[blub]

Foreign governments (ahem, government) bought the masks from underneath the US's nose. The USG should have insta-blocked exports.

[AlbertoGP]

Not just the government directly, but also a big established network of their citizens: “Who stole all the masks?” (2020-04-03) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImmRjT74i-c

That’s the practice known as “Daigou” (代购): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daigou

A pre-pandemic article about the practice, specifically in Australia: “The daigou channel — how a handful of Chinese shoppers turned into a billion-dollar industry” (2019-07-31) https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-31/chinese-daigou-changi...