Dorian, now you're simply grasping at straws to avoid the true issue of whether masks provide some degree of protection for both the mask wearer and the rest of us and therefore both help in limiting the spread of and some degree of avoided infection versus masks do nothing at all but cause hard feelings.
There is no doubt in my mind that diligent use of high quality masks have had a big impact on my avoiding infection to date and very likely you too have potentially avoided exposure due to mask usage without even realizing it.
Don't know that I've ever opined masks provide no protection at all... "If you absolutely can't avoid close contact indoors, wear a mask, & it may help, but don't portray them as magic shields against aerosol infections, and destroy entire (dining) economies because you can't eat while wearing them."
My humble opinion is that the limited protection they offer has been over-played, and the resulting false sense of security has resulted in folks dropping their guard with social distancing which is far more effective.
Once masks became mandatory, the "wash-your-hands" / social distancing got pushed to a back burner, and masks became the Holy Grail of plague safety. We saw how well this worked over the Winter, when plague swept the masked-up globe like a tsunami.
When something isn't working well, logic dictates different priorities. Keep some distance between yourself & the rest of the world, & stop swapping air with strangers. It ain't that hard, & just might be more effective.
There is no plague in Wuhan anymore, as they enforced social distancing & isolation, which completely halted transmission in less than a month.
We can go with what the evidence shows works, or keep trying what doesn't. I prefer evidence based protocols.
Edited by Dorian Grey, 09 March 2021 - 07:35 PM.