Making oxygen is easy. I’m sure half the people on this site can fill a soda bottle with pure oxygen using a machine hacked together from just things found in an average kitchen.

Industrial scale production, transport, making sure it doesn’t set everything on fire, and supplying a medically appropriate quality without risking hyperoxia? That’s hard.

At least there is industrial oxygen production that could be repurposed.

Also oxygen enrichers could be made and distributed, they could also help some people. I know of a person who made one themselves in a week. Both should be a lot easier than ventilators (which of course also should be pursued).

If you read the reports from Italy, they first ran out of ventilators, then CPAP machines and finally even oxygen.

But for some reason the talk is very concentrated on ventilators for now.

Also other equipment saves lives. Pulse oximeters so those needing help breathing can be identified. Protective equipment. A lot of things that save lives and are a thousand times easier to make than ventilators.