In this episode of the simultaneous swaddle, I talk about the $100 ventilator, and how you can make your own for less than $100 using common household items you already have around your house. I also talk about how to make a $100 do-it-yourself ventilators.
00:00:13.280It's time for the simultaneous swaddle.
00:00:16.660It's that time when you get to enjoy the unparalleled pleasure of feeling connected to people all over the world.
00:00:26.500At the same time, wrapped in a soft blanket, or just thinking about it, or just wishing you were wrapped in a soft blanket.
00:00:35.900Well, we've got plenty of news. Lots of stuff to talk about.
00:00:40.440A lot of people are going to bring you the bad news about the coronavirus.
00:00:45.200And I figure that beats pretty well covered, all the bad news.
00:00:50.560But is there no light at the end of the tunnel?
00:00:54.280Well, is there nothing that we can appreciate while we get through these tough times?
00:01:00.900Well, I think there are lots of things.
00:01:04.320One of the things that I would like to celebrate is human ingenuity.
00:01:08.580Quite, quite impressive, wouldn't you say?
00:01:11.040Today, in fact, I tweeted an article, I retweeted an article, that MIT came up with a design where you could make your own ventilator for parts that I guess are easily obtainable for $100.
00:01:37.180Somebody tell me in the comments, how much does a good ventilator cost?
00:01:42.980So when I saw that the geniuses at MIT had invented a do-it-yourself $100 ventilator, I thought, I'm going to make one of those.
00:01:54.700And I thought, I'm not going to be selfish and just sort of make it for myself.
00:02:01.120I want to also teach you how to make it.
00:02:03.940So trust me, this is easier than you think.
00:02:07.200So I'm going to teach you how to make $100, possibly less, because you'll be using materials that I think all of you have around your house.
00:02:16.160So this will be the first time I've tried this, but I'm confident, a lot of people you don't know, that I'm not just a cartoonist.
00:02:28.060I worked as an engineer for years at the phone company.
00:02:33.000And when I say I worked as an engineer, I mean it said engineer on my business card.
00:06:28.440And, you know, of course, people have and will continue to mock me, sometimes with good cause, because when I say good things about the president, they say, you only say good things about the president no matter what he does.
00:06:46.660But that wouldn't be the case lately, I think most of you would agree.
00:06:53.980I've been pretty, pretty brutal on his earliest, you know, some of his earlier communication.
00:07:00.980But I would have to say, of all the Trump public things he's done, I mean, not counting rallies, they're their own category, but if you count, you know, press conferences, I would say this is his best one, not just of the, not only of the pandemic situation, but the best of his presidency, I would say.
00:07:26.300And I think actually clearly, I think it was actually just a clear best, best of class so far.
00:07:46.760Somebody on Twitter said, you know, was, was mocking him, and by extension me, was mocking the president for bragging about his ratings for his press conferences.
00:08:02.700And, you know, I guess the, the assumption was that it would be bad to be dealing with this, you know, catastrophe, but also, you know, in the same breath, saying that your ratings are really good.
00:08:16.760And I thought to myself, what kind of an artist are you?
00:08:20.840Because in my world, one of the most important functions of the government, and certainly of the president, is to inform the public.
00:08:30.620To tell us what to do, what's coming up.
00:08:33.880And, you know, and you can argue in the details about some little stuff, you know, the details were wrong and had to be corrected.
00:08:41.040I don't think any of that's going to matter in the long run.
00:09:02.480But we like to feel connected to something that's happening, because just being connected to it, hearing about it, you know, learning about it, figuring out what we're supposed to do, knowing what to expect and all that stuff is super important.
00:09:16.020And so what would be, what would be more important than having good ratings?
00:09:20.380You know, the way the president does it is always more interesting and provocative than someone else would do it.
00:09:31.940I mean, is this too much of a cheerleader for the president to say that it's absolutely functionally superior to have more people watching him inform the country what to think and what to know?
00:09:45.800And, you know, not what to think exactly, but, you know, what, what to, you know, what we need to know that they know, that sort of thing.
00:09:54.080What can be better than having a big audience?
00:09:59.720That's probably the strongest thing he does that nobody will ever be able to, to equal.
00:10:05.360You know, in the history of future presidents, I doubt there'll ever be one who can command attention the way this one can.
00:10:13.940And see if you have the same response that I did.
00:10:18.380So today the president was showcasing a number of, I guess, CEOs of big companies that were being especially helpful for the pandemic.
00:10:28.400So there was CEO of UPS and CEO of this and that hospital and whatever.
00:10:34.780And so some of the CEOs got to say their little piece.
00:10:38.180First, a table was an earlier setting where they were sitting around the table, but with some good distance.
00:10:44.260And, you know, and then later when they was at a podium, you know, some of them would come up and say a few words.
00:10:50.660And I was really struck by how little charisma these top-level CEOs have compared to Trump.
00:11:01.640You know, if you have it to play it back or anything, just look for that.
00:11:07.680Just look at the raw wattage of the CEOs just as a charisma scale.
00:11:15.220You know, forget about whether you like them or don't like them.
