No, building a ventilator is like building an engine because you need to go to the store - you're missing so much of the solution to the problem. I've also posted before [1] on why they are a terrible idea to waste time on "designing".
That said, ventilators I believe are already a solved problem for COVID. We have tens of thousands in the strategic stockpile, and production capacity is being ramped up hopefully to meet demand. This is exactly how these stockpiles were intended to work.
I don't these stockpiles exist. At least the order by the German government seems only to be fulfilled by new production [2] and other governments might have to queue due to few manufacturers [3]. I don't know if in market forces and IP worked to our good here. I think current design challenges could at least channel random good ideas wrt ventilator designs. [1]
It absolutely isnt a solved problems, most countries affected by the pandemic do not manufacture the ventilators and have like a 10x shortage compared to what's needed to incubate everyone who will be sick. (Obviously depending on how bad it gets).
The struggle to ramp up production is a desperate one, and this is one case where IP is killing people - there are several consortia in the UK that are ready to manufacture, but need a certified design they could build.
> potential needs is in the millions and the current ventilator count is 100,000
There are only 96,596 ICU hospital beds in the United States according to the AHA. As I said, ventilators are already solved to the point that something else is the bottleneck.
People are hearing about Italy running out of ventilators and choosing which patients to save. Since we don't want that scenario we are looking to have enough ventilators.
No, building a ventilator is like building an engine because you need to go to the store - you're missing so much of the solution to the problem. I've also posted before [1] on why they are a terrible idea to waste time on "designing".
That said, ventilators I believe are already a solved problem for COVID. We have tens of thousands in the strategic stockpile, and production capacity is being ramped up hopefully to meet demand. This is exactly how these stockpiles were intended to work.
1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22581652