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24/03/2020

More Than 1,200 Ventilators Donated To California By Tesla CEO Elon Musk




Even though he had initially been skeptical of the coronavirus pandemic, Tesla chief executive office Elon Musk has since helped the authorities in California to acquire much needed medical supplies for combating the virus pandemic.
 
Health officials in Los Angeles was donated more than 1,000 ventilators to meet demand as the pandemic becomes more severe by Elon Musk, who was quote outspoken and skeptical of the severity of the coronavirus outbreak initially.
 
He had played an important role in the acquisition of acquire 1,255 of the ventilator machines from China last week and had then arranged for the machines to be air-shipped to Los Angeles, said the billionaire in a tweet. Customs officials in China and Los Angeles were thanking by the Tesla chief for the assistance to enable quick shipment of the machines. 
 
“Yup, China had an oversupply, so we bought 1255 FDA-approved ResMed, Philips & Medtronic ventilators on Friday night & airshipped them to LA. If you want a free ventilator installed, please let us know!” Musk tweeted.
 
“Elon Musk: how about this? I told you a few days ago he was likely to have 1,000 ventilators this week,” California Governor Gavin Newsom told reporters in a briefing Monday. “They arrived in Los Angeles and Elon Musk is already working with the hospital association and others to get those ventilators out in real time. It’s [a] heroic effort.”
 
At the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, Musk had infamously tweeted wondering whether there would even be a shortage of ventilators to treat patients suffering from Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The panic surrounding the outbreak was even termed as being “dumb” by the entrepreneur. He had also said that children are “essentially immune” even though there is evidence to suggest that the virus infection can be quote serious for children. Musk even had a tussle of sorts with local officials over a county shelter-in-place order until he finally decided to halt production at the only car assembly plant of the company in the United States.
 
Another US auto giant General Motors had also provided ventilators to the US health system. Tesla was reportedly urged by a Tesla customer to allow the use of the Tesla factory for the production of the ventilating machines.
 
Offers of use of their facilities for manufacturing of gowns have been made by six California companies, Newsom said, and added that the authorities are currently holding talks with another 25 companies who have volunteered to begin 3D printing of protective masks for health-care workers.
 
According to the latest estimates, there is a shortage of about 50,000 hospital beds in the state of California compared to the projected spread of the virus infection, the governor said. the state government is trying to procure 1 billion gloves and more than 500 million masks for the health care workers who will be working to man those additional beds, Newsom said.
 
“That’s not a typo,” Newsom said.
 
(Source:www.fortune.com)

Christopher J. Mitchell
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