Why making a lot of ventilators may not be enough to prevent COVID-19 deaths

Medical device companies and even manufacturers outside the industry answered the call to make ventilators needed to treat people with severe COVID-19 cases.

But as a newer and larger wave of the novel coronavirus hits the U.S., the equipment may not be enough, The New York Times reported yesterday.

The problem, according to the Times, is that there aren’t enough respiratory therapists, pulmonologists and critical care doctors with the training to operate the ventilators and provide people struggling to breathe with the round-the-clock care they need. In the U.S., the 37,400 critical care doctors — called intensivists — are only stationed at only about half of U.S. hospitals; many rural hospitals don’t have any intensivists.

Get the full story on our sister site MassDevice.