> public health officials thought it was a good idea to lie to the public for months with vague dismissals of the benefits of masks - merely to protect supply c

> public health officials thought it was a good idea to lie to the public for months with vague dismissals of the benefits of masks - merely to protect supply chains for doctors It was weeks, not months. By mid-march, conventional wisdom had shifted, as had most of the official rhetoric. This was before or simultaneous with most of the early lockdowns. And it was wrong. But the real harm was caused much later when political actors started arguing not based on this early advice that masks were ineffective/harmful/tyrannical, or (even worse) that the expert advice now was not to be trusted because the experts then got it wrong. Basically: the people who refuse to wear a mask aren't the ones slavishly honoring the whims of the WHO or Fauci, so I don't understand your point.