It would have been stupid if they had billions of masks laying around somewhere. Governments have been downplaying the usefulness of masks because their embarrassed how ill prepared they were for this on the one hand, and they need to give the masks that they actually have to medical professionals on the other.

It's stupid to have a mandatory mask policy when there's only enough masks for 5% of the population, and essentials are selling out on the internet. Do you see why that would be catastrophically stupid?