https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2020/03/22/u-of-m-cardiac-anesthesia-fellow-creates-simple-cheaper-ventilator/
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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — As spread of COVID-19 continues throughout the country, demand for medical ventilators could skyrocket.

Many are already expressing concerns about potential shortages, but there’s a doctor at the University of Minnesota who says he just created a simpler, cheaper ventilator that could save lives.

Related: Coronavirus Resources

Univeristy of Minnesota Anesthesiology fellow Dr. Steve Richardson started work on his ventilator last Sunday, sourcing equipment and resources from biomedical engineer friends and other private companies.

Within hours of starting, Richardson finished a simple, effective prototype that he is now perfecting.

Though the U.S. health care system is projected to be overwhelmed by an influx of patients infected with the novel coronavirus, the pressure on hospitals will vary dramatically across the country. That’s according to new data released by the Harvard Global Health Institute, which for the first time gives a sense of which regions will be particularly stressed and should be preparing most aggressively right now. The maps we’ve created based on the data shows why public health officials are so intent on “flattening the curve,” or slowing the spread of infections over a longer period of time, like 18 months instead of six.

One great unknown about the coronavirus pandemic currently circling the globe is how it will respond as the weather gets warmer.

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There’s been suggestive evidence on this front for some time. Iran, which accounts for about 90% of coronavirus cases in the Middle East, is unique in the region for mostly sitting on a plateau where winter conditions resemble those of more northerly countries. At the same time, some Southeast Asian nations with close business and tourism links to China have seen surprisingly few cases, even if you assume their less developed public health systems are missing infections. Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines have each seen fewer cases than Estonia, Slovenia or Iceland, despite a combined population more than 100 times as large.

A study uploaded to medical pre-print server MedRxiv Monday plots recorded cases against climate conditions to suggest that there is indeed a significant correlation between outbreaks and the weather. In extreme cold and very hot and wet conditions the virus is “largely absent,” the researchers from Spain, Portugal and Finland wrote, meaning that people in tropical and polar climates are unlikely to see local transmission of cases.

Arid regions will see a higher rate of infections but the worst-hit areas will be temperate countries and high-altitude areas closer to the equator. The period between June and September should see a slowing rate of infections in much of Europe and North America, they wrote, although areas closer to the poles in Scandinavia, Russia and Canada may see worsening conditions as the climate warms enough to support local infections.

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