The U.S. Tried to Build a New Fleet of Ventilators. The Mission Failed.

[Zorro]

Thirteen years ago, a group of U.S. public health officials came up with a plan to address what they regarded as one of the medical system’s crucial vulnerabilities: a shortage of ventilators.

The breathing-assistance machines tended to be bulky, expensive and limited in number. The plan was to build a large fleet of inexpensive portable devices to deploy in a flu pandemic or another crisis.

Money was budgeted. A federal contract was signed. Work got underway.

And then things suddenly veered off course. A multibillion-dollar maker of medical devices bought the small California company that had been hired to design the new machines. The project ultimately produced zero ventilators.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/29/business/coronavirus-us-ventilator-shortage.html

[mn9driver]

1. The small company with the original contract was doing a great job.

They created a cheap, reliable, portable and easy to operate ventilator and were getting ready to produce and deliver tens of thousands of them to the government.

Then they got bought out by a big medical equipment company that didn’t want competition from this new kind of ventilator. Production never happened and the contract was canceled.

Medical predatory capitalism wins, everybody loses.