Better safe than sorry on the masks. Common sense. Can't take guidance from a political party that still sucks trump's dick even after he tried to over throw this country on January 6th.
Safety from an epidemic means to try to accelerate it as fast as possible, so that it does not have a chance to spread further, and it quickly dies out by using up the easy local hosts.
By trying to slow it down by "flattening the curve", you not only give is more time to spread as far as possible, but you prevent herd immunity from ending it, and you can make it last forever then.