I'm an engineer who works in aerosol science. This is not true. Saliva droplets are huge compared to smoke aerosols, and masks are definitely effective at stopping droplets.

The problem with masks was never their effectiveness, it was that the CDC and every other health "professional" spent months lying about them. We were told that they weren't effective up until April, which was a known falsehood to anybody who works in this field. So of course there was then backlash when they turned around and started requiring them. But we should be better than spreading fake information like this picture.