Dear Perplexity.ai -- Where did all the ventilators go?

In early 2020 Trump administration public health 'experts' pushed ventilators in a panic like they were the magic weapon in the war on covid. They weren't. AI can help any journalists who care.

OK, fellow journalists with important jobs -- all 12 of you who are left.

Here's some solid evidence that AI is your priceless friend and helpmate -- or should be if you are doing your jobs right.

For reasons I can't explain, I asked myself this morning what happened to all those emergency ventilators for hospitals that the Trump administration ordered up in the early days of the covid 19 pandemic, when the government's healthcare experts had no idea what they should be doing to fight the virus.

So I asked Perplexity.ai this question:

"During the first months of the covid 19 pandemic there was a desperate need for more ventilators. The federal government ordered companies to manufacture tens of thousands of ventilators and then realized they were not needed. Where did all the ventilators."

I left off the word 'go' at the end of my question but before I could even try to fix it, Perplexity knew what I was aiming at and it spit out the answer below -- in less than a second.

Before I repeat the AI answer, let me say that in less than a second I got enough information to allow me to get a good start on digging into political origins and deadly effects of an incredibly wasteful, misinformed and media-driven 'solution' that hurt more people in hospitals than it helped.

I suspect that some hospitals have basements stacked with dozens of un-opened ventilators; I suspect that some countries got or didn't get for ventilators for political reasons;

I suspect there was lots of corruption and profits made by shady characters in and out of government; I know the Big Media didn't do their job at the time -- it just repeated whatever Trump/Fauci and the CDC said or mandated;

I know that few people to this day know that something like 75 percent of people put on ventilators in 2020 in the first months of covid died and I suspect it's true that ventilators were used primarily to protect hospital staffer from getting the virus by containing the virus in the machines.

It's way too late for all these questions and suspicions.

But it's not to late to point out that the war on covid proved, for the thousandth time, that when government panics and the media 'sleeps,' people get hurt and billions are wasted.

Here's Perplexity.ai's answers

Answer

During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. government ordered a significant number of ventilators in response to anticipated shortages. However, the actual need for these devices turned out to be lower than initially predicted. Here's what happened to the ventilators:

The U.S. government invoked the Defense Production Act to partner with manufacturers to purchase up to 200,000 ventilators of varying functionality for the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile.
Many hospitals also purchased additional full-featured ventilators during the pandemic, leading to a 30% increase in adult ventilators and a 15.6% increase in pediatric and neonatal ventilators.
The Strategic National Stockpile, which had approximately 20,000 devices before the pandemic, received a significant portion of the newly manufactured ventilators.
Some of the ventilators were distributed to early hotspots in the Northeast and Northwest United States from the Strategic National Stockpile.
However, many of the ordered ventilators were likely not deployed or used as extensively as initially anticipated. This was due to several factors:
Overestimation of ventilator needs based on inaccurate predictions.
Implementation of other strategies to reduce ventilator demand, such as using high-flow nasal cannula oxygenation and noninvasive ventilation.
Rapid advancements in COVID-19 treatments and the development of vaccines, which may have reduced the need for mechanical ventilation.
The focus on ventilators alone was later recognized as flawed, as effective critical care requires not just ventilators but also trained staff, personal protective equipment, and additional essential equipment.

In conclusion, while a large number of ventilators were ordered and manufactured, many likely remained in storage or were distributed to hospitals and healthcare facilities across the country, potentially preparing them for future surges or pandemics.

Perplexity also included these helpful questions:

Related

What happened to the ventilators ordered by the federal government
Were any of the ventilators donated or sold to other countries
Did any hospitals or healthcare systems end up with excess ventilators
How were the ventilators stored and maintained during the pandemic
Were there any specific companies that produced more ventilators than needed
Were any of the ventilators donated or sold to other countries

Sources

Answer
Yes, the United States donated or sold ventilators to numerous countries during the COVID-19 pandemic:

Ventilator Distribution

The Trump administration spent $200 million to send thousands of ventilators to 43 countries around the world. This initiative began in late May 2020 and continued through late September of that year. Some key points about the ventilator distribution:

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was tasked with delivering the ventilators abroad.

