when many of the "masks aren't needed" comments were made we had a very small number of cases nationwide. It was only semi-related to your point about supply and I probably should have put my first paragraph second and my second paragraph first. This is pure speculation on my part but I also am not sure they trusted the general public to be able to differentiate between "medical" PPE type masks and cloth masks with regards to hoarding. I do agree that potential hoarding was definitely one of the reasons for the recommendation and I should have been clearer about that. I don't think it was the sole reason but it was certainly one of them.

My actual disagreement is with the idea that the WHO/CDC caused the divide simply because from the outset there were various factions (at various levels of government and otherwise) who were already disagreeing or attempting to discredit the CDC/WHO on various points related to the virus. In that respect I'm not sure it would have mattered what those organizations said... there was already a subset of the population (fueled by certain leaders) that had decided that the doctors and scientists didn't know what they were talking about. Sure the CDC saying people didn't need to wear them and then changing their recommendation gave anti-maskers an excuse but they would have found one anyways in my opinion.