All these people who keep saying “if this were World War II we would be cranking out vaccines and ventilators overnight” really need to read up on the first year of American involvement in World War II.

Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941. American forces didn’t win a real victory until the Battle of Midway in June 1942 - six months later. American planes didn’t start bombing Europe until June 1942 either. And It wasn’t until the invasion of Guadalcanal (July 1942) that American ground forces were able to take offensive action against the Axis.

Big efforts take time to pull together, particularly when you start them from a completely unprepared state. And with this thing, as in December 1941, we were definitely unprepared.