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@BostonGlobe

@BostonGlobe

This might turn out to be a thread.
The @BostonGlobe reports that crafters are sewing masks for hospitals. In NYC, @CSiriano, @PariPassu and other ateliers have stepped up.
This is wonderful and they deserve praise. It also cannot be sufficient, and it should not be necessary 1/x

I have been writing about pandemic potential and societal disruption and supply chains for, ugh, a long time. (A few links at end in case anyone cares.) Short version:
We cannot GoFundMe our way out of this.
Pandemic response requires government-scale action. 2/x

It is superb that private businesses are trying to fill the gap.
It is also the large-scale equivalent of a kid standing up a lemonade stand to fulfill lunch debts.
We admire the kid's compassion, and we should.
But the system problem we do not fix is children being hungry. 3/x

Similarly, we knew for *years* that offshored supply chains risked our running out of protective equipment when we would need it, just as we knew that offfshored production of pharmaceutical active ingredients would deprive us of needed drugs. 4/x

That offshoring occurred because businesses made what they thought were rational decisions to cut costs. There was no government backstop that took a system look, and commanded or persuaded them to keep production in the US for the eventual good of the homeland. 5/x

*One hospital* said yesterday that they expect to need 70,000 surgical masks a day when #COVID19 reaches its peak. No private businesses can supply that or be expected to. That planning and provisioning is what we place (some) trust in national governments to handle. 6/x