Only 26 US states have publicly available guidelines for allocation of ventilators in a public health emergency such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and the advice they contain varies widely, according to a study published late last week in JAMA Cardiology.The investigators, from Rush University in Chicago and the University of Chicago, conducted a systematic review to determine if the lack of and variation in guidelines could lead to unfair allocation of potentially scarce ventilators and whether any guidelines suggested using unique criteria for pediatric patients.While physicians, ethicists, medical societies, and states have published recommendations stating that ventilators should be allocated so as to do the greatest good for the most