President Donald Trump praised General Motors for its efforts to produce ventilators during a press conference on Sunday. The remark came days after he lambasted the automaker over how much it was asking for the devices and how long it would take to produce them.
GM is working with Ventec Medical Inc. to produce one of its critical ventilator devices, which will be shipped to New York and other parts of the country where the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the hardest. The automaker is currently converting its components plant in Kokomo, Indiana to produce the ventilators and says the facility will have a production capacity of more than 10,000 ventilators per month “with the infrastructure and capability to scale further.”
In a tweet published Thursday, Trump criticized GM for claiming that it was able to provide “40,000 much needed ventilators, ‘very quickly’,” before allegedly walking back those claims to say it will “only be 6000, in late April, and they want top dollar.” He then threatened to invoke the Defense Production Act, which would enable him to force GM or any other company to fulfill orders deemed necessary for national defense – in this case making ventilators.
Later that day, GM laid out its complete plan to produce the Ventec ventilators at the Kokomo facility and also produce FDA-cleared Level 1 surgical masks at its manufacturing plant in Warren, Michigan. In a statement, GM CEO Mary Barra said the COVID-19 pandemic has “rallied the GM enterprise and our global supply base to support Ventec, and the teams are working together with incredible passion and commitment.”
“I am proud of this partnership as we work together to address urgent and life-saving needs,” Barra added,
GM says its FDA-cleared ventilators are scheduled to start shipping by mid-April. Ford has also partnered with GE to produce ventilators, however the Dearborn-based company is not expected to start churning out the devices until June.
GM has been working at a rapid pace behind the scenes to quickly set up and scale production of the Ventec ventilators, Gerald Johnson, the automaker’s global vice president of manufacturing, told Automotive News in an interview.
“The speed has been challenging,” Johnson said. “But we know it will save thousands of lives. Making cars is cool, but it doesn’t compare to what we’re doing.”
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Source: Automotive News
Comments
must’ve been that call to steroid boy alex rodriguez that made the difference.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2020/03/28/donald-trump-called-alex-rodriguez-over-coronavirus-pandemic/2932659001/
Only from the mind of a goldfish.
Does this mean trump fans can only drive their GM vehicle on even numbered days?
I think everyone should just switch to Buick. On even numbered days it’s a GM vehicle. The rest of the time no one knows who makes Buick.
Huh and it was reported GM was dragging their behinds… when it is Ford that isn’t going to have ventilators until JUNE! SMH this is really disappointing news Ford!
reality it takes time to set up line and train workers. Any product made will take time. Period. I hope this is bringing to light that it is a national security issue that far too few if any critical medical products are made in the usa.
My baby spent 2 months in the NICU. Had plenty of time to read anything that was around. Almost all the medical gear is made abroad. Obama care made it worse because it slapped a medical equipment tax.
Why wasn’t the national flu alert system modernized after SARS ravaged asia.
Obama was busy spending money and resources fighting Ebola in Africa. A disease that has no chance of being a major issue in the USA (you have to hug a dead or infected persons body) In fact the democrats were holding the stimulus are recovery bill hostage over a $5.5 billion dollar slush fund for africa. American are out of work and dieing and they are worried about africa not the usa
Did not vote for trump. He doing only ok job but the democrats are bat crap crazy. They have become the anti-american party. Pro third world party
Pretty much agree with everything you said… except I believe Trump is doing about as good a job as can be done, particularly with the media and some politicians fanning the flames.
With that said, my point still stands. First I was disappointed to read that it looked as though GM was playing games and leveraging the crisis. Now (perhaps after the federal coercion) they are reporting the first shipment of ventilators will leave the factory in two weeks. That is an incredible turnabout and their ventilators will now arrive in time for the anticipated apex. There is an essence of urgency and, frankly, patriotism in GM’s results.
To say “reality it takes time to set up line and train workers” is an axiom and applies to both GM and Ford. The fact that it will take Ford months and GM a mere two weeks before product is shipping is what I was referring to in my comment you replied to.
Meaning, the irony is the reports were inverted and Ford is the ones dragging a$$ while GM appears to be all over this a la WWII.
One minute he trashes GM for not making them fast enough, the next minute they are “doing a fantastic job”. He really has no idea wtf hes talking about as usual.
Maybe trump is just getting his period.
He has a comma now!
President Trump owes the people at Ventec and GM a public apology for not understanding the complexity of launching a “new” product as quickly as they did.
Trump is far from perfect , but do you really want the loons on the left running this country???? Think about the clown car of pathetic Dems that wanted to be in charge. I’ll stick with the devil I know anyday.
The left in this country is committed to 1.Open borders 2.full blown marxism 3. Sucking dick