The sub-text was: healthcare workers need them more, so we should not buy them, but they did say we didn’t need them/ they would do us no good.

travesty ever. It really likens to mass negligent homicide to me.

"They'll just make you touch your face." "They'll give you a false sense of security." Blah blah. It defied logic that the same mask is vital for some people to survive and totally unnecessary--or even HARMFUL-- for the rest of us stupids.

as they not only cut emissions from the wearer but also filter out and shield 95 and 99% of particulates in the air from the wearer?

Everyone else could wear surgical masks or other cloth barriers once the ppe for the med pros was filled.

Yes, it was to save the masks for health care professionals.

No, because they were around those definitely infected and infectious and for regular folk, in public? The recommendation in March was that masks were unnecessary. No reason, just unnecessary, for most people.

Then again, what could it hurt? Still, given the shortage, while it's not a drawback save them for those who need them.

Yes, no, maybe.

Only later did the two merge into the only reason the CDC ever said masks were unnecessary was to conserve them for health-care workers. CYA.

Even scarves were to be used, as last resort, for those who were taking care of a COVID patient. As of March. Before it was ridiculed, it was the CDC.

The guidance changed later. (That's fine by me. Moving situation, increased knowledge, if you don't update your guidance you're a fool. And to criticize those who got it wrong based on incomplete knowledge is to say all failure is a crime, not "some failure is simple lack of knowledge." If you're perfect, then okay, but otherwise ... Not okay.)

... since early April, back when our CDC was saying similar stuff.

Here's what is written, among other stuff, at the WHO site:

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/when-and-how-to-use-masks

If you are healthy, you only need to wear a mask if you are taking care of a person with COVID-19.

to be contagious is the exact moment the order for all to wear masks should have kicked in.

... spreaders could be totally asymptomatic. It was reported in China and other places long before it hit the USA. Maybe the health officials just didn't believe those reports?

astute people like you could get readily available information on the virus--why didn't the leaders of all countries?

the person wearing the mask. They would only protect the other person if you were sick.

Which is bullshit.

Conclusion, Pompeo and the State Department allowed private corporations to buy up and donate supplies to China. And, China was on a mission to scour the planet for masks, coming in as private individuals to buy our supplies directly.

So our leaders knew there would be shortages.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213231210

They said they would not protect us. Only later did they say for us to wear them to protect the other person. I’m trying to remember what Fauci said at that point. Their advice put us at risk. They said all of that to keep us from buying masks. Many of the people that are against wearing the mask here in VA (mandatory in VA) are resisting because of the mixed messages. I know my MIL did not listen to that from the beginning. My FIL had some leftover N95s for his projects. They wore them from day 1.

March 2020: Dr. Anthony Fauci talks with Dr Jon LaPook about COVID-19

That's how I recall all of them behaving back then, mostly concerned about people hoarding masks like toilet paper.

I'm not sure when companies like Amazon made it impossible to buy N95 masks without verifying the buyer was a healthcare facility or government agency, but it seemed like the switch to recommending any kind of face covering happened around the same time period -- i.e., it seemed like they waited until the better masks were secured from the general public before switching their stance on it.

Edit: By the way, thanks for finding those sources!!

make up their own minds and not wait for idiots to tell them what to do.

You are right on Amazon too....we were home by then but it all happened end-ish of March.

April 15

... now doesn't recommend masks, citing their website that hasn't updated since early April. (They implied it was a recent development, however.)

So there's assholes like them working against the common good too. I sometimes wonder if people like Rupert Murdoch actually HATE this country.

Asking you to wear a mask while going to Price Chopper isn't about control! UGH!!!

And they're STILL claiming us Dems are making it worse than it is to hurt trump - 110K dead, 1000 a day die, and its still just a blown-up Dem hoax!

Like Megan Trainor say - Its all about the base - fool some of the people all of the time, and those are dumbass trumpers.

They give them to chemo patients to wear because of the immunosuppression, so it makes no sense that they don't work.

The way they keep changing their "advice" makes me believe them even less. I'll keep doing what I think best.

just a common sense point of view.

It's really negligent to say don't use a mask because you might not use it right or because it's taking from someone else who needs it.

Maybe the underlying truth will come out one day. It stinks to high heaven.