A cottage industry developed quickly of people making masks at home and giving/selling to their neighbors. I remember buying several from a high school graduate in the neighborhood, very early in the pandemic.
From what I remember, initially they were saying masks are not useful to protect against disease because of various different reasons. Some of them were that general public would not wear masks properly and it would lead to increase in touching your face.
This "anti mask" approach was there until they managed to get enough masks, then changing their guidelines to include masks or even mandate masks. This was publicly admitted.
In my opinion, this whole process was a big mistake as it led to confusion and increase in public distrust of the health officials. How can you suggests masks don't work then change it to masks work but we had to keep them for ourselves.
Second problem is how does the mask not work if the virus spreads through droplets - if masks don't work then it is spread as an aerosol which was initially dismissed.
https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/coronavirus-why-...
Studies done during the SARS epidemic of 2003 found that for medical professionals, wearing any type of mask compared with none can reduce chances of getting sick by about 80 per cent. The N95 mask, which gives better facial coverage and guards against smaller droplets, appears to be somewhat more effective than standard surgical masks. But medical professionals follow strict guidelines in taking masks on and off, discard them after each use, and use additional safeguards like eye protection and gowns to shield themselves. They can help to prevent sick individuals from transmitting the virus by blocking droplets.”
The real story wasn’t masks it was hand washing. Early on it was assumed surface contact would be a major vector, but that turned out not to be the case.
“Don’t think that masks are the miracle solution,” he said. “They are useful for those who are sick to not contaminate others. It’s all about hygiene of the hands.”
Once the amount of airborne transmission and asymptotic carriers seemed a higher factor in spread than initially expected the consensus on to whether to wear them changed but not the consensus they would help with airborne transition in the first place.
So was the initial advice wrong with current understanding? Yes, pretty concretely so at this point, but precisely because it was data driven advice instead of a retrospective or fear based thinking.