>It sounds like federal agencies are stepping in to investigate and prevent price gouging This is not correct. There is overwhelming evidence that the federal

>It sounds like federal agencies are stepping in to investigate and prevent price gouging This is not correct. There is overwhelming evidence that the federal government is seizing private supplies of masks for redistribution. I find accounts like this quite chilling, note that the federal agents don't dispute that these are the property of a hospital, it takes (political)force to keep their stuff: "After receiving my assurances and hearing about our health system’s urgent needs, the agents let the boxes of equipment be released and loaded into the trucks. But I was soon shocked to learn that the Department of Homeland Security was still considering redirecting our PPE. Only some quick calls leading to intervention by our congressional representative prevented its seizure."[1] 1) https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2010025 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2010025