Economics professor Sue Helper shares manufacturing realities of supplies needed to combat coronavirus outbreak

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed how profit-driven decisions undercut the US’s ability to fight an outbreak

Business Insider: Sue Helper, professor of economics at the Weatherhead School of Management, weighed in on the manufacturing realities of supplies needed to combat the coronavirus outbreak: “We’re making this stuff far away,” said Helper. Mask shortages can be explained by US companies’ decision to move their production abroad to countries like China to cut costs and pay lower wages, said Helper, formerly chief economist for the U.S. Department of Commerce.