[ Sign up for our Health IQ newsletter for the latest coronavirus updates ]Goldenberg said those who question public health officials or scientists on the effectiveness of masks or vaccines usually do so from a place of “broader mistrust” of the system as a whole.Toby Fyfe, the president of the Ottawa-based Institute on Governance agrees.“I think you see with the masks, it’s sort of manifesting itself in terms of a broader discontent and a lack of faith or trust in those who … tell us what they think we should do,” he said.Fyfe stresses that questioning government authority is nothing new, saying he remembers protests against mandatory seatbelt-wearing.But he believes the process has been exacerbated by social media, which makes it easier.