Musk Cops Out On Tesla Making Ventilators, Buys Them From China Instead

Man, Elon Musk and China sure are getting along very well over the last couple years…

Not just content with trying to get some good PR by sticking his nose into another humanitarian crisis (after failing to fix the Flint Water crisis, the Thai Cave rescue, etc.), Musk has now thrust himself into the middle of the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic. 

But only after he downplayed the severity of the virus weeks ago – before the infection and death numbers in the U.S. went through the roof. Then, ostensibly realizing that the virus was getting the best of his PR efforts, Musk claimed that Tesla was going to to make ventilators. 

This chart, by Twitter user @EVdefender, lays out exactly how Musk has humiliated himself so far responding to the virus publicly.

(Source: @EVDefender)

“We’re working on ventilators, even though I think there will not be a shortage by the time we can make enough to matter,” Musk had previously said, suggesting that Tesla was going to be making ventilators at some point. 

And Musk reportedly delivered 1,000 ventilators to Los Angeles, Governor Gavin Newsom said Monday. Except instead of making them, as claimed, Musk bought the ventilators from China and had them shipped to the U.S.

“China had an oversupply, so we bought 1255 FDA-approved ResMed, Philips & Medtronic ventilators on Friday night & airshipped them to LA,” Musk said on Twitter.

But hey, to Musk’s credit, it’s better than the U.S. not having them. And at least he isn’t trying to engineer his own…

“Carmakers have cautioned that assembling delicate medical equipment to standards adequate for use in hospital intensive care units remains a challenge,” Reuters reported.

There’s this place called Shanghai…