anotherparent posted:We hope there will be a vaccine in 16 months or less. We also hope there will be medicines that really help. Engineers are inventing new ventilators and figuring out ways to use the ones we have for more than one person. The quicker those things are developed, tested, and produced, the quicker we don't have to rely on the ventilators. Also, again I'm not an epidemiologist, but the more people who get the virus and become immune, the less likely there are to be widespread recurrences because it won't get a toehold. I.e., herd immunity.
It all comes down to what scientists, doctors, and engineers can do, and whether the doctors and nurses can keep up the pace.
FYI, it takes years to develop a new ventilator. My spouse is a clinical engineer. He works for a ventilator company. They’ve ramped up production to 500 vents per week. Also, 3M isn’t the only one who sold out Americans. Another competitor company sold a boatload of vents to a European country in February. Dumb, dumb, dumb.