The pandemic showed us that the supply chain is more frail than we think. I also just finished Wages of Destruction, about economics in Nazi Germany. And at last I explored the nooks and crannies of an abandoned hospital.

It's eye-opening to see how complex a large building is, with all its pipes, wiring, and shafts. That's without considering the satellite buildings, or the specialised equipment on the actual production line.

It's also surprising to see how much depends on components and raw materials produced thousands of kilometres away.

And at last, it becomes obvious that you can't just spin up a new factory, nor can you trivially retool one or re(al)locate thousands of its workers.

Scaling up demands feats of logistics. Scaling down can bring financial ruin to entire regions.

This draws interesting parallels to the production of vaccine. You can't just throw more people at it for the same reasons.