It's like how they claimed that masks were worthless, and we shouldn't wear them, knowing straight up that this was a lie, but we couldn't be trusted with that info until medical professionals had enough PPE. Pretty soon it will be obligatory to wear one when leaving the home.

In this case, if they try to tell us that we're all likely to get it anyway, and that this is only to buy time to figure out treatments, get more ventilators, and otherwise prepare, people are going to say screw it, I may as well do what I want since I'm probably going to get the virus anyway.

I'm only about 50/50 that this is what's happening--sheer incompetence is another strong candidate--but it's my hunch.