Your post focuses on ventilators but the government could have ordered additional PPE in January easily. That’s exactly what Taiwan did for instance - maxed ou

Your post focuses on ventilators but the government could have ordered additional PPE in January easily. That’s exactly what Taiwan did for instance - maxed out their own factories and ordered more machines to make PPE in January. Meanwhile, in mid-February, the largest American factory for making surgical masks was running at less than full capacity as the owner complained to the media that no one would make a long-term contract with him and he and his employees were burned last time he ramped up production for H1N1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/02/15/coronavirus-mask-shortage-texas-manufacturing/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/02/15/coronavir... > “ In an interview, Bowen said he could make 1 million masks a day if he ran his machines around the clock, a huge quantity for his firm but an amount that would barely make a dent in global demand. He’s hesitant, however, to ramp up production at the facility [. . .]“