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That is a far cry from the early days of the virus when US medical workers. USA They wondered if a lack of fans would force them to make painful decisions about which patients would receive them.
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Now the United States has a surplus and the President shares them with other countries, a gesture of goodwill that also helps him offset criticism of his own early response to the pandemic.
The White House did not respond to a request for details on how many fans have been shipped so far, nor to criteria for determining which countries will receive them. But an administration official familiar with the effort provided the figure of 8,000 as part of a list of actions aimed at supporting health systems abroad. The official was not authorized to discuss the screening publicly and only spoke on condition of anonymity.
“We have nine factories that are throwing fans at numbers that no one can believe. There has been none of that since World War II, ”Trump said Friday.
Trump said the United States was delivering the breathing machines to some countries. It was unclear if some nations would pay for fans, which cost between $ 5,000 and $ 30,000, depending on the model.
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“In a way, I would like it to be donations. I really do. I think it’s good will, ”Trump said earlier in the week.
“It is difficult to say that he has to pay us to prevent people from dying.” Machines shipped to other countries do not come from the national reserve, which has around 12,000 ready to be deployed in US jurisdictions. USA The US reserve Maintained by the Department of Health and Human Services, is replenished with thousands of ventilators manufactured under the Defense Production Law.
“Initially, it was very scary and we had many states requesting numbers that could not be provided.” Jared Kushner, an adviser to the President and Trump’s son-in-law, said Friday during a White House meeting with Republican members of Congress.
“The President wanted to make sure that anyone in this country who needed a fan had a fan. He saw what was going on in Italy, where people died in hospitals and couldn’t get the care they needed, and the president said, “I don’t want that to happen in the United States.” Kushner said the administration used the Defense Production Act to approve about 10 contracts with companies to manufacture fans. Last year, the United States manufactured about 30,000 fans, Kushner said. This year, in just a four-month period, the United States will earn about 150,000, he said.
“We are in a place right now where we are fine,” Kushner said. “Many of our allies, the countries that are friends of the United States, are starting to get fans from us, and we have more than enough to take care of all American citizens, so it has been a great success story.”
In recent weeks, Trump has been counting requests for help from other countries. He said he had offered Russia Vladimir Putin fans during a call on Thursday.
“The countries know that we have enormous amounts, tremendous volume, and they have been calling. Nigeria just called. We are giving them 250 fans. We have many countries, I would say 12, 14 countries that called, “Trump said this week.
“We are sending enough to France. We are sending enough to Spain and Italy. We have four African countries. “Earlier last month, Trump said that the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson requested fans
A UK government spokesman said the country’s National Health Service had ordered fans from manufacturers around the world, including in the US. USA In tweets, Trump identified Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Ethiopia, and Indonesia as countries that requested fans.
On Tuesday, Mexico said it received a U.S. shipment of 211 medical ventilators as part of Trump’s promised aid. “As the saying goes, when there are difficult times it is when you know who your friends are,” said the Foreign Secretary. Marcelo Ebrard.
Mexican President Andés Manuel López Obrador said Trump promised help when he called and asked for help in obtaining 1,000 ventilators and other equipment for intensive care units. Ebrard said the shipment includes equipment made by Swiss-based Hamilton Medical.
Bolivia’s interim right-wing government said President Jeanine Añez spoke to Trump last weekend and promised him $ 750,000 in aid to buy test kits and 250 fans “as soon as possible.” The Bolivian government said Trump expressed his support for Añez and his promise to move the country towards the elections.
As the virus outbreak makes its way around the world, “there will be under-resourced areas that will need fans, which are likely to be short of fans on a good day,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, scholar in the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Safety.
Adalja said that fans should go to countries that have intensive care unit doctors and respiratory therapists who understand how to operate them. Some countries do not have those resources.
“There may be some places where they need even more basic supplies than fans,” said Adlaja. “You want to make sure they are being used in a place that has the capacity to use them and the training to use them.”
