Among the media reports that have circulated in recent days: An emergency room doctor who worked for a hospital in Washington state says he was fired after talking to a reporter about the lack of protective gear. A nurse in Chicago has filed a lawsuit in Illinois state court claiming she was unlawfully retaliated against for telling colleagues that N95 masks were more effective than the masks her hospital was handing out. A nurse in Oklahoma had his contract terminated after talking to the media about the lack of personal protective equipment. And a hospital in New York City threatened medical staff with firings if they spoke to the press without approval.

It appears likely that there will be more such cases, especially as a surge of patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, is expected to hit the nation’s healthcare system amid a dire shortage of N95 masks and other gear. Confusion stemming in part from a lack of clear information from the federal government, particularly from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about the effectiveness of various kinds of protective gear is stoking fear among healthcare workers that they and many of their colleagues will be lost to the pandemic.

That fear is well founded. In Houston, an emergency room nurse fell gravely ill after testing people for COVID-19 after his hospital could not find an N95 mask and gave him a thin surgical mask instead. A nurse in New York City working at a hospital that didn’t have enough protective gear tested positive for the disease and died last week. More than 60 doctors in Italy have died after catching COVID-19 while treating people.