Trump and His Flaming Russian Ventilators

At the beginning of April, Trump touted a deal he had made with his boss Vlad Putin for Russian ventilators.  It was a win-win for the Trump/Putin partnership.  Trump could strut his stuff as a deal maker and Putin gained the PR halo for his selfless gesture.  Well, OK, not quite selfless, the US paid $660,000 for the ventilators and other medical supplies that Russia airlifted to the US.  Some in Russia pointed out that there might soon be a need for that equipment in Russian hospitals.  In the US, the fact that the Russian supplier of the equipment was under sanction was an area of concern.  Both valid concerns, but the real concern should have been that Trump is incapable of making a responsible deal because he is an idiot.  

A Russian military plane carrying the ventilators along with other medical supplies including personal protective equipment landed in New York on Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone...

...Trump on Thursday described the Russian shipment as containing “a lot of medical, high-quality stuff” which could save a lot of lives and said he’d “take it every day” if he had the opportunity.

The "high-quality" Russian ventilators were never used because they were set up for the wrong electrical voltage.  And, that's probably the good news.  In Russia, ventilators from this company are suspected in a number of ICU fires including two that resulted in multiple deaths.  

Russian ventilators that may have caused two deadly fires in the last week were the same model that President Vladimir Putin sent the U.S. to help its battle against the coronavirus epidemic.

Five patients in a Covid-19 intensive-care unit at the Saint George hospital in St. Petersburg died when one of the devices caught fire Tuesday. The hospital has stopped using its Aventa-M ventilators pending an investigation, Tass news service reported, citing the head of the hospital’s emergency ward.

The same model of ventilator was being used at a Moscow clinic that suffered a fire last week, killing one person. The devices were the same type included in a shipment of medical supplies to New York last month. 

Trump and Putin making deals.  Nothing for Americans to worry about.