this is a really interesting look at the mechanism by which masks protect both wearers and others: they reduce the amount of coronavirus we ingest, and we now know that lowered viral loads = milder cases of COVID-19 latimes.com/california/sto…
anti-maskers love to tell you that "cloth masks can't block all virus partiles" or ask "if your mask protects you, why do i need to wear one?" this is a mistaken view of the relationship between infection and disease, where if a single virus gets through you've "lost"
in practice, reducing the flow of viruses through the air, which cloth masks achieve, reduces the number of people who get infected and the severity of those infections. in the czech republic, where masks were mandated in march, death rates didn't go up when infection rates did!
when an outbreak happened on a cruise ship and all the passengers all started wearing cloth masks, infection still spread ... but 80% of those infected were asymptomatic, rather than the expected 40%
