American Companies Helping in Coronavirus Crisis
April 7, 2020
There have been many American companies that have stepped up amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
For example, Ford, GM, and Tesla have been given permission to make ventilators for hospitals. Ventilators are important pieces of medical equipment used to treat COVID-19, a respiratory disease which is caused by the coronavirus. Because of the wide and rapid spread of COVID-19 cases, there has been a shortage of them, in New York especially, as they have the most cases in the U.S.
TechCrunch article Ford, GM, Tesla given the ‘go ahead’ to produce ventilators, Trump says by Kirsten Korosec said, “Ford told TechCrunch in an email Sunday that it stands ready to help the administration, including the possibility of producing ventilators and other equipment.”
MyPillow has also offered their help as well, saying they can make face masks for the doctors and nurses who need them, since they work with similar materials. The MyPillow company said that they have focused 75 percent of production into the making of face masks. The CEO of MyPillow, Mike Lindell, said, “we have capacity to make a lot of things at big rates and we’re going to be going hopefully from 10,000 units a day to 50,000 units a day in a very short period of time.”
Not only have companies been helping in this crisis, but so have individuals. A doctor at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Steve Richardson, started work on Mar. 22 on making his own ventilator. By getting equipment and resources from private companies and friends that are biochemical engineers, he was able to complete the prototype of the ventilator in just hours.
They tested the ventilator on a pig, and it kept the pig breathing for an hour. A typical hospital ventilator is said to cost $25,000 to $50,000. Dr. Richardson’s prototype ventilator cost only $150 to make.
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