NPR did an interview with the owner of one of the last companies to make surgical masks in the US. He said that during the last panic they ramped up production

NPR did an interview with the owner of one of the last companies to make surgical masks in the US. He said that during the last panic they ramped up production and just as the new machines started coming online demand evaporated. It very nearly destroyed his company. Ramping up production is not an instantaneous thing and doing it without a clear customer for the increased product is an incredible business risk.