Which is damning in that they treated us like children who couldn't handle the truth and were also so unimaginative that they did not consider alternative face coverings.
The government communication in the UK has been lamentable. Confusing, inconsistent and patronising. On the other hand, we had idiots who stripped the supermarket shelves of toilet rolls and canned tomatoes for months despite being implored not to do so. If they had gone after the masks...
Yes we should not have taken masks that would go to the NHS but don't forget those masks should have been in government stockpiles well out of reach. How can we blame and punish the publics self control (or lack of it) when it's a government failure that caused the issue. Had we all bought masks and the state made them instead of redundant hospitals perhaps we would be in a much better place (less NHS casualties and physical/mental suffering).
All in all it just doesn't sit right with me to justify the government's decision without mentioning they were the ones that put us in the position where it had to be made.
There is now, and was then, plenty of evidence to suppose that enough people would not handle the truth responsibly, and would panic-buy masks rather than adopt alternatives.
Is the US government so impotent that it can't ask retailers to ship their supplies of masks to a commandeered warehouse? Of course some would go missing, but substantially all would arrive.