The coronavirus pandemic is instilling chaos that is shaking the world. When intensive care units are running out of ventilators and essential medications, and some 95,000 people die in a matter of a few months, society panics – and justifiably so.

But medicine is a science with a long history, and the best way forward now is to stick to strategies that we already know can work.

As our nation searches for ways to augment the ventilator supply – with Medtronic rushing to release ventilator design specs and anyone with a 3D printer or some extra wood wondering if they could help with the problem – there’s another path available.

The number of ventilators could be increased, and the shortage of sedatives, respiratory therapists and nurses lessened, by getting people off ventilators faster and making those same machines available for the next patients sooner.

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