So much dedication is on display, beginning with the brave work of doctors, nurses and first responders caring for highly contagious patients. Then there are the hospital, office and public cleaning crews risking their health to fight Covid-19. What also catches attention is the aggressive burst of energy from American medical companies pursuing coronavirus tests, treatments, vaccines and cures.
Two months ago, Covid-19 was a mystery ailment that had infected hundreds of people in central China. On Monday, Johnson & Johnson said it would begin human testing of a vaccine in September that could be ready for emergency use in early 2021.
Two weeks ago, General Motors was idling its Kokomo, Ind., plant as part of the broad shutdown of US industry to fend off the virus. GM is now working 24/7 to turn the Kokomo facility that manufactures electrical parts for cars into a ventilator assembly line in collaboration with Ventec Life Systems, a medical instrument company. Ventec normally makes 200 toaster-sized ventilators a month. With GM’s manufacturing and supply chain know-how, executives think they can ramp up to 20,000 units a month, according to a New York Times report. That’s ingenuity for which GM says it seeks only to recoup costs.
Not that there’s anything wrong with profits. Medical companies such as Abbott are built to discover cures and treatments. They take the financial risks and when their investments pan out, they stand to earn the reward.
Abbott is ramping up production of its Covid-19 test to 50,000 units a day to be allocated first to front-line workers. But that’s just the start. “We have multiple R&D teams at work” on a variety of different coronavirus tests, including a version that can operate like a pregnancy test, Abbott CEO Miles White told CNBC. “All of those are a matter of weeks to a couple of months away.”
Government leaders and health officials carry the primary responsibility for combating Covid-19 in Illinois. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot closed the lakefront to enforce social distancing rules. Governor JB Pritzker initiated the conversion of a backup field hospital at McCormick Place. These are extraordinary efforts.
What has been more challenging for Pritzker and other governors in the US is obtaining enough disposable masks, gloves and other privately manufactured hospital gear to treat patients.
Pritzker and others have called on President Donald Trump to use his power under the federal Defence Production Act to require numerous companies to supply governments with gear. Perhaps that will become necessary, but as of there doesn’t seem to be widespread resistance from manufacturers. Quite the opposite. When Trump said last week that he had ordered GM to work on ventilators, the company responded that it already had been working around the clock for a week.
The coronavirus pandemic is a fast-evolving crisis. The federal government has an important role to play in purchasing and distributing equipment, but so do the states.
That will be the only way to defeat Covid-19 – a total effort by all. – Tribune News Service