Actually, the advice was that the ordinary public didn't need to wear them and it was based on fears that there wouldn't be enough for medical workers as they would disappear like the toilet roll did. The advice about masks from health authorties is based on many factors, from the pragmatic use due to supply and their usefulness in preventing transmission based on research and the advice of people whose job is knowing about these things. The proliferation of misinformation about masks by people who can barely tie their shoelaces is at best bad information during normal times but during a pandemic, it is down right dangerous. Their claims that the mask doesn't protect the wearer is correct to some extent but they fail to point out that the mask that I wear, protects other people. The masks, combined with social distancing would bring down the 'r' value but because there are so many people having "learned" this misinformation and not taken precautions, we are now heading into a second wave. This is directly the fault of these people spreading the misinformation as the cost will be many more dead, more lost jobs and more damage to the world economy. If they had any valid evidence or even any real medical training (homeopathy is not valid training), there would be a case for them to present their case but most of the ones that I have seen, to put it as nicely as I can, are completely clueless.