There were multiple sources from health organizations, not just in the United States which early on said wearing masks was a mistake including CDC and WHO. So I don’t think there was a coordination of effort between US organizations along with global health organizations falsifying information across the globe . I do think there was a false sense that it was like the flu and wouldn’t serve a purpose. Whether there was any early science behind this we may never know. The fact of the matter is we are told to follow the science but if the scientists in charge are providing a directive that is false , then what ? there are still scientific studies that are in conflict on this including a danish study which was recently peer reviewed waiting to be published which said it doesn’t bring value. Am I going to change my behavior because one study conflicts with other ? No. .I wear a mask and will continue to wear a mask until this thing is over unless multiple studies begin to tell a different story..I will let the scientists debate the validity of that reviewed paper. Ultimately my point to what I wrote is , in many cases science evolves over time, refining its findings or in some cases, changes direction with a different result..that is factual