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Elon Musk's ventilator fiasco shows need for more oversight of Gavin Newsom's mask deal

By The Sacramento Bee Editorial Board - Apr 14, 2020

File:Tesla Visit 3 (9267529364).jpg

 

Image courtesy of Windell Oskay

 

On March 23, Gov. Gavin Newsom made a dramatic announcement: Tesla founder Elon Musk was donating over 1,000 ventilators to California.

It seemed like miraculous news at a moment when the state was desperately searching for ventilators to help save critical coronavirus patients. But was it true?

Newsom’s office now says Musk was supposed to deliver the ventilators directly to hospitals. So far, however, the governor’s office says no California hospital has received them.

It’s also not clear whether Musk actually has any ventilators to give. A report by the Financial Times’ Alphaville column revealed that Musk had purchased Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure (BPAP) machines, which he then plastered with Tesla stickers and shipped to New York.

But BPAP machines, which are used to treat sleep apnea, are not the “invasive” type of ventilators needed to help COVID-19 patients. Even worse, the FT reported that “The American Society of Anesthesiologists on Feb. 23 issued guidance warning that CPAP and BPAP machines ‘may increase the risk of infectious transmission.’”

A real ventilator can cost up to $50,000, according to the FT. The machines Musk supplied cost $800. On April 7, the FT wrote that Musk now appears to have delivered at least one “invasive” ventilator to New York.
 
So, millions of Californians heard the governor announce Musk’s heroic donation of “ventilators.” Yet not one unit has been delivered – and Musk likely never had the real ventilators our hospitals need.

Tesla did not respond to an interview request.

The Musk debacle shows why the California State Legislature must nail down the details of Newsom’s billion-dollar plan to buy 400 million masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) items needed to slow the coronavirus’ spread. Newsom made national headlines when he announced the plan on The Rachel Maddow Show last week. He also surprised his counterparts in the Legislature, most of whom learned of the deal from MSNBC.

“It would be great to get a heads-up directly from the governor’s office rather than watching it on national TV,” Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, who chairs the Assembly Budget Committee, told Politico.
 
State Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, has written Newsom’s finance director a letter demanding full details on the big mask deal. Among Mitchell’s questions:
 
▪ What are the performance standards required of the vendor and the manufacturer?
 
▪ What’s the price per mask?
 
▪ What quality standards will the masks be required to meet?
 
▪ What are the production and delivery timelines?
 
Mitchell, who co-chairs the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, also requested regular updates on the delivery of the supplies and urged the governor’s office to take extra steps to ensure transparency.
 
“In light of the massive spending commitments made for PPE and other medical equipment, I request that the Administration launch, no later than early next week, a regularly updated webpage that describes the state’s inventory of each major type of equipment and the destinations of each outgoing shipment, including quantities shipped by county, city, and categories of users including health facilities and other essential workers,” wrote Mitchell.
 
The website is a great idea, and it should be a no-brainer for Newsom, who in 2013 authored a book called “Citizenville: How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government.”
 
“Transparency is also the biggest way to combat one of the biggest problems our country faces today: the special-interest money that’s corrupting politics all across America,” wrote Newsom.
 
Great point. Whenever the government puts a billion dollars on the table, the corrupt lick their chops. Proper vetting, and full transparency in real-time, is the best defense against malfeasance.
 
No one can blame Newsom for doing everything possible to secure the equipment California needs to lower COVID-19’s death toll. But he also has a responsibility to be honest and transparent. His failure to set the record straight on Musk’s apparently empty ventilator promise – after grandly announcing it – erodes trust.
 
It’s understandable that the governor wishes to innovate and disrupt – to “move fast and break things,” as they say in Silicon Valley. But Newsom hurried to get in front of the TV cameras without worrying about the details, making his big Musk announcement look more like a case of “move fast and fake things.”
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