I dabbled in procurement in this area. Its a big sad joke. Better leadership could help but only marginally. Price gouging statutes added an unnecessary distra

I dabbled in procurement in this area. Its a big sad joke. Better leadership could help but only marginally. Price gouging statutes added an unnecessary distraction to market signals, as they confused consumers and governors and wasted public resources trying to enforce. It is impossible to enforce them because legislatures didn't give power to curb market signals indefinitely and States have zero tools to handle states of emergencies in reaction to a disaster that is larger than their state, continues growing in scope, and that never ends. To allow the market signals to work for increasing production, states could have subsidized over a certain $ price, shielding consumers but allowing market to still function. The ideal result being that other companies took the risk of creating more product until the market was flooded with the masks. The global procurement game was and still is a joke.