France Destroyed Nearly 1.7 Billion Masks Before the Pandemic, Believing They Would Not Be Needed

French authorities destroyed billions of masks just before the coronavirus pandemic, believing they would no longer be needed. This was reported by Korrespondent, noting that around 1 billion standard medical masks and 714 million special FFP2 masks were incinerated.

This shortsighted move left France, which has a population of 67 million, with only 117 million masks available at the start of the pandemic.