So what? One of those CEO's was convinced he could build a better rocket without having any experience with rocket science, and he did. Why not ventilators?
> The apparent slight prompted Musk — one of numerous Silicon Valley entrepreneurs with whom the governor has a long-standing relationship — to lash out at the media and implore Newsom in a tweet to “please fix this misunderstanding.” Musk shared screenshots that appeared to show a hospital executive and a Los Angeles County health department official confirming they’d received medical equipment.
> When asked Thursday about the discrepancy, Newsom said he had not yet seen the information Musk shared on Twitter.
> “I was not personally aware of that list,” Newsom said, adding that “I look forward to learning more about where they went and I’m grateful for his support.”
> Later Thursday, Los Angeles County Department of Health Services Director Christina Ghaly said in an emailed statement that Tesla had provided 100 bilevel positive airway pressure units in March — devices that can reduce “the need for certain patients to be placed on mechanical ventilation,” Ghaly said. The company also provided 200 gallons of hand sanitizer and 860 face shields.
I sure did! Those CPAP ventilators were the wrong type, so Tesla had to turn around and send 100 ventilators made by someone else. That's the point, right? Tesla thought they could make ventilators. They couldn't. So they just got someone else's ventilators. It proves the point. Tech CEOs, even as fabulous as ya boy Elon can't just hubris their way into medical devices.
From the article linked above:
"According to The Week, after CEO Elon Musk tweeted March 31st that he had “extra FDA-approved ventilators” ready to ship out, Tesla didn’t ship out actual ventilators, it sent machines more closely related to C-PAP devices called BiPAP or B-PAP machines, made by ResMed. C-PAP and Bi-PAP devices are indeed used in hospitals for medical breathing issues, as well as in homes for ailments such as sleep apnea. They use a mask that covers the users entire face or just the nose and mouth, but they are not effective for the critical symptoms of COVID-19, which requires ventilators that include intubation, or the insertion of tubes into the lungs of the patient."
> They use a mask that covers the users entire face or just the nose and mouth, but they are not effective for the critical symptoms of COVID-19
CPAP is used by the NHS for Covid-19 to try and avoid the need for invasion ventilation, even in the ICU (examples [1], [2]). I was in intensive care for 10 days, and was on CPAP (100% oxygen) for the majority of the time.
Yep - I was told fairly early on that if I didn't start improving on CPAP in a reasonable timeframe, or I worsened at all, I would be ventilated (SpO2 90% with occasional dips to 88-89% on CPAP, SpO2 was 78% on admission; arterial blood gases were monitored, but I've no idea what the readings were).
