[mumblemumble]

You're being exceedingly uncharitable in characterizing the team that is working on this the way you do in the last paragraph. The article is littered with disclaimers about the current state of the project. They're very quick to point out that this is only a proof-of-concept, that expert review is ongoing and not complete, and that FDA approval needs to be sought before this can be used to treat COVID-19 patients.

It's also at least implied that they're not necessarily hoping that this project specifically is used to treat COVID-19 patients; it seems the outcome they're hoping for is that this will publicly pressure manufacturers (presumably beyond just Airsense) to release their own firmware update to convert their CPAP machines to BiPAP.

In other words, far from being a semi-organized group of "basement-dwelling hacker"s, ths project has the appearance of being a very well-thought-out one with a clear roadmap.

[gmueckl]

No, I am not implying that this specific project is handled particularly unprofessionally. I want to warn people off who might think that they could just hack devices and put them to use on patients. This stuff requires serious expertise and if you don't have access to it, your effort is for entertainment only.

[VectorLock]

Hospitals are already pressing CPAP machines into service in this way, this firmware hack is only making the devices more fitting for the role they're being asked to fulfill in exigent circumstances.