Scarce medical oxygen worldwide leaves many gasping for life

[ProfessorGAC]

1. I Believe It

Those plants that purify and bottle gasses are not built to absorb a 50 or 100 or 200% increase in daily demand.
Admittedly there is unused capacity, because most of these plants don't run 24/7. The bulk side might, but not the bottle filling part.
So, the could run OT and increase capacity by 40%. But that's about it, and that's not all of them.
The purified oxygen side is highly regulated so shortcuts are illegal, at least in North America, Europe & Japan. (Likely Australia, too.)
The capital cost of expanded bottling is not very high, but the opposite is true of the full scale purification systems.
That's high capital cost and project time would be measured in months not weeks.
In a pandemic involving respiratory illness, this was a predictable outcome.