I don't think people were being punished for saying "masks might not work", but rather for things such as "mask mandates are literally exactly the same as Nazi

I don't think people were being punished for saying "masks might not work", but rather for things such as "mask mandates are literally exactly the same as Nazi Germany" and that type of thing. Same with the trans women, which often was (and still is) more along the lines of "the only reason is sexual deviants who want to rape our kids". I'm sure there are some exceptions here and there for people who said some more nuanced things, but that was not the norm.