COVID Update April 3: I spoke to a Senator (& recorded it), the CEO of 1 of the biggest vent manufacturers (didn’t record but will read out here), talked with 1 governor & states about how they get to the next stage. And am expert on capacity projection.

Follow if interested.1/

Great talking to @amyklobuchar about how she handles politics & a time when policy is more important.

And as a spouse whose husband is on the mend from COVID-19. Out of the hospital. Very relatable. 2/

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-the-bubble-with-andy-slavitt/id1504128553#episodeGuid=4bacc262-75f4-11ea-aa74-63b4e597de75

The fact that she agreed to be on the podcast as what the pros call a “mini-episode” was nice of her.

It was less filtered. (Well more filtered than @ASlavittsMom when she was on.) 3/

Yesterday I spent a lot effort trying to figure out how states were managing the challenge of finding ventilators.

So today I arranged a call with major manufacturer of ventilators’ incoming CEO @Medtronic. 4/

Here are some of the things I learned:
-They have gone from 300/week of their big machine to get to 1000/week by June
-Issue is 765 unique parts many running low on
-They called NASA/JPL to get to work re-engineering to reduce parts to scale 5/

Because of that limit, they decided to start up a “pandemic machine”
-lower cost, faster & easier to produce
-made a radical decision to put the plans online so others can produce
-I asked the reaction & called around to see if they were usable 6/

Medtronic is offering to help as many as they could who want to use their plans
-Someone in India is ramping up to make many
-A company in the Midwest is converting their factory

So I asked the obvious question 7/

One- how much do you charge for the open source plan? Answer nothing. And we will do the consulting & distribution for free.

Good answer. 8/

Call for armed services head. One moment.

How many can people make using their plans?

Sounds like a few thousand/month beginning in June.

Others said it’s not so simple but these guys are being helpful? 7/

I’m hearing a lot about price gouging. So I ask how they price their ventilators. Have they raised the price since the outbreak.

He said they took their lowest price they had ever sold the product for & made that the fixed price. All states, no increases. 8/

I asked whether they were still selling in other countries. He said yes but only based on need. And working to dedicate more new production to the US (he was more specific & explained the trade issues satisfactorily). 9/

Also they were giving away their demo units & refurbishing others’ old machines. 10/

One other question I asked that was the hardest of all. How do you decide who to send the limited number of vents to? Especially since you don’t raise the price.

I gave him a suggestion which he agreed with. But there’s no perfect way. 11/

He asked my ideas and I told him. That I appreciated. My strongest suggestion was full transparency.

In short, I felt like they were taking the high road at every turn. Which is a contrast....12/

In contrast. 13/

https://twitter.com/aslavitt/status/1246150254107344896?s=21 https://twitter.com/aslavitt/status/1246150254107344896

As I mentioned yesterday’s thread, there are others coming on line with much more production even earlier (we hope). 13/

The number one thing we can do to make our ventilator supply go further is to #stayhome.

I hope we end up with a glut. 14/

I think I mentioned yesterday that we are working on figuring out how to eventually help states transition from #StayHome to begin to open up the economy. 15/

First I need to clear something up.

There are people who say we need to open up quickly for the economy to get back to normal. Sadly, that’s not how this works. 16/

Companies won’t begin hiring again and investing again until they KNOW we have a handle on containing the virus. The stock market, the virus, employers— none of them can be that easily fooled. 17/

So there need to be SMART plans to open up again.

What does that mean?
-14 days in a row of decrease in cases, hospitalizations & deaths
-Sufficient increase in new tests & supplies
-Ability to trace 80%+ of new cases w voluntary app 18/

Here is an example of a disease surveillance app used in South Korea 19/ https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sg.gov.tech.bluetrace&hl=en_US

-Deploy other methods of monitoring like digital thermometers
-Serology tests deployed to indicate immunity
-Facemasks (non-N95) by 70% of population
-Precautions for high risk populations 20/

How long will all this take? It’s a lot of work. Not by May 1. Maybe by June 1. And not as easy in every state.

Can people make it through May? I don’t know. But Congress needs to continue to help more. 21/

Is this a path to make it through the Summer? Can science make enough progress along the way? Can we keep people in enough food and comfort along the way?

My guesses:
Best we have
I think so
I’m worried about it

23/

I mentioned to someone I was impressed with the governors I’ve spoken to. They asked me whether I’ve spoken to @RonDeSantisFL.

No.

23/

Governors have added responsibility because people leave their state, particularly Florida.

The governor of Florida cannot be legally recalled. I appeared not to be the only one to search that question. 24/

I’d run against him if I could stay home and govern virtually.

Instead I will host In the Bubble (please listen to me talk to Amy today. Short convo.)

Have a nice night. We will get through this. End/