Mary Altaffer/AP; Jae C. Hong/AP
- New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday that Elon Musk's ventilators can't be produced in time to help during the worst of the coronavirus outbreak.
- "Nobody can make you a ventilator right now in two weeks," Cuomo said. "That's General Motors, that's Ford, that's Elon Musk. I don't care how big and how powerful, you can't make ventilators that fast because there are parts that have to come from other countries."
- Musk has asked Tesla engineers to make ventilator parts out of car parts — Tesla posted a video Sunday of the company's progress so far.
- Musk has been outspoken throughout the coronavirus outbreak in the US, both tweeting out misinformation about the virus and delivering ventilators to hospitals across the country.
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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday that Tesla's ventilators won't be ready in time to help with the apex of the novel coronavirus outbreak in New York.
During Cuomo's daily press briefing in Albany, the governor was asked if he's had any conversations with Tesla CEO Elon Musk about whether the company's Buffalo-based plant will be reopened to produce ventilators. The company on Sunday posted a video of Tesla engineers demonstrating how they were making ventilators out of car parts.
Cuomo's top aide, Melissa DeRosa, noted that while Tesla is trying to ramp up in order to get things running as soon as possible, nothing has materialized yet. She also said that Tesla is talking about making only one part of the ventilator, not the entire device.
Cuomo noted that any new ventilator production will be held up by supply-chain issues.
"Nobody can make you a ventilator right now in two weeks," Cuomo said. "That's General Motors, that's Ford, that's Elon Musk. I don't care how big and how powerful, you can't make ventilators that fast because there are parts that have to come from other countries."
That production timeline means that any Tesla-made ventilators won't be finished in time for the apex of the outbreak in New York state, Cuomo said.
"Their timeframe, frankly, doesn't work for our immediate apex, because whether we're talking two days or 10 days, you're not going to make ventilators at that time," Cuomo said.
Cuomo said on Sunday that New York may be reaching the apex given that the number of deaths per day from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, dropped between Saturday and Sunday, from 630 to 594. It's not clear whether the outbreak has reached a plateau in New York or if the number of deaths per day will continue to drop.
Ventilators are critical for patients enduring the most extreme respiratory effects of the virus, and the US is facing dire shortages of the machines. Musk, who has been outspoken throughout the outbreak in the US, has shared his efforts to procure ventilators, delivering 1,000 ventilators to California hospitals, and sending ventilators for Henry Ford Health System on Michigan and Lincoln Medical Center in the Bronx.
Tweet Embed://twitter.com/mims/statuses/1246460768310214657?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Another special thank you goes out to @Tesla for a donation of Medtronic invasive ventilators to NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln #inTheBronx. pic.twitter.com/BH9SSj4Bbw
But Musk also faced backlash for delivering non-invasive ventilators, known as BiPAP machines, to a hospital in New York City. The devices are traditionally used to treat conditions like sleep apnea, and health experts previously warned that they could increase the risk of transmission of the virus. Cuomo has since announced that the Department of Health has approved a process to convert BiPAP machines into ventilators.
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