That's not accurate at all. Allowing the price to float freely would help with short term supply and demand issues, but it would not fundamentally solve the lon

That's not accurate at all. Allowing the price to float freely would help with short term supply and demand issues, but it would not fundamentally solve the long term uncertainty for suppliers about whether or not a large quantity of masks are still going to be needed next year given that supposedly multiple vaccines will be coming onto the market at the same time. Case in point: there was a great piece a while back about a domestic mask manufacturer who ramped up production for the H1N1 outbreak only to see demand collapse when the pandemic turned out to be far less severe than expected [1]. They almost went out of business because there was no where to sell their masks at a profit and had to unwind most of their operations. The solution here is for the federal government to backstop the orders. If no buyer can be found at price $x / mask, then the government will buy them and put them into the national stockpiles for the future. [1] https://www.wired.com/story/surreal-frenzy-inside-us-biggest-mask-maker/ https://www.wired.com/story/surreal-frenzy-inside-us-biggest...