Butzel Long attorney Jennifer Dukarski quoted in Politico article, "Detroit won’t save us from a ventilator shortage anytime soon"
Automakers are offering up their factories to help solve the shortage of ventilators needed to treat an expected crush of coronavirus patients, but production likely won't begin for months — too late to help ease the immediate need.
Hours after Detroit’s big three automakers — General Motors, Ford Motor Company, and Fiat Chrysler — announced Wednesday that they were shuttering their North American factories, at least two of them, Ford and GM, signaled that they might open them back up, but to make ventilators and protective medical equipment.
The reason those factories shut down to begin with was partly due to pressure by the United Auto Workers, and local and state governments, to comply with social distancing guidelines to keep employees safe, and partly a product of plummeting demand for automobiles.
