If there is a super deadly virus out there making people drop dead, what the fuck is a mask going to to stop it?
As for not spreading it to other people - let me think, here's an idea for people, cough and sneeze into your sleeve, that's actually advice doctors have given for many years.
I used to not own a mask until one was foisted upon me recently. I successfully refused to wear a mask in a place where I had someone practically threaten to kick me out for not wearing one, and guess what? I didn't catch the wuflu, the person I met with didn't have the wuflu, and everyone is still alive and not sick. When I opened the plastic baggie with the "mask" in it, I found it was a nasty, see-though cut up chunk of a cat owner's old t-shirt. I am allergic to cats. If I had put the "mask" on, I would have started coughing and sneezing like I actually had the virus. The irony was not lost on me. I chucked it in the bin.