This was IMO one of the great blunders which seriously damaged trust in governments. Would we have had as many firmly anti-mask people if the story had always b

This was IMO one of the great blunders which seriously damaged trust in governments. Would we have had as many firmly anti-mask people if the story had always been "Masks probably work, but please don't don't buy them because healthcare workers need them"? Probably not. Morally, I don't think it's acceptable to lie "for the greater good"; people who would otherwise have used masks they already owned might have died due to that lie. Strategically, I think undermining trust in medical institutions is the most dangerous thing you can do during a crisis like the covid pandemic.