[bkor]

WHO said that masks are very helpful for Asia. Netherlands government also mention that the usefulness of masks is questionable at best. This despite that the masks obviously do help.

It seems that this was said because there's a huge shortage of masks. People starting hoarding them, plus stealing them from hospitals and so on.

So yeah, WHO did mention masks aren't super useful for the general public, but seems like the reason is mostly because to prevent people going crazy for masks.

The bit about people thinking their safe due to a bad mask is also mentioned by the Dutch government btw. And they decide for themselves, they do not just follow whatever WHO says.