I hate suggestion like this - most of the government involvement so far has been negative - don't wear masks, do wear masks and cloth masks are fine (they probably are not). We're going to cancel doctors license who go out of order in vaccine distribution (so now when the 65 year old drives their 75 year old partner in they can't both be vaccinated).

If anyone actually cared about this there is an EXISTING mechanism to get business to produce pretty much any quantity of anything you want. You pay them money. Instead the government is constantly canceling contracts, seizing products, stopping the sale of products for more than 10% more than historic prices etc.

ALL these steps REDUCE confidence in making a big / high risk investment.

My guess - if we looked at even existing use of the DPA - probably most stuff got made by folks not expert in making it and sat in a warehouse. I'm serious - I want to know how many ventilators made under DPA by rando companies are actually in use?

I've worked in govt contracting - the govt does not get "the best" producers to produce, in situations like this the hands reach out from the experts playing the govt contracting game. Not end of world normally, but with lives on the line some more standard approaches would be refreshing.