Ventilators are being cranked out at an alarming rate, several countries have started making them domestically. Even though the requirement turned out to be less than feared back in early March, production is continuing.
What’s going to happen to them post-pandemic. I get places that already had a shortage prior to the outbreak will use these to come up to par, but what about everyone else?
At this rate, in 2022 they will be putting people on vents for hay fever (sarcasm).
Some will go into storage, and others will be sent to underserved areas (i.e. Third World countries).
You do realize that there are several open-source ventilator designs being made in the Third world?
They will become the next big thing in trendy Cannabis Bars. 
Many African nations have few if any respirators, and given the likelihood that the SARS-CoV-2 virus (as well as other respiratory viruses, and of course the seasonal outbreaks of influenza) will likely be around for the foreseeable future, it would make sense for those nations to have stockpiles as well, or at least stocks available for developed nations and NGOs such as the International Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders to be able to access and ship to those in need… Of course, they also need medical personnel trained in ICU support and anesthesiology, as well as a supply of drugs, but the at least having respirators makes treatment possible. And as this pandemic has made clear, even developed nations have not maintained an adequate stockpile of medical equipment, so putting respirators into storage ensures that they’ll be there for the next epidemic, even if they will probably need refurbishment.
Those are intended to be constructed quickly from 3D printed materials and available parts, but they are not really designed for long term use. These are basically a stopgap so that fewer decisions have to be made about not putting someone on a respirator, but they aren’t what you would choose to use if you had a more reliable option available.
Stranger
Some will sit in closets. I have half a dozen old PCs knocking around the house. Easter island is covered with those weird statues that must have been very costly to make. The world is full of stuff that was valuable and desired and now isn’t in demand.
But I expect we’ll have use for them for a few years before that happens.
What is the shelf life of a ventilator in storage?
They may be carelessly be left around for years, and when we need them again, we will find they are old, corroded, the plastic parts decomposed, and unserviceable.
To avoid this, we need to be continually manufacturing a steady supply, and cycling out the old ones, replacing them in storage with new ones. If they aren’t actually being used, it will be a steady on-going waste.
…there is, of course a process for maintaining ventilators that are stored in the stockpile. But (in the US) the contract to maintain those ventilators lapsedlast year, so thousands of them stopped working.
As to what to do with excess ventilators? Well we’ve known for a very long time that the stockpiles in the event of a 1918-like pandemic were too low. So increasing the stockpiles *now *is as good a time as any. Just keep them maintained and be ready for next time.
With the demand to end all quarantine/shelter-in-place, I’m expecting another wave of infection, and it could include the gigantic surge that didn’t occur initially because of the shelter-in-place.
There is talk now that recovery from an initial COVID-19 infection may not create lifetime immunity.
Don’t consign the ventilators to shipping containers yet.
~VOW
I suppose they’d come in handy during the second phase of COVID-19. We’re still in the first phase. While over in Asia and Europe they are going thru their 2nd phase. With all these Trump supporters attending these “Catch the Virus” rallies we’re sure gonna need them.
Second and more waves are pretty much a given as part of this pandemic (unless the asymptomatic infection rate is high enough and effective immune response last long enough to provide the protection of herd immunity). Actually the biggest concern right now is running low on anesthetics and people experienced in ICU supportive care. But once this pandemic is over, we need to be thinking in terms of being prepared for the next epidemic outbreak, and that includes having supplies and equipment readily available to fight an outbreak where it stands. There is, of course, a widespread tuberculosis epidemic in India, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan, and probably uncounted in many African nations due to poor disease surveillance systems in Africa.
But the real question is what can be done to prevent people from getting bad enough to require respiration support to begin with, because the prognosis at that stage is not good.
Stranger
Baseline pandemic preparedness is supposed to include the Strategic National Reserve, inclusive of ventilators, federally managed, regionally located, and maintained for potential emergency use. For a variety of reasons the stockpile was not well stocked (and that falls more on many iterations of Congress than on this current president alone). It will be stocked for a while now, I guess.
According to Presidential Advisor Jared Kushner, the Strategic National Reserve belongs to the FEDS, not the STATES. So, the states better get their collective rears in gear and start their own stockpiles!
May I suggest two stockpiles each: the first with functioning equipment, regularly tested and maintained, and the second with all the busted stuff leftover from COVID-19. The second stockpile would be offered to the Federal government, if it puts out the call for ventilators.
deadpan look
~VOW
I will also point out that there are a lot of places in the US (and WW) that did not have enough ventilators for routine use before all of this started. Let’s get everyone fully stocked for normal usage and then talk about stockpiles.
What I heard this is exactly why Taiwan was prepared. They went thru SARS and had all this equipment left over.
Worst case scenario: we scrap them. So what? We scrap a lot of military equipment when a war stops. You produce what you need to handle the crisis. You don’t worry about having excess supplies when the crisis is over.
We’ll lose a lot of ventilators on the way, and not everyone is recovering completely so some of the ventilators will be in use for a long time. Older units are already breaking down, parts will break and be difficult to replace. A year from now many more will not be worth fixing among all the other clean up operations. Make shift models won’t be saved, and some will seem obsolete in comparison to new units produced. When we have seen the last case of COVID-19, and the stock of usable ventilators ends up distributed around the world, it won’t seem like there is much of an excess.
It’s like asking what people are going to do with all the toilet paper they’ve stockpiled. At some point, they’ll use it.
I don’t think that’s a good comparison. Toilet paper is a product that gets consumed. If your produce an excessive amount of it, you can store it, consume your current supply, and then use the stored excess rather than produce more.
But ventilators are a product that gets used rather than consumed. A person uses a ventilator and then it gets passed on to another person to use. So the maximum amount of ventilators you need is the number of people who are using one at any given time.
We have lots of stuff that’s eventually retired. I tend not to throw things out, so my house is full of old computers we haven’t used in years, I have a number of old cell phones, none of which actually died (or I would have thrown them out) but I upgraded them. There’s a hedge clipper in the garage that I guess must have been my dad’s? And as a society, we knock down old houses when people want different things in houses, most TVs get replaced because the owned wants something bigger and fancier, etc.
There’s nothing at all unusual in making stuff that we want NOW even if we don’t expect to want it forever, or even for it’s expected lifetime.