Data? It's literally the definition of supply and demand. And when there is competition in the marketplace, lower prices and accepting smaller margins is inevit

Data? It's literally the definition of supply and demand. And when there is competition in the marketplace, lower prices and accepting smaller margins is inevitably used to gain competitive advantage. If prices stay artificially high (and uniform) across multiple manufacturers after there is plenty of product in the marketplace, then there may be collusion. Collusion is illegal and should be prosecuted accordingly. And to address your alarmism: if people are dying, it's safe to assume that a lack of PPE contributes to that. And people don't have PPE because the free market isn't being allowed to produce it. That's the point. I'm not the one "sticking" to an ideology.