Doctors are now wondering if ventilators actually accelerate death or kill Covid patients.   And with death rates of 80% or more for those put on ventilators, they surely should wonder.  Anything that results in death 80% of the time should be questioned. 

Remember, our harsh lockdown measures to “flatten the curve” are motivated in large part to help ensure there are sufficient ventilators for when people get sick.  Amazing if those ventilators now prove to be of little therapeutic value. 

Covidien Puritan Bennett 840 Ventilator

Likewise, except in a few hotspots, hospital beds and ventilators are not in short supply.  In fact, many hospitals and medical offices are empty and some closing.  In Illinois, despite claims the sky is falling and criticisms of the federal government, less than half the ventilators are deployed.   To be sure, this is likely due, in part, to the harsh (lockdown) measures.

All said: (1) ventilators may be of little therapeutic value, and (2) regardless of their utility, there are few, if any shortages.

A Harvard Law School graduate, William Choslovsky is a lawyer in Chicago.