Fwiw, masks do work, even the sub n95s, just not 100% effective. Only somewhat effective. Somewhat effective, whatever that % is is better than 0% effective. If it slows transmission down, it's accomplished what it's supposed to. And incidence communicable diseases dropped dramatically, and no doubt some of that was due to people working from home, but also from mask usage.
Mask usage has been around a while (long before Covid was a thing) and some people use them regularly for myriad reasons, i.e. immuno-compromised or so.e health condition. Masks do work, even if not 100% effective. I rarely wear masks, and I don't think they should be mandated unless very narrow circumstances, i.e. an immediate or serious emergency situation.
We weren't exactly guinea pigs. The type of vaccine used had already been around for over a decade. What was different was the vaccines developed were specifically to target the strains already known. It was still a novel virus and with all of the unknown factors, its not surprising that recommendations shifted as more was learned about the virus. For a while there was a lot of debate about the transmissibility and viral loads needed to cause significant infection and debate on who was most vulnerable to the virus because even seemingly healthy people were dying from it during the worst months.
And keep in minds that tens of thousands of people went through through clinical trials in 2020 before the vaccines were approved by the FDA. Anyone saying there weren't trials is using conspiracy theory sources to support their claims.
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2A22CD/
No comment on the politics as that is for the MAP site.