Heroic Effort
In order to help health care professionals cope with the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, Tesla CEO Elon Musk sourced some 1,255 ventilators from Chinese manufacturers and donated them to hospitals in the Los Angeles area, according to Bloomberg.
“China had an oversupply, so we bought 1255 FDA-approved ResMed, Philips & Medtronic ventilators on Friday night & airshipped them to LA,” wrote Musk in a Monday tweet. “If you want a free ventilator installed, please let us know!”
Governator
California governor Gavin Newsom praised the move.
“Elon Musk: how about this? I told you a few days ago he was likely to have 1,000 ventilators this week,” he said during a Monday briefing, as quoted by Bloomberg. “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 an heroic effort.”
Shortage
The news comes after Musk offered to “make ventilators if there is a shortage” last week.
Health experts worry that there are not nearly enough lifesaving ventilators for everybody who’s going to get sick with COVID-19 in the US. Manufacturing of additional ventilators has been slow as well.
According to Bloomberg, six other California-based companies are offering up their facilities to manufacture gowns while 25 are planning to start 3D printing masks. Newsom also told reporters that California is short 50,000 hospital beds.
“That’s not a typo,” he added.
READ MORE: Virus Skeptic Musk Donates Ventilators in What Governor Calls ‘Heroic Effort’ [Bloomberg]
More on Musk: Elon Musk Offers to Make Ventilators at Tesla Factory
