Every study I've seen comparing cloth masks to standard surgical masks actually shows cloth masks pose a higher risk of infection than wearing no mask at all. It basically creates a moist bacteria trap directly in front of your mouth with less filtration than a surgical one. Beyond that, that there was no statistical difference in rate of infection between wearing a surgical mask or nothing at all.

As far as stopping already infected people from spreading it, generous studies said "maaaybe" it could possibly help?, but it was inconclusive at best. A 2% reduction like you're saying doesn't justify a mandate for healthy people, especially since asymptomatic spread has been found to be very unlikely. And I believe that 2% reduction is only true if you're very deliberate about changing in to fresh masks every 15 or 20 minutes since the moisture from your breath opens up the pores of the filter/paper.

Unless I was in a very high risk category I wouldn't even wear a real respirator. At 99.98% recovery rate and potentially several years of immunity afterwards according to some recent data, I'd rather just catch it and move on with my life. That's how the immune system is supposed to function.

Anyway, have an updoot fren. :)

Every study I've seen comparing cloth masks to standard surgical masks actually shows cloth masks pose a higher risk of infection than wearing no mask at all. It basically creates a moist bacteria trap directly in front of your mouth with less filtration than a surgical one. Beyond that, that there was no statistical difference in rate of infection between wearing a surgical mask or nothing at all.

As far as stopping already infected people from spreading it, generous studies said "maaaybe" it could possibly help?, but it was inconclusive at best. A 2% reduction like you're saying doesn't justify a mandate for healthy people, especially since asymptomatic thread has been found to be very unlikely. And I believe that 2% reduction is only true if you're very deliberate about changing in to fresh masks every 15 or 20 minutes since the moisture from your breath opens up the pores of the filter/paper.

Unless I was in a very high risk category I wouldn't even wear a real respirator. At 99.98% recovery rate and potentially several years of immunity afterwards according to some recent data, I'd rather just catch it and move on with my life. That's how the immune system is supposed to function.

Anyway, have an updoot fren. :)