People were going to hoard masks no matter what. Lying to them doesn't help, but it definitely reduces trust.
A competent administration would have bought up enough of (or all of) the PPE inventory as soon as they understood what was coming. At that point, there would have been no need to lie, because there would have been nothing left for the public to hoard.
I'm not blaming the CDC, or the SG. I'm blaming the political decision makers above them
And I agree with your last point of course.
At what cost? How many people have died because mask wearing was discouraged during the early part of the pandemic? We will probably never know, but I would not be surprised if that advice caused a lot of deaths by allowing the virus to spread more easily.
Again I don’t defend these actions, I’m just trying to reason why they decided to go that way and not the most instintive one “let’s be fully transparent” (at least for HN anyway).
Face coverings were ordered in many states starting in April.