Unpack the word “effective” used here. It is still the case that ordinary cloth masks are less effective than higher grade masks. As a health official you are

Unpack the word “effective” used here. It is still the case that ordinary cloth masks are less effective than higher grade masks. As a health official you are weighing the question: do we advocate a sub-optimal approach on the grounds that it is better than nothing, when we know a large segment of the population will be militantly non-compliant anyway? There were anti-mask protests back in the Spanish Flu days too. Point being, it’s not a binary thing, and there’s some consensus that has to be built in the early stages.