Except that wasn't the actual message coming from the Surgeon General. The original message appears to intentionally obscure the fact that not only does the US not have enough masks for our civilians, we also don't have enough masks for our health care professionals.
In emergency situations, it's possible misleading the public might be somewhat necessary to reach optimal health outcomes. There is substantial literature on this question with regards to climate change messaging.
The government already misleads the public when it exaggerates things like the actual threat of terrorism to the average American, at least this time it is lying with some sort of societal good in mind.
Even if we grant the premise, this is just such a dumb lie. It's universally obvious that masks work; you can look at pictures of everyone in other countries wearing masks, and the 1 second thought of "the virus has a hard time going through the mask" is substantially correct. How's anyone who realized that they lied about masks supposed to trust their other public health recommendations?
Perhaps, but it also pours gasoline on the flame of skepticism, once the cat is out of the bag and there's proof that they have lied. I.e. those decisions don't exist in a vacuum, they require (and burn) trust built in the past and decrease trust in the future. At some point it ceases to work and only makes things worse.
Agreed, I think that managing trust is important. At the same time, choices have to be made about what information to emphasize and what to not emphasize, this is inherent to communication.
I think our government's decision to emphasize to the public that masks are not completely protective and that washing your hands is a more effective intervention is probably a good one, even if it neglects the fact that masks are more helpful than not.
