Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimbuna
American Airlines, one of the world's richest carriers, says it will apply for $12bn (£9.7bn) in government aid.
British Airways is suspending all flights from London's Gatwick airport, the UK's second busiest.
UK health officials says the nationwide stay at home advice is "making a difference"
The virus has killed more than 33,000 people around the world, says the WHO.
President Trump says the US will have enough ventilators to meet demand.
The World Bank says "significant economic pain seems unavoidable" in the Asia Pacific region.
New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo says the scale of coronavirus deaths is "staggering"
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The American Airlines item is most annoying; it seems there will be little, if any, US government oversight of the "stimulus" fund disbursement since the administration is reusing to honor the letter and spirit of the law calling for transparency and responsibility...
In California, the ventilators sent from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) were found, upon receipt to be broken and Governor Newsom had to find a means of having them repaired immediately; it was fortunate that some private industries/companies stepped up and offered to do the repairs for free...
Elsewhere in the US, states are waiting for the Administration-promised disbursement of urgently needed medical equipment, including ventilators; companies who manufacture the items say they have inventory ready to be shipped but have yet to hear from FEMA as to where and in what quantities the items are to be shipped...
An engineering postgraduate student at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) responded to a world-wide challenge to engineers to create an easy to build DIY ventilator for hospital use; he came up with a prototype made from items to be found in a good-sized hardware store; it may look a bit like a Rube Goldberg imagining, but the science and engineering behind the prototype is sound:
UCLA Engineer Made a Ventilator from Hardware Items --
https://gineersnow.com/engineering/b...hardware-items
If for some reason you are unable to view the embedded video in the above article, here is the YT clip:
A number of medical supply companies have expressed interest in the engineer's prototype and work is now being done to recreate the device using medical grade materials and, after some tests, it is hoped to produce similar devices quickly to aid in relieving the ventilator shortages...
The scale of deaths is staggering, indeed; the latest US expert estimates are a possible high of 200,000 deaths in the US this year alone; as a bit of perspective, that total would be more than three times the total fatalities of over 58,000 suffered by the US during the entire Vietnam War which lasted over all about 20 years...
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