A vaccine is given to healthy people. A drug that is given to a small number of people that are so sick that they will die within days and there is no other cure, has different safety requirements from a vaccine that is given to a huge number of people that are healthy. In the vaccine case, even a relatively rare (1/10000) side effect might mean that the vaccine is worse than the cure. Not so with the treatment of dying people.
Safety wise, using untested equipment is the same as the drug for dying people scenario, not the vaccine scenario.
A similar example is this: in normal circumstances these devices are operated by ICU doctors. In a time of crisis you can already see this delegated to doctors that have never used a ventilator, and only given a brief introduction or even just a pamphlet describing it.
I suspect that within the next months there will be places where recently trained nurses perform the duties of ICU doctors. And laid off hotell staff perform nursing duties.
> regulations exist for a reason. This is about health & safety after all.
They do, but most regulations are surprisingly flexible in a crisis. E.g. already the rest time requirements for truck drivers are lifted in many countries to keep supply lines.
In the military (where a crisis is planned for) there are two different sets of safety requirements, with a stricter one that only applies in peacetime (e.g. max speeds, minimum distances bewteeen vehicles, requirements to use ear protection and pretty much every single safety requirement there is)
Safety wise, using untested equipment is the same as the drug for dying people scenario, not the vaccine scenario.
A similar example is this: in normal circumstances these devices are operated by ICU doctors. In a time of crisis you can already see this delegated to doctors that have never used a ventilator, and only given a brief introduction or even just a pamphlet describing it.
I suspect that within the next months there will be places where recently trained nurses perform the duties of ICU doctors. And laid off hotell staff perform nursing duties.
> regulations exist for a reason. This is about health & safety after all.
They do, but most regulations are surprisingly flexible in a crisis. E.g. already the rest time requirements for truck drivers are lifted in many countries to keep supply lines.
In the military (where a crisis is planned for) there are two different sets of safety requirements, with a stricter one that only applies in peacetime (e.g. max speeds, minimum distances bewteeen vehicles, requirements to use ear protection and pretty much every single safety requirement there is)