I work in this field and have vast experience.
Even with federal laws in a relaxed state due to a pandemic, the lawful design, development and commercialization of a new type of ventilator would take years... not months. Cannot take shortcuts on that.
You can be certain that folks are working hard on making more equipment available as fast as possible-- both in government and in the private sector, including the related supply chains.
You can also be sure that it isn't only vents... it is a host of equipment and related supplies that are used and/or consumed in ICU care settings.
For example, what good are 100k more vent systems if we don't have enough disposable vent circuits? And those circuits must be changed at regular intervals, for example, to lower risks associated with hospital acquired infections.
I am confident that expert folks are highly motivated and working on these challenges.
Sidebar little "world is small" Porsche-related story...
A couple of years ago I was in Sarasota working on a consulting project for a well known Japanese company. We had a design firm down there helping us and I was meeting with them and some of their associated consultants.
The design company and one of their consultants (an EE) had some experience with medical devices and equipment, but we were working on a consumer product concept.
Over lunch, I probed the design consultant on his experience in medical, and he told me that his brother, a Ph.D was in charge of ODE at FDA. ODE is the part of FDA that manages the clearance and approval processes for medical equipment and devices! I first dealt with ODE back in 1987, helping to bring a new type of $1M medical system through approval. Lithotripsy system
In parallel, my buddies were doing the same thing for the first MRI systems. So we had a lot of dealings with ODE.
So now it is 2017 and I am sitting next to the brother of the fellow that runs FDA ODE. My heart was pounding.
Our conversation turned to hobbies and interests (again, we were at lunch) and I mentioned auto racing.
The EE asked if I ever heard of IMSA. I said yes of course.
He then said he once worked as an IMSA tech inspector at a race at Sebring. In the 70's I think. I asked about the circumstances.
He said his (I think at the time ex-) college roommate was running IMSA tech and was short handed so he got pressed into service.
I asked what his name was, by then knowing how the story was likely to turn out.
He said, "Mark Raffauf."
Well Mark and his brother Martin are very close friends with Porsche icon and my friend Jerry Woods. I am pretty sure that both of them were involved with Garretson/Barbour back when they were running 935's as the de facto Porsche factory team running out of Mountain View. Jerry Woods worked there under Bruce Anderson.
You can read a bit about Mark here:
https://racer.com/2019/01/19/my-racing-life-and-career-mark-raffauf/
Incidentally, that interview was conducted by Marshall Pruett, a friend to us Porschephiles who lives right here in Fremont.
The world is small.