Nearly 8,722 ventilators had been distributed by December 20201.
Five countries received almost half of the donated ventilators:
Brazil, Indonesia, and South Africa each received 1,000 machines
El Salvador got 600
Peru received 5001

Recipient Countries
The ventilators were sent to a wide range of countries, including:

Wealthy nations that typically do not receive foreign aid, such as NATO countries.
Countries with varying levels of need for the equipment.
Some locations that were ill-equipped to use certain ventilator models.

Interestingly, 150 ventilators were sent to countries that had zero new COVID-19 cases on the date the U.S. committed to sending the machines.
For example, Kiribati and Nauru, which received a total of 20 ventilators, have never had a confirmed case of coronavirus according to the World Health Organization.

Decision-Making Process

The decision to donate ventilators was not part of USAID's initial COVID-19 response strategy. Instead, the National Security Council (NSC) instructed USAID on decisions regarding ventilator donations, including recipient countries, quantities, and manufacturers.
.However, neither USAID nor the NSC provided information about how disbursement decisions were made.

Related
Which countries received the most ventilators
How were the decisions made about which countries to donate ventilators to
What was the criteria for selecting countries to receive ventilators
How effective were the ventilators in the countries they were donated to
Were there any countries that returned or refused the ventilators
Which countries received the most ventilators

Sources
Answer
Five countries received nearly half of the ventilators donated by the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic:

Brazil: 1,000 ventilators
Indonesia: 1,000 ventilators
South Africa: 1,000 ventilators
El Salvador: 600 ventilators
Peru: 500 ventilators

These donations were part of a larger initiative by the Trump administration, which spent $200 million to send a total of 8,722 ventilators to 43 countries around the world.
The distribution began in late May 2020 and continued through late September of that year. However, it's worth noting that the needs in these recipient countries varied widely. For example, on the day USAID committed to sending ventilators, El Salvador had 74 new cases and one death, while Brazil had 33,322 new cases and 1,046 deaths.

Related

Why did some countries with low COVID-19 cases receive ventilators
How did the Trump administration determine the number of ventilators to send to each country.
What were the main objectives behind donating ventilators to high-income countries.
How did the distribution of ventilators impact the global COVID-19 response
What challenges did USAID face in tracking the donated ventilators
How did the Trump administration determine the number of ventilators to send to each country.

Sources
Answer
The Trump administration's determination of how many ventilators to send to each country during the COVID-19 pandemic lacked a clear and systematic approach. Here are the key points regarding the decision-making process:

Lack of Established Criteria: According to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), there were no established criteria for determining which countries needed ventilators or how many to send. The decisions were largely made without a formal needs assessment, leading to questions about the appropriateness of the distributions.
National Security Council Involvement: The National Security Council (NSC) played a significant role in instructing the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on ventilator donations, including selecting recipient countries and quantities. However, neither USAID nor the NSC provided detailed information on how these decisions were made or the rationale behind them .

Political Considerations:

Reports indicated that political factors influenced decisions, with some ventilators sent to countries that did not necessarily have urgent needs or that typically do not receive foreign aid, such as NATO member states. This raised concerns about whether the distributions were aligned with public health priorities or driven by political relationships.

Responses to Country Requests: While USAID claimed that donations were made in response to requests from countries, critics pointed out that many recipient nations may have needed other forms of assistance, such as personal protective equipment or health system support, rather than ventilators.

Discrepancies in Needs Assessment: The distribution often did not correlate with the severity of COVID-19 cases in recipient countries. For example, some countries receiving large numbers of ventilators had relatively low case counts at the time of distribution, suggesting that decisions were not based on urgent medical needs.

In summary, the process for determining how many ventilators to send to each country was characterized by a lack of clear guidelines and significant involvement from political entities rather than public health assessments.