Tesla’s ventilators attract controversy after hospitals say they are not ventilators

Contrary to Tesla CEO and Founder Elon Musk’s claim the company had delivered more than 1,000 ventilators to hospitals in California to help treat COVID-19 coronavirus patients, some of these facilities informed that what they received were not really the highly sought-after machines.

Musk showed a list of hospitals to which the company sent the “ventilators”.

But four of the hospital told CNN that what they got were bilevel positive airway pressure (biPAP) and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines, not ventilators.

The news came after California Governor Gavin Newsom on said on Thursday that the state’s hospitals did not receive the ventilators promised by Elon Musk last month.

Although they do help with breathing, biPAPs and CPAPs are not the same as ventilators and the cost of these machines are less compared to that of ventilators.

While a CPAP machine costs about $500, and a biPAPs about $1,200, cost of one ventilator ranges between $20,000 and $50,000, a CNN report noted on Friday.

In a letter to healthcare providers on March 22, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) suggested that CPAP, auto-CPAP, and BiPAP machines generally used for treatment of sleep apnea (either in the home or facility setting) may be used to lend support to COVID-19 patients with respiratory inadequacy provided appropriate monitoring and patient condition.

About 759,786 people in the US have been confirmed as being infected with the coronavirus. The virus has killed 40,683 people in the country.