“I want to thank ventilator manufacturers such as GE for providing access to service documents,” Nathan Proctor, head of the right to repair campaign at the PIRG, said in a statement. “When technicians can’t access service manuals, it puts unnecessary barriers to fixing life-saving equipment.”

While the need for medical equipment technical manuals is pressing given the pandemic, it fits into a larger conversation. For years, right to repair proponents have argued that tech companies have prevented owners and independent technicians from completing basic fixes. Companies like Apple argue the repairs are too complex or not safe, though that’s debatable. Europe is already pushing for broader right to repair legislation, and the current demand for medical device service could make the battle more prominent in the US, too.

“We hope this also serves as an example about why restricting repair is harmful,” Proctor said. “It’s time we removed these repair restrictions for all the equipment in hospitals. We hope that manufacturers continue to expand their cooperation with independent technicians and hospital in-house biomeds to provide what they need to fix equipment.”

Foxconn’s dubious Wisconsin factory — the subject of billions of dollars of tax subsidy scrutiny — will be used to produce ventilators to aid in treatment for COVID-19 around the US. The company, best known for assembling Apple’s iPhones at factories in China, has entered into a partnership with healthcare firm Medtronic for the project, which will see ventilators produced “as soon as possible,” according to a statement provided to Reuters.

The factory — dubbed the “eighth wonder of the world” by President Trump — was first announced back in 2017 and has been the focus of controversy ever since. While its arrival promised new job opportunities for the state, many homes would subsequently be bulldozed to make space for the plant. It was initially earmarked for use as an LCD factory, but plans have repeatedly changed and the ample job opportunities never materialized. For the few that did, pay and working conditions was were way below those originally touted by Foxconn. Meanwhile, the plant was in receipt of more than $4.5 billion in government incentives. The whole endeavour has certainly fallen short of its promises.

(This is one of the affected Medtronic programmers, which allow doctors to tweak the implant’s settings.)

Implantable defibrillators are placed under the skin to monitor the patient’s heart. If they detect a wildly irregular rhythm, they shoot out electric shocks to restore the person’s normal heartbeat. The vulnerabilities allow bad actors to change or inject data sent between a defib and its programming device. Medtronic’s affected products don’t use use formal authentication or authorization protections, which means attackers can alter the implant’s settings and potentially harm the patient.

Since the hacker has to be in close proximity to the affected devices, though, the company told Star Tribune that the risk of physical harm to patients with implants appears to be low. It also said that it’s now monitoring its network for signs of exploit attempts, and it ensured patients that its defibrillators will automatically shut down wireless communications if they receive unusual commands.

Even so, the company is reminding patients to only use devices obtained directly from healthcare providers and to keep wireless communications open so they’d receive the security patch when it rolls out. Also, in addition to physically keeping monitors and programmers safe, Medtronic is discouraging patients from plugging USB sticks and other unapproved accessories into the devices.