00:11:17.420I'm just saying pure interesting charisma.
00:11:20.580And then you watch the president come on and, like, you know, the stadium lights come on.
00:11:27.040And he's just, it's just like a billion watts brighter than these guys who are top CEOs in the whole country.
00:11:36.820You know, and I'm not saying this is any kind of an insult to the CEOs because they didn't get their jobs by, you know, being bad at what they do, obviously.
00:11:47.460You know, I assume that all those CEOs are just, you know, the top-level kinds of performers or they wouldn't be in that situation.
00:11:54.660But even they kind of disappeared a little bit when Trump was in, you know, the same zip code.
00:12:04.100I don't think people quite understand how good he is.
00:12:10.080History is going to be so kind to him if nothing worse happens, you know, assuming that he doesn't break anything in the future.
00:12:18.080If all that happens is we get past this and get back to something kind of normal, he will be judged so well by how well he captured the audience and got our attention, at least for that stuff anyway.
00:12:35.720At this moment, the death toll from the coronavirus is negative, meaning more people are alive because of it.
00:12:49.080Now, I'm not saying that's going to stay that way, but it is a fact that the actual natural deaths that we would have had from car accidents and such has actually been studied now.
00:13:00.280There's enough data that we can look at and say, well, how did we do for, you know, accidental deaths that week?
00:13:06.720And I think they're down like 5,000 to 10,000.
00:13:09.760So since the lockdown got serious, something between 5,000 and 10,000 people are alive that would have otherwise been dead.
00:13:20.640Now, the cost of that is a little over, I think, I think it's crossed 2,000 people have died so far.
00:13:29.880Now, you can't compare because the coronavirus is far from done, right?
00:13:34.980So we don't know what that number grows to, and that's the only thing that matters in the long run.
00:13:39.380But will we save another 5,000 or 10,000 lives next week?
00:13:45.480You know, or I'm not sure if it was a one or two week period, whatever it was.
00:13:49.140But certainly we're going to be in lockdown some more.
00:13:54.060So wouldn't you therefore conclude that we'll get whatever we saved before would probably continue?
00:14:00.800So we might save, I don't know, 15,000 to 30,000 lives.
00:14:07.820I mean, at great cost, of course, because, you know, people are dying of coronavirus.
00:14:13.340The economy is, you know, taking a hit.
00:14:15.660So at great cost, but you have to add all the costs and the benefits.
00:14:20.500If you're actually going to have an adult opinion about things, you have to say,
00:14:24.760this counts, because it's all the same decision.
00:34:53.640And at the very least, this situation has surfaced who the leaders are and who the capable people are and who the people really, you know, you can depend on in a crunch.
00:35:09.120And I think some of that's permanent, there will be people within corporate America, probably people in government, whose entire careers will be determined by how they get through the next several months.
00:35:23.000You know, just the way 9-11 made a Rudy Giuliani, this is not just New York, although they're getting hit hardest. This is all of us. So every mayor, every governor, every senator, every representative, every person on the task force, they're all on audition for a better job or more responsibility later.
00:35:46.400So, if nothing else, we're going through the greatest talent filter our country has ever experienced.
00:35:57.920And I do think, even though I'm a bit of a cynic and a skeptic, I do think that some of what we're learning about being able to work together is going to last.
00:36:11.640You know, there's going to be a lot of goodwill that's happening now because people understand there are higher priorities than arguing about, you know, politics.
00:36:24.080You know, as soon as we get back to normal, we just go back to being humans.
00:36:28.260We get a little tribal because we would have that luxury.
00:36:31.900But I don't think it's all going away.
00:36:33.300I think there's going to be a good, solid 10% that is a lasting civilization memory that says, yeah, I'm arguing with you now.
00:36:47.100But when, you know, when the stuff goes down, you and I are going to be on the same team.
00:36:53.780I've always thought that that's why the United States and France, for example, will always be best buddies, you know, internationally, no matter how much we argue with them.
00:37:05.640And, you know, if you don't like them for this or their attitude or their policies or their socialists, whatever, you know, we might bicker like siblings forever.
00:37:14.920But the one thing that we sort of believe about each other, you know, France and the United States, is that based on history, we would have each other's backs.
00:37:28.940You know, when was the last time, I mean, in your lifetime, when was the last time you had to have France's back or France had to have our back, you know, in skirmishes and Iraq and stuff?
00:37:40.360But those were sort of, you know, over there.
00:37:42.140I'm not sure if that was a case of anybody having anybody's backs.
00:37:49.060And part of the reason that we would, like you know with 100% certainty, if you live in America, that if France were, you know, seriously threatened by an external threat, the next thing that France would hear is, could you step out of the way?
00:38:05.780Could you, you know, we love that you want to fight this out on your own, but seriously, just step out of the way.
00:38:15.680And the United States would take care of business because we would always have France's back.
00:38:19.880And the reason we would is because they've had our back, right, historically and vice versa.
00:38:26.040So that kind of feeling can last, it can last generations.
00:38:33.700And there might be, this is the hopeful part of me, there might be just a little bit of this experience when we get to the end of it that we just remember as a society.