In the past nations could respond to trying times by putting a great many people to work, both to keep them busy and produce needed products. Roosevelt created the WPA and TVA in part to respond to the Great Depression. Similarly Pearl Harbor and German aggression caused an all hands on deck building effort to produce everything needed to fight a world war. These efforts employed millions. But they were performing tasks as teams, in factories, often in close proximity to each other.
This virus outbreak negates that as an option. It’s going to be tricky to finesse making what we need, in the almost incomprehensible and possibly unattainable quantities we need all of it, when people are supposed to be avoiding each other. I suppose every factory could employ the same measures you see in videos of the workforce in a clean room lab, with everyone in a hazmat suit, mask and goggles.
It has to be done, but it’s not going to be easy.