They specifically said "There is no evidence that mask use reduces transmission." ...despite a 2003 SARS WHO study showing a 65% reduction in community transmission even with basic surgical masks.

The conspiracy people say it's because they wanted to protect mask supplies - but most people just blame incompetence.

Which study are you referring to?

I can only find one paper by the WHO from 2003 that discusses the effectiveness of masks in reducing transmission of SARS.[1] The paper says that because many different social distancing and hygiene measures were taken at the same time, it is impossible to assess how effective each individual measure was. For example, the abstract states,

> The independent effectiveness of measures to "increase social distance" and wearing masks in public places requires further evaluation.

I found plenty of papers that find that mask use by healthcare workers in hospitals is effective, but that's not the same as what you're claiming.

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3329045/

They said/say not to wear facemask meant for health care workers [0] presumably so that there are more for the healthcare workers.

0 https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-si...