White House Gets Cold Feet Over $1B Price Tag For Ventilators From GM Even As Hospitals Plead For Supplies

The New York Times: Trump Administration Pulls Back From $1 Billion Coronavirus Ventilator Deal
The White House had been preparing to reveal on Wednesday a joint venture between General Motors and Ventec Life Systems that would allow for the production of as many as 80,000 desperately needed ventilators to respond to an escalating pandemic when word suddenly came down that the announcement was off. The decision to cancel the announcement, government officials say, came after the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it needed more time to assess whether the estimated cost was prohibitive. That price tag was more than $1 billion, with several hundred million dollars to be paid upfront to General Motors to retool a car parts plant in Kokomo, Ind., where the ventilators would be made with Ventec’s technology. (Sanger, Haberman and Kanno-Youngs, 3/26)

The Hill: White House Balks At $1 Billion Price Tag For General Motors, Ventec To Produce Ventilators: Reports
The deal, which had been slated to be announced Wednesday, was projected to produce up to 80,000 ventilators for distribution to health facilities in dire need of critical resources amid the coronavirus pandemic. However, the Trump administration reportedly hesitated after the manufacturers said that the production would cost $1 billion, and asked for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to assess whether or not the price tag was too expensive. (Moreno, 3/26)

Politico: Trump: I Don't Believe You Really Need That Many Ventilators
Speaking with Sean Hannity on Fox News on Thursday night, Trump again minimized the impact of the global coronavirus pandemic, casting doubt on the need for tens of thousands of ventilators for hospitals responding to the crisis. “I have a feeling that a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than they’re going to be,” he said. “I don't believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You go into major hospitals sometimes, and they’ll have two ventilators. And now all of a sudden they’re saying, ‘Can we order 30,000 ventilators?’” (Choi, 3/26)

Politico: White House Officials Push Back On Calls To Activate DPA For Critical Medical Supplies
As state leaders across the country call on the federal government to activate the Defense Production Act, White House officials continue to push back — instead insisting that companies have stepped up to provide the dire medical equipment needed to tackle the coronavirus pandemic across the U.S. On Tuesday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it ultimately did not need to use the DPA to secure medical equipment, walking back on an announcement made by the head of the agency earlier that morning. (Ward, 3/26)

The New York Times: ‘The Other Option Is Death’: New York Starts Sharing Of Ventilators
A New York hospital system has begun treating two patients instead of one on some ventilators, a desperate measure that could help alleviate a shortage of the critical breathing machines and help hospitals around the country respond to the surge of coronavirus patients expected in the coming weeks. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, began “ventilator sharing” this week, said Dr. Laureen Hill, chief operating officer at the Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center system. Doctors have developed protocols for the maneuver and now are rapidly scaling it up while also sharing their methods with the federal and state governments and other hospitals. (Rosenthal, Pinkowski and Goldstein, 3/26)

ABC News: New York Approves Ventilator Splitting, Allowing Hospitals To Treat Two Patients With One Machine
New York hospitals can now attempt to treat two coronavirus patients with a single ventilator, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Thursday, a move that could help the state make better use of its scarce supply of lifesaving breathing machines as the outbreak continues to surge. New York-Presbyterian Hospital has developed a split-ventilation protocol that has been shared with the New York State Department of Health, which quickly approved the practice. (Siegel, 3/26)

The Hill: Severe Ventilator Shortage Sparks Desperate Scramble
U.S. hot spots in the coronavirus pandemic are facing a shortage of ventilators, and it's not clear how or even if the need can be met. Manufacturers are scrambling to ramp up their production as states, the federal government and countries all over the world clamor for the machines, which are needed to allow seriously ill coronavirus patients to breathe. Without enough ventilators, health care workers are forced into agonizing decisions when rationing life-saving machines. (Sullivan, 3/26)

Politico: New Jersey Officials Planning For Possibility Of Rationing Ventilators
New Jersey officials are beginning to discuss the “haunting” possibility that hospitals may soon have to decide which patients critically ill with coronavirus get ventilators and which do not. Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said during a press conference with Gov. Phil Murphy on Thursday that the Medical Society of New Jersey is putting together an advisory committee that will, among other things, address “the bioethical considerations of the availability of particularly life-saving modalities like ventilators.” (Friedman, 3/26)

Los Angeles Times: Amid Coronavirus, Doctors Face Hard Choices Over Ventilators
The coronavirus will attack so many people’s lungs that thousands could show up at hospitals gasping for air and will need to be hooked up to machines that breathe for them. But there won’t be enough ventilators for everyone, forcing doctors to make impossible calls about which lives to save. “You have an 80-year-old and a 20-year-old and both need a vent and you only have one. What do you do?” said Dr. Christopher Colwell, the chief of emergency medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center. (Karlamangla, Ryan, Stiles and Baumgaertner, 3/26)

CNN: Coronavirus Pandemic: Hospitals Mull Changes To Do-Not-Resuscitate Situations 
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to sweep the United States, some hospitals are considering whether to make changes to policies and practices when it comes to do-not-resuscitate situations. Such conversations come as hospitals brace for a surge of patients, despite dwindling supplies of personal protective equipment for doctors and ventilators for seriously ill patients. (Howard, Bruer and Christensen, 3/26)

Meanwhile, as for alternative solutions —

Kaiser Health News: Not So Fast Using CPAPs In Place Of Ventilators. They Could Spread The Coronavirus.
The limited supply of ventilators is one of the chief concerns facing hospitals as they prepare for more COVID-19 cases. In Italy, where hospitals have been overwhelmed with patients in respiratory failure, doctors have had to make difficult life-or-death decisions about who gets a ventilator and who does not. In the U.S., emergency plans developed by states for a shortage of ventilators include using positive airway pressure machines — like those used to treat sleep apnea — to help hospitalized people with less severe breathing issues. (Hawryluk, 3/27)

ABC News: How Anesthesia Machines Can Help Hospitals With Ventilator Shortages Fight Coronavirus 
Anticipating ongoing shortages of ventilator machines as the coronavirus continues to spread across the country, states and hospitals are preparing to convert anesthesia machines for use on COVID-19 patients in need of breathing assistance. The effort to utilize anesthesia gas machines, approved by the Food and Drug Administration earlier this week, could make tens of thousands of additional machines available for the fight against the coronavirus. (Siegel, 3/27)