The outrage comes from government and other health officials making claims early on that masks were not as effective, and that maintaining social distance and i

The outrage comes from government and other health officials making claims early on that masks were not as effective, and that maintaining social distance and isolation was better (which I agree). But this was merely used as distraction to allow healthcare facilities to snatch up the existing supplies of high quality n95 masks before the public could (see toilet paper apocalypse 2020). Then the government changed their statements and said that masks were effective, and everyone should use them. It's the switching and lying to the public that leads to a lack of trustworthiness. You can argue that they didn't know the efficacy of mask usage, but that isn't the point here. It's that they lied to the American public for an ulterior motive, which is wrong.