The question is why it was ever discouraged, and why it's taken so long for authorities to admit they were wrong. (Supply shortage seems like a terrible excuse

The question is why it was ever discouraged, and why it's taken so long for authorities to admit they were wrong. (Supply shortage seems like a terrible excuse to me given the simplicity of masks and the DPA etc.) It is incredibly obvious that masks do something and that their use helps explain the successful response to the pandemic in Singapore and Korea. It's also something that will need to be mandated to have an effect. Authorities are all too happy to order workers to stay home and create incredible hardship for themselves, but ignore common sense measures like mask usage.