I have had the same thought, but can’t think of a different response. There would have been reports in the news that medical facilities didn’t have the supplies they needed, because they didn’t. They kept reporting that medical personnel would die if they didn’t get masks and gloves and other protective gear. Anyone paying the least bit of attention to what was being said about the medical community was asking themselves why it wasn’t just as important for the public to have the same protections. So it was important to discourage the general public from buying the few supplies there were at the time.
I suppose they could have restricted sales to medical facilities only, but I think that would have caused a panic among the general public when they couldn’t get the same protection. Imagine if the public had treated masks like TP, and people were breaking into supplies at medical facilities to get them. There are such strong feelings on both sides of the issue that I can picture people being desperate to get their hands on them if they were restricted from buying them. I believe the experts would have liked to tell us all to wear masks from the beginning, especially when they weren’t as sure how it was spreading, because as soon as DIY masks went viral they were encouraging everyone to wear homemade masks.
Just this week, they released information that says the mask protects the wearer as well as those around them. That seems like common sense to me, and I have felt that way from the beginning. But I also feel that would have increased the desperation to get masks at a time they weren’t readily available, and that was the last thing we needed at the time. I am just thankful that I am not the one having to provide the latest information to the public. That seems like a rather thankless job to me.