I remember this being explicitly stated: please leave the masks for front line workers. In the US in the early days of the pandemic one item that kept reappearing in the news was the insufficiency of the PPE supply, including masks. The Trump administration was getting pounded on (outside of his friendly media) for the insufficiency of its efforts to remedy this. They were leaving it up to the states to duke it out among themselves. Supplies, including masks, were being horded and then resold at exorbitant prices. Jared was in the news for a shady deal relating to acquiring masks. There were news stories about people selling defective masks. I don't understand how this all seems to have dropped out of everyone's memory.

Which is criminal in any way you look at it.