More O2 to Slash COVID Deaths in Poor Countries

WASHINGTON - Jan. 25, 2021 - PRLog -- An acute shortage of oxygen is causing untold deaths from COVID as patients literally suffocate, especially in poorer countries, but there is a solution which can work in many cases, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf, who helped popularize and get governmental approval for another technique to help COVID sufferers who need assistance breathing to remain alive.

According to the Wall Street Journal: "As Covid-19 cases increase sharply in much of the world, a scarcity of oxygen is forcing hospitals to ration it for patients and is driving up the coronavirus pandemic's death toll."

Yet, although medical-grade oxygen delivered in large cylinders is best, small inexpensive portable oxygen generators (or concentrators) may provide a partial solution, at least in the initial phases of the disease, and as a backup when pure oxygen is simply not available.

The problem is also occurring in developed countries, and the solution may be the same.

For example, oxygen is also reportedly in short supply in South Africa, where a typical oxygen generator costs about $2,700 U.S.

But in the U.S., oxygen generators which can provide oxygen indefinitely, and which can be operated from a 12-volt battery, can be ordered for about $400 U.S. retail.

Also CPAP, BiPAP, and similar breathing machines have now been approved for use in treating COVID-19 patients, and have been shown to be effective in many cases.

Banzhaf, an MIT-educated engineer and inventor, was one of the first to suggest and widely promote the concept of using these comparatively simple and much less expensive devices in many situations in which a COVID-19 patient required respiratory assistance to remain alive, but did not necessarily need a modern hospital ventilator.

This dramatic expansion to the arsenal of weapons against the deadly virus is very important, says Banzhaf, because:
* ventilators are in short supply while there are millions of existing CPAP machines, in homes and in medical warehouses, with some no longer needed;
* hospitals are able to afford many more CPAPs (at about $850) than ventilators ($25K-50K), especially since there is little use for the latter once COVID-19 peak demand ceases;
* people are readily donating CPAP machines which are no longer needed, something Banzhaf originally suggested in a TV interview;
* many CPAP machines can be powered by 12-volt electricity, so they can be used wherever there is a vehicle or vehicle battery, even if electric power in the region is spotty, intermittent, or even unavailable.

For more information about using CPAP devices to help treat COVID-19 patients in respiratory distress, please see http://banzhaf.net/by/COVID.html

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