[hanamizu]

“Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of medical equipment was apparently just thrown away.”

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I confess my ignorance. Do ventilators have a ‘best if used by date’? Of course Orange Man Bad was behind a rush to build ventilators—so maybe that’s why they have to be gotten rid of. Far better to dump them in a landfill than send them to Brazil. And of course we’ll never face another medical crisis from China again.
/s

[corkoman]

Do ventilators have a ‘best if used by date’?

Kinda...they use valves and sensors that are meant to be last a long time but...use it or lose it. They need to be stored in cool dry environment for long-term storage. After prolonged storage they require testing before they can be qualified for patient use.