What if you wait to buy the same mask until the pandemic starts? Maybe the cost doubles, but rather than having to buy ten masks over a 100-year period, you only have to buy one.
I think cost much more than doubles: at the beginning of covid high-quality masks were essentially not available at all. If you imagine something like uncontained SARS I expect this would be even worse.
What if you wait to buy the same mask until the pandemic starts? Maybe the cost doubles, but rather than having to buy ten masks over a 100-year period, you only have to buy one.
I think cost much more than doubles: at the beginning of covid high-quality masks were essentially not available at all. If you imagine something like uncontained SARS I expect this would be even worse.