One of the problems is that the state and local governments are bidding against each other and driving up prices. If the federal government was the single source for buying the goods from the manufacturers and the states and local governments reimbursed the federal government for the items they need that would take the price gouging out of it.
Private users are also in the bidding. You want to exclude them from being able to buy, thus effectively nationalizing the industries in question?
Better would be for the various state health departments to tell the various hospitals' regulatory bodies that it is the responsibility of hospitals to have enough supplies of masks, protective gear, etc, etc to meet an epidemic, and to remember to rotate and replace stock as it becomes old.
Perhaps the state and federal government could give tax breaks for maintaining inventory of important gear (currently, a manufacturer/distributor who maintains inventory has to pay tax on the inventory as a business asset -- this should be waived for certain things)
Price gouging is illegal. Maybe you didn’t know that. And maybe you didn’t know that Trump does not run the states and local hospitals. We are a couple of weeks into this “pandemic” with barely a fraction of the numbers of a typical flu season, and the hospitals are already running out of supplies? And maybe you just see an opportunity to trash Trump, it’s your MO.