Ventilators may not be best for severe covid-19

摘要

WHEN the coronavirus pandemic began, the UK scrambled to get more ventilators for use in intensive care. But now some doctors are trying to keep people off ventilators, as they believe it makes some people with covid-19 worse - although we don't have the results of studies to assess this yet. Ventilators are used to treat people with covid-19 who have difficulty breathing on their own, but the procedure is invasive and can even be traumatic. Doctors have other, less invasive, options, including giving patients oxygen by face masks or nasal cannulas, two tubes that sit just inside the nostrils.