The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a global “demand for literally hundreds of thousands of machines, when global production usually runs to maybe a few thousand a month,” he said, adding that Medtronic already has doubled its ventilator production and is aiming to triple it in the coming weeks.
“Our company manufacturers thousands of products,” he said. “Ventilators are just one of those products, and this is an emergency situation. We have many other products that we sell for profit.”
The Simon Wiesenthal Center tweeted in response to the announcement: “G-d bless Israel’s Medtronic and its CEO Yaron Yitzhari for releasing its patents and sharing the know-how for its ventilators to help save countless lives worldwide!”
According to TechCrunch, Medtronic announced on March 30 that it is releasing the design specifications of its Puritan Bennett (PB) 560 portable ventilator to help meet the global demand.
Also on Wednesday, a team of more than 40 Israeli volunteer physicians, engineers and students released their blueprints for ventilators made from off-the-shelf components, under the name AmboVent.
This article first appeared in the Jewish Journal.
(JNS)
{Matzav.com}