It's also spreading fear. It's important to remember the "Everybody Must Wear A Mask" mandate came almost instantly after the riots, which had almost moved the virus off the front page.
They had to restore the fear, and making it so everywhere you turned you saw a person in a surgical mask was their way of doing it.
Actually that’s incorrect.
The “everybody wear a mask” mandates started happening BEFORE the riots. And then during the riots the fact that so many of the rioters were masked made it difficult if not impossible for law enforcement to identify them.
Almost as if that were planned or something.