I know I said this yesterday, but... In 1847,at the height of the Irish Famine, there were crop failures across Europe. European countries banned grain exports. The UK Govt, which had just repealed its Corn Laws, couldn't buy grain to support the Irish... 1/ https://twitter.com/MRJKilcoyne/status/1246354225761849344

To those who observe that Ireland actually exported grain to Britain during the famine, I would answer - yes, except in 1847 when it was a net importer. 2/

Anyway, the UK Govt bought American hominy grits as food relief for the Irish. But hominy grits are indigestible unless you know how to cook them. The Irish didn't. So they continued to starve.

But, you ask - why didn't the UK Govt stop exports of grain from Ireland to Britain? It would still have needed to buy grain for the Irish, but not so much. The reason is relevant to today's crisis... /5

Great Britain wasn't self-sufficient in food. Hadn't been since the Napoleonic Wars. Ireland was its primary source of basic foodstuffs. So if the UK Govt stopped grain exports from Ireland to Britain, England and Wales would experience famine (Scotland already had famine) 6/

Stopping Irish exports to Britain would have made no diff. UK Govt had to buy grain on the open market. And the European export bans made that all but impossible. The international price of grain was sky high. So much for repealing the Corn Laws to reduce the price of bread. 7/

How is this relevant today? The US Govt thinks that banning exports of medical supplies will ensure its own hospitals are supplied. But even with export bans, it is not self-sufficient in medical supplies for this pandemic. So it must still buy on the international market. 8/

If other countries also ban exports of good quality medical supplies, the mighty US will be unable to get what it needs. It will be forced to buy unsuitable products at insane prices, as the UK Govt did in 1847, or do without. Either way, people will die.