California Gov. Gavin Newsom confirmed Saturday that Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla have repurposed their manufacturing processes to produce ventilators, much-needed in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak.
On Friday, Musk tweeted that his companies were making ventilators, though he thought they would not be needed:
Yes, we’re working on ventilators, even though I think they probably won’t be needed
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 20, 2020
Yeah, SpaceX is working on ventilators too
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 20, 2020
Just had a long engineering discussion with Medtronic about state-of-the-art ventilators. Very impressive team!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 21, 2020
Newsom confirmed Saturday that Tesla and SpaceX were producing ventilators, as were Apple and controversial fuel cell manufacturer Bloom Energy. Politico reported:
Days after cryptically alluding to an unnamed tech executive who had offered help in manufacturing needed medical equipment, Newsom confirmed that Musk — the founder of California-based Tesla and SpaceX — is “working overtime” to produce ventilators. Musk pledged to procure 250,000 masks, Newsom said, while Apple CEO Cook committed to providing 1 million.
Newsom, speaking at a press conference, said those are two instances in an outpouring of support from the private and nonprofit sectors. He noted that Bloom Energy CEO KR Sridhar is repurposing ventilators, universities have offered up space and sports teams had conveyed that “you want our arena? You can have our arena.”
“It’s ennobling and it makes you feel like we truly can meet this moment,” Newsom said.
Musk drew attention — and criticism — for calling the “panic” over coronavirus “dumb,” though he is responding to the demand for medical equipment.
Musk has been in Texas for several months, focusing on speeding up the manufacture of his “Starship” rockets, which he hopes will one day ferry passengers to Mars.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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