@coopers .."Depriving us of what they knew would be needed here"...

@coopers .."Depriving us of what they knew would be needed here"

It was also needed there, it mostly came from China in the first place, it was legal to buy and ship overseas. It is not the fault of those that bought it. It is the fault of the government for closing their eyes to any problem about coronavirus at the time.
The politicians could have acted early, but instead insisted we had a stockpile of medical equipment for any emergency. They just failed to realise (or didn't want to) that the problem was going to be a true pandemic, unlike any we have had before, even though it was obvious to those paying attention like @bruceyg