There’s possible a lot of nuance there, that his short comment lacks (and probably leading to downvotes). There were several pre-pandemic studies that suggested masks would be harmful or didn’t show an effect. Then, state-by-state comparisons of laws in the US also show very little correlation. So if the emphasis was on (still) lacking retrospective evidence, that seems a fair complaint. Very recently, there’s a preprint article by a research group that looked back at the existing studies, and showed that many of them were too underpowered to be even capable of demonstrating the expected benefits. It has a great graph of this (https://www.reddit.com/r/COVID19/comments/pxet7q/unmasking_t...)
So—in contrast to the vaccine, where the data was gathered before giving authorization was given last year—it seems that mask mandates may have been just hopeful trials that assumed there wasn’t long-term problems associated with masks, well in advance of actually having relevant data. And, in further comparison, we also have drugs like HCQ, which were pushed ahead of the data—and continue to be advocate despite continued lack of evidence in large trials. So it feels unclear that data ever mattered as much as being seen doing something? I’m saddened by it all.
An optimisitic interpretation is that mask wearing looked to have a plausible mechanism for benefit, and so as the situation ran ahead of the data, the public health officials probably made a best effort guess that mask wearing will probably help and so made the recommendation. Not all public policy can be 100% informed by data 100% of the time. I like to think that this carried more weight in the decision than just wanting to appear to do something, though I am sure that also played some role.
Thankfully most evidence-respecting organizations including governments have taken the position that it is very unlikely that HCL is of any benefit as the data has become better. Its really only fringe groups who are pushing that one hard still and even many of those have moved on to ivermectin.
So—in contrast to the vaccine, where the data was gathered before giving authorization was given last year—it seems that mask mandates may have been just hopeful trials that assumed there wasn’t long-term problems associated with masks, well in advance of actually having relevant data. And, in further comparison, we also have drugs like HCQ, which were pushed ahead of the data—and continue to be advocate despite continued lack of evidence in large trials. So it feels unclear that data ever mattered as much as being seen doing something? I’m saddened by it all.