Trump stops deal for Bothell's Ventec to produce ventilators
Bothell-based Ventec Life Systems was at the center of a national storm late Thursday when it was reported the Trump administration pulled back from a deal for the company and General Motors to begin producing what one supplier said would soon be “up to 20,000” life-saving ventilators a month.
The “Project V” deal, brewing since last week in response to the coronavirus crisis, would have launched in early April at the automaker’s electronics assembly plant in Kokomo, Indiana, and taken Ventec from a monthly production capacity of 250 to more than 1,000 during a ramp-up phase. By May, the goal was several thousand more machines in what one source close to the process — who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly — described as a “historic” effort to rapidly meet escalating demands as hospitals become overwhelmed by patients with COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
The deal was to have been announced Wednesday, but by Thursday afternoon the source indicated the federal government might be delaying the rollout. By Thursday night, the New York Times, quoting unnamed government officials, reported the Federal Emergency Management Agency wanted more time to assess whether the $1 billion price tag for the venture was prohibitive.
Those officials said the deal isn’t dead, but the government is weighing “a dozen or more” other proposals and questioning whether the 20,000 monthly target is reachable. Multiple sources familliar with the situation, requesting anonymity, later confirmed to The Seattle Times that the Trump administration had indeed delayed the Wednesday announcement.
https://www.heraldnet.com/news/trump-stops-deal-for-bothells-ventec-to-produce-ventilators/?utm_source=DAILY+HERALD&utm_campaign=975bc7dc4a-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d81d073bb4-975bc7dc4a-228635337
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It’s as if he wants there to be less ventilators and more people dying
The owner should just make the damn things and they will be put to use and someone will pay them whether it's the fed admin or the state or some philanthropist (ahem, calling Mr. Gates) could swoop in and usurp the evil plan.
