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At the beginning of the first Covid-wave in 2020, the UK government asked industry to offer medical ventilators, as it was feared that the NHS might exhaust their stock of medical ventilators.

By the end of April 2020 it was clear that these additional ventilators were not needed, and the order was cancelled.

In April 2021, it came to light that there were some prospective tax dealings between Dyson and Boris Johnson.

When I search the internet for Dyson's CoVent ventilators, I basically find reporting on both stories. However, what I don't see are any sales to other countries.

If a viable product has been designed, and the original contractor jumps off, there is nothing to stop Dyson to sell the ventilator elsewhere.

Were there any sales of Dyson ventilators to other countries?
Was there mass production in the first place?

Sorry for posting a quite contemporary question. Politics does not seem to fit, and Skeptics only seems right if I suppose the ventilators being a case of vaporware, which right now I do not.

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You can compare ventilators to cars. They are complex machinery that have undergone significant evolution since they first appeared, they need considerable safety margins*,, and require considerable training to use them safely. The price is also similar to a car.

If a company that has no experience in this field would promise to build thousands of these things within a few months, I'd be very careful before buying one. Except in absolute emergencies. Given that it has turned out that the bottlenecks for the treatment of Covid patients are elsewhere (qualified staff, and unfortunately in some places oxygene and even sedatives), my guess is that no sane health official would buy any surplus devices from Dyson. Of course that does not yet mean that really none were sold.

So this question may really be better suited to Sceptics.SE

*Re. necessary safety margins, see e.g. this tragic incident.

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  • (the situation might be different if Covid was more like polio, with lots of people needing long-term ventilation with relatively healthy lungs. But I am just conjecturing here as a layman)
    – Jan
    Apr 22, 2021 at 12:01

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