Your gambit is a bit tough to swallow. Saving the lives of people currently and reducing the spread of a virus quickly vs a speculative view that in the long term the pandemic will have a worse out-come factoring in all the costs. Thats a very tough operational decision to make. Though, to be fair, I think we will have a good sense of how that factored out in comparing Texas to California over the next medium to longer term. I don't feel sure footed in the pandemic. I do feel absolutely certain in the science that masks work, vaccines work as do social distancing measures for reducing the spread.

If you are implying that the surgeon general said don't wear masks then yes I would say it was an uneducated statement or alternatively that he was under political duress to appease the president's administration. After all the Surgeon General is a political appointee serving at the whim of the president.

Are there better ways to implement shutdowns? Probably yes. Are those difficult decisions to make? Absolutely. Are they made with imperfect information? Yes.

I'm not politically devoted to my position - what part of my comments have been political?