Elon Musk has on occasion offered his help when there has been a problem or catastrophe and with the coronavirus crisis, they have also asked the South African entrepreneur and physicist to contribute his bit.
A Twitter user, who declares himself the owner of a Tesla and “loves the company,” has urged him to prepare “his factory to make the respirators we need as soon as possible.” In addition, he has suggested to him that he has to “ stop being an idiot in all this. This is a massive disaster . Ask the doctors specialized in the matter ”. Musk has responded by assuring that they will make respirators if there is a shortage.
Given this tweet, the editor-in-chief of FiveThirtyEight, Nate Silver, wanted to put more pressure on the technology guru and reproached him that “ now there is already a shortage. So how many fans are you making, Elon Musk? “
The entrepreneur has also responded to this mention made to him on the 280-character platform. “Tesla makes cars with sophisticated air conditioning systems. Space X manufactures spacecraft with life support systems. Ventilators or respirators are not difficult to make, but they cannot be produced instantly. What hospitals suffer from the shortage you are talking about right now? ”He asked.
Musk would have radically changed his attitude towards the coronavirus given the measures that are beginning to be taken in the US to stop the pandemic. In earlier days the founder of Neuralink had downplayed the problem and even referred to it as a “silly panic.”
Other automakers will make respirators too
Tesla is not the only car-related company that could produce respirators for the population that needs them . Other US car companies, such as Ford and General Motors, have spoken with the White House to find out how they can help produce these machines.
In a statement General Motors assures that it is already working to find solutions for the nation. “We are studying how we can potentially help the production of medical equipment such as respirators,” a company spokeswoman said in a statement.
These devices are essential to help breathe those people who have been most severely affected by COVID-19. The shortage of respirators is a problem that is emerging in many countries due to the advance of the coronavirus and the increase in the number of infected people. The US is also being affected. The governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, has assured that the state will need about 30,000 units to face the crisis, although they only have about 5,000 or 6,000. In addition, he pointed out that “it is a problem at the national level. Every state is buying respirators. “
In February the John Hopkins Center for Health Safety in the US published a report in which it assured that the country had 160,000 respirators ready for use in hospitals and about 8,900 in a national reserve. In a country of more than 327 million inhabitants, experts have estimated that 1 million US citizens may need these equipment during the pandemic.
