Hospital facilities across the nation have begun securing supplies of PPE or personal protective equipment under lock and key citing theft of biohazard gear by hospital staff as fears over the Coronavirus outbreak deepen.

Staff at Rapid City Regional Hospital reveal a directive issued this week to move all biohazard protective gear like viral masks, face shields, biosafety suits, goggles and other gear into locked rooms after reports that inventory was being pilfered by hospital staff for personal use. Similar actions are reportedly being taken by dozens of other hospitals across the nation, documented in published reports about facilities in Omaha, Tulsa, Indianapolis, Miami and Seattle.

The measures come in a week when the Centers for Disease Control angered citizens by demanding that people stop buying antiviral N95 facemasks, simultaneously claiming that the masks don’t work for average people, but are essential for health workers.

“Seriously people — STOP BUYING MASKS!” tweeted U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome M. Adams on Feb. 29. He explained masks aren’t effective in protecting the general public “but if healthcare providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!”

As with everything else in the Trump era, the severity and scope of the present pandemic are now subject to competing political narratives, with many supporters of President Donald Trump circulating the mantra that the virus is being overstated and hyped to damage Trump politically. Meanwhile, others in the prepper and survivalist camps are issuing warning, citing clinical statistics and published virological capacities of the virus that identify COVID-19 as potentially the most potent, transmissible, untraceable and lethal atypical pathogen in the modern era.

Efforts by Trump and his administration to downplay the virus as no different than the flu, or even a common cold as conservative Scion, Rush Limbaugh asserted on his national radio program are contradicted by a growing number of mathematical and computer models produced by immunology and virology experts predicting 20-70% global infection rates and a death toll measured in the tens of millions or higher. Pentagon studies have predicted a 50% infection rate for the U.S. population and as many as 3.2-million deaths.

Bulk staple retailers like Sam’s Club and Costco are evidencing public perception about the approaching spread on American soil, selling out of daily essential items like bottled water, toilet paper, Lysol, Clorox, hand sanitizer and non-perishable food lines, canned goods, dry pasta, rice and beans.