It's unclear what you're arguing. The leading experts (Fauci/CDC) who most Americans were paying attention to were not providing this shading of meaning which you are trying to impute to them. That would be the case if they said something like N95 masks will provide excellent protection for you from the virus if worn correctly, but we have a shortage, so please make do with alternatives so that health care workers have access to them. That is not what they said. Instead they sacrificed credibility at the altar of expediency to the detriment of future trust.
What's reductive is assuming that people are motivated exclusively by self-interest instead of trusting them to make good decisions when told the truth.
What's reductive is assuming that people are motivated exclusively by self-interest instead of trusting them to make good decisions when told the truth.