Gaps in mechanical ventilators were predicted to be a major cause of avoidable deaths, with almost all provinces across all countries estimated to have severe shortages of this of this resource, with the exception of Taiwan and some Thai provinces. This pattern likely reflects the relatively high cost and human resource skills associated with acquisition and operation of ventilators, and highlights the importance of developing robust triage criteria as part of pandemic preparedness plans to ensure that this resource is allocated to the patients who are most likely benefit [29] [30] . A previous analysis similarly suggested that a dire shortage of mechanical ventilators would be a major limiting factor in responding to a pandemic influenza outbreak in the United States [31] . We found particularly wide variation in the availability of ventilators, and indeed other hospital resources, in Thailand, where our results suggest that inequitable distribution of health system resources [32] , rather than simply an overall nationwide shortage, could lead to a high number of avoidable deaths from pandemic influenza.