Yes there were different reasons you didn’t have to wear masks for the general public. Ironically to a extent mask do help. They helped lighten the load of exposure. Reason is or main reason is too many people never learned to cover their mouth when they coughed or stay away from people who werent sick at least at a distance like in a waiting room. I believe that’s why they made this distance rules. It wasn’t as much for preventing it as viruses unlike germs are lighter and can float around for awhile even after a person moved from that area. Its more about the load of the numbers of the virus ones exposed to and the better the mask the lesser the load.
I’m sure Trump was made to believe he was saving the people and was being lied to. He was also criticized for wanting alternatives and treatments by so called science ” fiction’ you weren’t supposed to question. He was also criticized for shutting down the borders. But also he was saving the country from the lock downs and did not mandate it. It wasn’t just killing people with Covid of the jab. It was killing people who needed to see a doctor for a plethora of other things that were treatable if diagnosed and treated in time who couldn’t be seen or on a camera which didn’t do much good because corporate sell outs where colluding for money. What was the Aussies PM doing?