Name: Why Oxygen Is So Expensive | So Expensive
Uploaded: 2021-06-05T16:22:00.000Z
Duration: 8 min 2 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

during the country's  punishing second COVID wave,

A single cylinder can cost up to $400 on the black market.

the country with the  world's highest death rate

Thousands have died in Lima in recent months,

and this is where  many of them end up —

on the southern  outskirts of the capital

but the wait is anywhere from 12 to 15 hours.

People eat and sleep in  line until it's their turn.

They're only allowed to fill one 10-cubic-meter cylinder

so he's had to spend thousands of dollars

on additional cylinders  wherever he can find them.

so he's relied on the last of his savings.

Narrator: So why don't Peru's hospitals have oxygen?

and deliver it in  liquid form by tanker.

and kept in large vessels at very low temperatures.

Hospitals then pipe it directly to the beds of patients.

as hospitals struggle  to keep up with demand.

Narrator: Bulk oxygen piped into hospitals

costs as little as one-tenth as much as oxygen in cylinders.

of nearly 40,000 cylinders of oxygen every day.

Patients lined up  outside to get oxygen,

but with thousands of severe cases a day,

Narrator: Families took it upon themselves

Narrator: So how do people in Peru buy oxygen?

Companies couldn't  produce enough oxygen

and charges up to $400 for a full cylinder.

Narrator: Oxiromero began making its own oxygen

using a technique known as pressure swing adsorption

Narrator: Oxiromero would  need to overhaul the plant

and that's out of reach during the pandemic.

Narrator: At the Virgen de Lourdes cemetery,

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Why Oxygen Is So Expensive | So Expensive

overwhelmed

struggle

pandemic

vast