Imagine how things might be different if officials were more straightforward with the public:

On masks, health officials could initially have said that no studies yet showed masks to be effective in fighting this virus — and that they might not be — but that there were reasons to think they would be.

On outdoor Covid transmission, the C.D.C. could have avoided trumpeting a single statistic — technically accurate, but misleading and alarming — and explained the full, largely reassuring picture.

On rapid Covid tests, the F.D.A. could have approved them as quickly as some other countries have and explained the circumstances in which the tests were, and were not, useful.

In most of these cases, health officials ultimately decided that they were willing to trust Americans with something resembling the full truth. It just took awhile. That’s the path the government is following on J.&J. booster shots.