> It's impractical to keep 12 months worth of supplies for manufacturing They didn't need to. The initial disruption was only a few weeks. The problem is that

> It's impractical to keep 12 months worth of supplies for manufacturing They didn't need to. The initial disruption was only a few weeks. The problem is that once companies saw that there would be a shortage, they started buying up all the supplies they could to rapidly build up buffers, which increases the demand for those supplies worsening the shortage, which in turn means even larger buffers are required. It's a vicious cycle that all could have been avoided.