if you can smell a fart through a mask you can get the sweet n sour sniffles

All add my anecdote to this. Coworker just found out the girl he escorted at a wedding was positive and he was not infected. They locked arms unmasked and walked in stride multiple times and sat in close proximity for hours.

These are good questions. (srs)

Simple cloth masks aren't going to be 100% effective. I think we can all agree on that. The better the mask (e.g. N95 > simple cloth mask), the better the filtration.

As far as directionality goes, I'll go with a graphic and imperfect analogy: imagine you're shopping and a rando naked guy runs into the store and is about to rip a nasty wet fart. Would you prefer that he has some sort of a diaper (even a cloth diaper) or would you prefer having a cloth mask on for the event, or would you prefer both? Again, I know, it's an imperfect analogy, but I'm trying to show a point that with all fart exit and entry points covered, you reduce the smells to some degree. Better diapers, better masks, and you get better results.

All people are encouraged to wear masks because even though asymptomatic/presymptomatic carriers are less infectious than the symptomatic, they still have potential to transmit the virus. The strategy also factors in that not all people will follow directions anyway.

You're right that such a study as you described would never be performed as a prospective trial as it is unethical and no IRB would touch it. We do have prospective epidemiological studies (e.g.https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/su...aff.2020.00818) that suggest that community masking mandates are associated with declining COVID-19 infection rates, but as an epidemiological study, many variables cannot be controlled for such as enforcement of such mandates. However, I'd argue that makes the data more pragmatic.

It will reduce droplets, yes. Does that matter when the main source of infection is aerosols in an indoor setting? Probably not.https://swprs.org/face-masks-evidence/There are also 10 studies in the above link showing facemasks are NOT effective in a general public. It is NOT an anti-covid site though, and here is the conclusion they draw:

Interesting.

I'll add an anecdote... buddy had a co-worker test positive. They required everyone be tested. He blew it off and went golfing. Got a call from the lab saying he tested positive. Never even showed up.

So perhaps she was one of those false positive cases to inflate the metrics. And you can't convince me this isn't happening.

One more anecdote... my 93 year old grandmother caught it back in April. Very healthy for her age... was hospitalized out of caution. Never had more than a mild fever, beat it in two weeks.

The fact of the mater is the rona is just plowing through those who are already in horrible shape. Survival rate of 99% up to 80 years old and then it's 94%. The sweet n sour sniffles... so deadly you have to go and find out if you have it.

I wear a mask like a good boy and I currently have a cold, how does this happen?

This coronavirus is very smart, it knows it cannot penetrate masks, the other cold viruses are stupid and penetrate masks.

My 19 yo was asymptomatic and didn't give it to any of us.

Clearly the virus knew it was a special time for her and decided to spare her family.

I don't know what the study says but here's my take. Coronavirus can survive on aerosol spit put into the air for some amount of time, maybe a few hours. A loose fitting cloth mask will filter out maybe 50-80%. A N95 about 95%. N99 about 99% and N or P100 99.97. That's of a certain size particle that the mask filters but we can assume that the virus will be stopped by it. The virus is smaller than the 2.5micrometers size the N-xxx system rates to but that'll stop the spit droplettes or dust that the virus is usually carried by. Cloth and even n95 aren't doing all that much, you'll still probably get it if you go into a cloud of coughed up virus aerosols.

The loose fitting cloth masks do help keep down how much spit people emanate. A virus where initial virus exposure and load matter, it does help to lessen the exposure. Its like having less ACE2 expression. So it does help but is it worth the cost?

My personal opinion is if people don't want to get the virus to wear a N100 and put the responsibility on the people who have special considerations to look out for themselves. It would help to put a 2nd cloth mask over the vent on a P100 mask but that's more of a courtesy to others. Would be nice if everyone did but clearly we are in a country where a great % of people don't want to wear a mask. Isolate and protect the weak. If people want to wear a mask a quality 3M 7500 series with a nice fitting face gasket (think cpap) w/n or p100 is minimum to prevent or reduce exposure. What's going on now with mandates and people sloppily just abiding because they have to isn't really effective and causing a lot of problems.

People don't even know how to put on masks properly. Cloth masks probably do nothing at best.

+1 though for knowing that other masks besides N95 exist.