Dewitt and Fischhoff: The about-face on face masks – or, making recommendations fit the evidence

There’s been confusion and criticism about wearing masks in public. At first, depending on where you lived, you were told it wasn’t a good idea – as was the case across Canada. Within a few weeks, governments in the U.S. and Canada began telling us that, actually, we might consider wearing a cloth mask in order to protect those around us, should we be carrying the virus. People criticized that as an about-face, saying it undermined trust in leaders and that the recommendation s