[ericyan]

I am not sure if indicating anyone lack of basic understanding of economics counts a personal attack, but calling people as assholes surely is.

Since you talked about PPEs, you can check what happened in Wuhan during the first outbreak. The Chinese government demands no price increase for PPEs such as face masks... and what happened? The hospitals asked the public for donation of N95 facemasks because they cannot get those from the market. Every one in China are of course entitled for protecting themselves, but the truth is, at that time supply is simply not enough for the whole population and medical workers who needed those most cannot get them even the hospitals have enough dry powder to pay up. The market was awfully inefficient at that time.

Having every single mask strapped to a face and zero masks in a warehouse is far from enough. In a shortage, you need MORE facemasks. You need to make sure there will be enough are being supplied at the market. With a pricing cap, there will be no incentive for putting stock in the warehouse on sale and producing more, and it makes things worse.