COVID was an unprecedented event requiring an extreme global response to stem the rate of infection. There was a drastic change in product demand with many nations requesting Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) and Lateral Flow Devices (LFDs). The change in demand coupled with lockdown measures exposed the fragility and unresponsiveness of global supply chains resulting in nations competing with one another for supply. Supply was often delayed and insufficient in quantity. Accounts reported it took nearly six months for supply to stabilise. In contrast, Additive Manufacturing (AM) and the ‘Maker’ community thrived in designing and producing products to support society. Through a reflective study analysing COVID test data, this paper shows that the UK’s distributed AM capacity (an estimated 168,000 AM machines distributed across homes, educational settings, offices, and industrial facilities) could have provided the nation with the devices it needed with day-ahead demand forecasting. Government funds would have supported UK AM, reduced the carbon footprint of shipping LFD tests from other nations, manufactured only what was required (25% of PPE was not used) and prevented an estimated 25 swimming pools worth of single use plastic waste. The paper discusses the Social Change and platform required to realise distributed AM as a global supply chain that can support nations in being more resilient, responsive, and sustainable.