New York Can’t Wait Until June for Ventilators
Ford is partnering with GE to make ventilators, but without more direct federal intervention, the effort will take too long and likely fall short.
“You cannot buy them, you cannot find them.”
Photographer: Bloomberg
Ford Motor Co. announced a three-pronged effort on Tuesday to help the U.S. bolster its supply of life-saving medical equipment needed to combat the coronavirus. Even as its North American factories remain shuttered for traditional car-making work, Ford is partnering with General Electric Co. to scale up production of that company’s ventilators; it’s working with 3M Co. to manufacture respirators; and its United Auto Workers employees will assemble more than 100,000 plastic face shields a week. It was an impressive show of goodwill, especially for a company whose bloated balance sheet places it among those most vulnerable from a looming, sharp economic downturn.
And it’s not going to be enough.