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I am sorry, you are incorrect about ventilator support. It is irresponsible to make such a claim, and frankly probably practicing medicine without a license. The death rate of ARDS on the vent from any cause is about 40%. The CoVID death rate is about the same according to a recent European Society of Critical Care Medicine study. Let those of us trained to take care of the critically ill determine when and if a ventilator is appropriate.

I am not practicing medicine without a license, but I am reacting to the fact,reported by New York City officials, that at least 80% of coronavirus patients who were on ventilators in the city died.Some studies say as high a 88% are dying on the vent. Unusually high death rates have also been recorded elsewhere in the US,the UK, China and France.

They are not reacting to ventilation as other people with ARDS or with pneumonia have done in the past. The novel coronavirus does unexpected damage to respiratory processes which is not yet understood. The role of the overwhelming toxic chemical cytokines raging through the lung tissue, being only one of the challenges perplexing doctors.

It's for good reason that doctors treating critical COVID-19 patients are now pulling back on ventilation and relying more on other methods of increasing oxygenation. More aggressive asthma management,esp. for younger (under-60) COVID patients with underlying asthma, using cheap common steroids like dexamethasone is becoming pretty salient.

Not telling you how to practice medicine, but doctors are seeing a new urgency in keeping people off mechanical ventilation which is causing permanent lung injuries. This is the reality.

I do think I was mistaken to make my comment about ventilation so all-encompassing. It would be wrong to imply vents are never needed, or people are "just" dying on the vents. That's just not true.

I was on a vent for 16 days and there's no doubt it saved my life.

So I want to correct the sweeping nature of my comment.