Some hospitals are reportedly considering using veterinary ventilators to address coronavirus shortage

Governors and hospitals across the United States are pulling out all the stops and looking wherever they can to find supplies in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

Rhonda Medows, the president of population health at Providence St. Joseph Health, a chain of hospitals and clinics based in Seattle that operates in seven different states, told The Washington Post the health system is looking into requesting veterinary ventilators normally used to treat large animals. The request could help prepare for the number of COVID-19 patients they need to treat, since they likely won't have enough designed for humans.

"We have Third World countries who are better equipped than we are now in Seattle," she told the Post. "For weeks we have been asking the federal government to compel manufacturers to produce more [personal protective equipment] because we knew from our own modeling that there would be a serious shortfall."

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So far, President Trump has resisted calls to invoke the Defense Production Act because he said enough companies have voluntarily agreed to produce supplies already, an argument that hasn't proved satisfactory for many states and hospitals searching for equipment. Read more at The Washington Post.