Sultan Quadri

SUMMARY

The Nigerian Government announced that the United States promises to send ventilators to it.

FULL TEXT


Nigeria’s information minister, Lai Mohammed disclosed that the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, has promised to send ventilators to support Nigeria in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

He made this announcement at the daily Presidential Task Force (PTF) briefing on COVID-19 on Tuesday, April 28, 2020. Mr. Mohammed said Mr. Trump made these promises on Tuesday in a phone conversation with President Muhammadu Buhari.

VERIFICATION

The US Ventilator Situation

It was reported by the New York Times on April 18 that the US does not have enough ventilators to cope with Coronavirus. As at April 18, the US had 636,301 cases according to worldometer

The US as at then had 160,000 ventilators and 12,700 in the National Strategic Stockpile. The number of total cases of coronavirus in the US as at the time of this report has recorded 1,036,417 cases and 59,284 deaths.

Trump urged Governors to find ways to procure new ventilators.
“In a worst-case scenario it would be very difficult to have a sufficient number,” said Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the Obama administration.

In the United States, roughly half of the intensive-care ventilators in use were made by foreign companies, including Dräger and Getinge, according to estimates by ECRI, an independent nonprofit group that evaluates medical technology. There are fewer than a dozen American companies — including giants like General Electric and Medtronic — that make ventilators, according to Greg Crist, a spokesman for AdvaMed, the trade group that represents American medical device makers. They are scrambling to accelerate production.


“We are in a global supply chain situation, like it or not, so everybody making ventilators here or elsewhere is going to be looking for parts, often coming from the same suppliers,” said Marcus Schabacker, chief executive of ECRI. “There’s a domino effect coming into play.”

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed a low-cost, open-source ventilator to address the shortage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic named Spiro Wave.

The MIT team is working to refine the ventilator’s design to make it more compact and add a respiratory function.

It was reported by Bloomberg that the US doesn’t just have a shortage of ventilators, it faces a shortage of parts
Worldwide ventilator makers are having problems in getting supplies for various parts like circuit boards, tubes, etc because suppliers are scattered across the world.

Royal Philips, a global leader in health technology, announced that the U.S. Government and Philips agreed to team up to increase the production of hospital ventilators in its manufacturing sites in the U.S. Philips plans to double the production by May 2020  and achieve a four-fold increase by the third quarter of 2020 for supply to the U.S. and global markets. Such ventilators are critical for the treatment of patients with the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Philips will invest several tens of millions in its ventilator manufacturing sites in the U.S.

Nigeria’s Situation

Nigeria recorded its first coronavirus case on February 27, 2020, and since then has seen a constant rise in the number of cases even with a relatively low number of tests conducted.

As at the time of this report Nigeria has recorded 1532 total cases, discharged 255 patients, and registered 44 deaths. Nigeria also recorded its highest number of new cases in a Day. The country recorded an unprecedented 195 new cases.

A month ago, Nigeria reportedly had 169 ventilators across 16 states, with the new wave of innovation by young Nigerians and the military and donations from various individuals like Jack Ma the country still has less than a 500 ventilators for its 200 million population

The US Current Situation

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, April 28, 2020, that the U.S. has more ventilators than it can currently use and will be sending the surplus to other countries battling the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump’s statement, made during a meeting with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, was backed up by Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and adviser.
Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner said Tuesday on that the federal stockpile of ventilators had more than 10,000 units and was “growing every day.”
Ventilators, along with other medications and medical equipment, are held in the Strategic National Stockpile which is managed by the Public Health Emergency division of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
Governor DeSantis, the governor of Florida told Trump on Tuesday, April 28, 2020, that had he had over 6,000 ventilators “unused” in the state.
Trump said that some ventilators would be sent to “not only allies but countries that need help,” Trump added. “We’re talking about a lot of countries that need help.
Other countries to receive ventilators include Indonesia, Ethiopia, El Salvador Etc

However, the ventilator shortfalls the governors and the media predicted never materialized. According to projections from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, New York, the worst-hit state in the US has already hit its coronavirus peak

CONCLUSION

The United States can afford to send ventilators to Nigeria. It has enough ventilators to share to Nations that need it. It is a true claim