It is not enough for the authority to be knowledgeable, their incentives must also be aligned. If people appeal to the authority to do something, then it may do whatever is expedient regardless of merit.

With limited knowledge, I'm inclined to go along with measures that are low cost and have a plausible explanation wrt. effectiveness. That being said, if the mask situation has shown us anything, it's that the authorities are neither trustworthy nor competent.