How did 45 Russian ventilators linked to deaths in Russia reach U.S. with no FDA oversight?

[xeni]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/05/22/how-did-45-russian-ventilators.html

Kremlin sent 45 Aventa-M ventilators to the United States after Trump and Putin call

[lava]

well, did these mother fuckers kill anybody? Thats what we want to know, or were these death machines headed off along the way?

[anon48584343]

Businessmen don’t need no FDA getting in the way Xeni.

Baddaboom.

[StatusQuo]

This appears to be some international ventilator laundering scheme. Russia sends US defective ventilators. US sends working ventilators back - plus cash. If anybody knows how to play this game, it’s Cheetolini

U.S. Sends Ventilators To Russia In $5.6 Million Coronavirus Aid Package

[bb4me]

forget ventilators, I bet you think the medication you are getting at the pharmacy is regulated and checked for safety

(hint: it’s not, it’s made in factories that are never inspected, many overseas in india, etc, generics might not even be what they are supposed to be or at the proper dosage)

[rocketpj]

Is it some dark joke by Putin that the sent 45? Not 44 (Obama), 43 (GWB), certainly not 47 (Cortez).

But 45, 45 ventilators.

[StatusQuo]

Is it some dark joke by Putin that the sent 45? Not 44 (Obama), 43 (GWB), certainly not 47 (Cortez).

But 45, 45 ventilators.

You gotta know it was trump being coy when this deal went down.

[AlsoDiana]

How did 45 Russian ventilators linked to deaths in Russia reach U.S. with no FDA oversight?

A: They didn’t, they arrived with reduced oversight.

Remember:

• at the time governors were screaming for more ventilators

• at the time Boing Boing was promoting rapid novel and DYI ventilator designs
  (e.g.: FB group forms to open-source development of coronavirus-related medical hardware, MIT designs a $100 ventilator for those who can't afford to buy the $30,000 version, Vacuum and hand dryer maker Dyson designed a new ventilator for COVID-19 patients, Italian hospital needed an $11K part for its ventilators, volunteers 3D printed them at $1 each, original manufacturer threatened to sue

• this was a design that was in production, approved by FDA-equivalent regulators of other nations

Also note that:

• The manufacturer of the problem ventilator had increased production by a factor of 10 from the normal output.

• The fires where this ventilator is suspected happened after they were offered and shipped to the USA, so no-one knew that these were potentially defective hazardous units at the time.

And finally:

• These ventilators were in excess of actual need on this occasion, so they were not in fact used for patients

[KathyPartdeux]

Because neither Trump nor Putin care if Americans die.

[anothernewbbaccount]

In America, Russian ventilators breathe you.

[anon59592690]

[MadLibrarian]

Another thing I was unable to determine: did the ventilators happen to end up in the blue states most vocally against President Rage Mango, like New York and California?

[Otachi]

Ok, so every single one of those ventilators will be removed from hospitals and destroyed, right?

[dontpanicbobby]

@AlsoDiana Way to kill a perfectly good joke. Damn facts ruin everything.

[reallySorryAboutThat]

Betteridge’s law of headlines is an adage that states: “Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no”.

Except of course, when the question is “did the Rooskies do X”, in which case the preferred answer is, and always has been “yes”, “to arms, citizens”, and “what did those fuckers do now”?