Successful or not they lied to the public openly about the benefits of wearing masks. Not only does this destroy whatever credibility they had with the public,

Successful or not they lied to the public openly about the benefits of wearing masks. Not only does this destroy whatever credibility they had with the public, but it also shields government and health officials who failed to stockpile enough masks for inevitable outbreaks and offshored our medical productive capacity to China from accountability (making it more likely we will face the same shortages during the next, inevitable crisis).