>>12440569The beard doesn't help. If everyone is required by law to wear one then you reduce collective spittle projection of an entire society, that you could then expect to cut transmission from social interactions and surface contact across an entire group. In large outbreaks, like the US and Europe are now having, this would add up to be a quite dramatic effect, and even in smaller outbreaks to would help squash out chains of transmission.
I wouldn't place much trust on a cloth or surgical mask to protect you on an individual basis, but on a collective social basis they will cut transmission by turning off some routes of transmission: coughs, sneezes, and spittle of an entire society being caught in the mask rather than projecting onto other people or surfaces that are then touched and brought into mouths and eyes.
>>12441458The problem with elevating the myth of cloth and surgical mask efficacy is that people start doing risky things out of a mistaken belief that a cloth or surgical mask will protect them, like the BLM protests and rioting. It's a form of magical thinking humans are very apt to fall into where the mask acts as a talisman ward, rather than the sober reality that at best it's going to cut down on the viral load you inhale and on a social level limit/stop some modes of viral projection (cough, sneeze, spittle, etc.) and the chains of transmission that would result from those.
At best cloth and surgical masks are an adjunct. They're no susbsitute for social distancing.
