1) The American healthcare system was already in trouble even before the pandemic with a shortage of doctors, beds and a consolidation of hospitals especially in rural areas.<br><br>2) American manufacturing was long ago sent overseas and consolidated into larger multinational conglomerates creating a complex global supply chain.<br><br>All of that are at play with this pandemic which to date has only just matched the total number of deaths in the Spanis Flu epidemic.    Yet in 1918 the number of deaths was 1% of the US population while today's US population is 3 times that.   So the total deaths from covid are at this point less than 1/2 of 1% which is certainly not a case for all the paranoia and fear being pushed in the media.  Today's pandemic is being handled far better than 100s of years ago when the medical system was not as sophisticated and did not have all the technology we have now.   A lot of the problems we see are not due to the disease directly but the combination of 1 and 2 above.    Keeping in mind that in 1918, the country was fully mobilized for war and there was no luxury of telling people to stay home and not work in the factories.