One of the things we are learning from the China Virus is that we as a country are very vulnerable to pandemics — particularly those that are inflicted on us. It’s a sobering reminder of why America needs secure borders, the intelligence community, and much better preparation through bringing key manufacturing back home.

For starters, while we should not minimize the tens of thousands of Americans infected and the hundreds who have died, we also need to realize that with COVID-19, America got lucky. This virus does not appear to be very lethal, at least compared to the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, which killed between 8,720 and 18,050 people in the United States.

So why did COVID-19 pretty much shut down the economy? One reason was because of a cover-up by the People’s Republic of China. Had the Chinese communists been honest, we would not be seeing the bad situation we have today. We would have had more time to get ready. We’d be further along with possible treatments and cures. There would have been time to make more masks, including the N95. There would still be hits, but you wouldn’t be so desperate in trying to find hand sanitizer or toilet paper.

In a way, America is suffering from a biological warfare attack. Now, nobody is saying Xi Jinping ordered the attack. But the cover-up intended to avoid embarrassing the ChiCom regime arguably created the biowarfare version of a “negligent discharge.”

So, one of the things we have learned is that we need our intelligence community to find out this sort of stuff. Sadly, Spygate’s fraying of the bonds of trust and the betrayal of Patriots in that community have done some very serious damage to our ability to get the information we need to protect ourselves. So did the way we lost so many of our sources in China.

It goes without saying that we need to rebuild our intelligence community and restore the frayed bonds of trust. But knowing something is happening is not enough. We need to be able to do something about it.

Part of that is having the ability to secure our borders. It’s clear that Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the United States Coast Guard are all way too small to secure our borders. Massive increases are in order, and they need to have quality training.

In fact, just as we have reserves for our Armed Forces, we should establish reserves for CBP and ICE. This is not unusual — many major police and fire departments have reserve units as well. But this would enhance border security, and not just in the case of pandemics.

Finally, we have learned that we need to be better prepared at home. Part of this is having the ability to manufacture what we need at the quality we need. When 80% of the testing kits China sent to Prague failed, it’s best not to count on them. So, we need to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. Make America a place that businesses want to come to.

That may mean slashing the corporate income tax (again) — or, better yet, abolishing it altogether — to bring the factories home. And don’t call it a giveaway — you pay Walmart’s corporate income tax every time you shop there.

It also means we keep the lines going. We should have stockpiles of the medical equipment necessary. But not just medical equipment. There are other things we may have to stockpile. In some respects, it’s like a war. You laughed at preppers before, but are you laughing now?

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown America where it is vulnerable. Thankfully, the vulnerabilities can be fixed. But it will take work and sacrificing some sacred cows.