It takes an inordinate amount of time just to teach people what they can and can't touch and when and how, how to wash their hands properly, how to put on and take off their masks/gloves, and where to stand so as not to be in the way of people. All this in the context of a pretty contagious disease. I am pretty sure that, within 20 days, most of the volunteers would be infected themselves, and end up putting even more strain on the system.
I've been in an OR as part of my job, and I'd definitely think twice before enrolling in a program like this one (and definitely not just for my own safety, although yeah, that would be a big factor, too).
Given that we likely have more spare doctor cycles now than we will in the future, we should utilize them now. We can also do things like hire doctors from countries not as badly stressed to come teach the classes.
And of course there are many levels to addressing bottlenecks. For example, operators wouldn’t have to be amateurs at first, they could be any of the non-essential medical professionals who are not able operate business as usual due to the virus. Could a podiatrist or urologist operate a ventilator given enough training?
In general we are brainstorming proactive measures. I think, at least in the US, we continue to have a reactive as opposed to a proactive strategy because of our decentralized government structure as well as the delicate balance between effective mitigation and maintaining social order. While we should be leveraging the current shelter in place strategy to build as much healthcare infrastructure as possible (both physical and technical, as per the thread) to handle slowly returning society to normal operations, we probably are not moving fast enough. In several weeks, as the unemployment and anxiety builds, so too will unrest. And I guess then it will really be a test of a nation’s people.
I'm reading that hospitals may be overwhelmed. I understand that to mean there will be more people requiring intensive care than capacity to give intensive care. If the choice is between the hospital sending people who need ventilators off to die and sending them to someone with thirty days of training and good intentions... Well, my intuition is that you'd have better outcomes with the latter.
The point is not "can we do this without killing people." Nope. More people will die with amateur ventilator-operators than professionals. What I'm suggesting is that more people will die without amateur ventilator-operators in the event hospitals are overwhelmed.
If we think hospitals are going to be overwhelmed in thirty days then the time to start training amateur ventilator-operators is now.