There weren't masks to wear.

In the tweet linked, they explain that in the Czech Republic there's been a social movement around making your own masks, giving them out, etc.

It's here in the US, too, but on a much reduced scale. My wife made some masks to hand out, getting the idea from her cousin who was putting her children who are not in school to work making masks for donation.

True, but that itself is a symptom of bigger problems. The problem isn't which people should or shouldn't have masks. The problem is a lack of supply chain capacity and inventory, and the SNS should have 6 billion masks and 100k ventilators.

Lying to people doesn't help public health or fix the problems of the federal government failing to act. The AARC told HHS to get their act together about the SNS on ventilators, but the govt didn't.

You could easily build your own masks out of stuff at home which would be better than nothing.