outstrip many medical resources.

One key resource is ventilators, the mechanical breathing systems that you've probably seen before. These ventilators will probably be in critically short supply.

Importantly, these mechanical ventilators actually amount to a face mask and a mechanical bellows. Their construction and performance requirements are relatively simple. With some time, they could be built by anyone with engineering ability, which the US and Canada has a huge pool of talent.

I want to see if there is a community that could consider organizing the production of these systems.

[nabla9]

For a emergency DIY purposes you could buy manual resuscitators and build a device that presses them at right intervals (they are self-inflating).