I agree there's a lot of misconceptions and myths about masks. It clearly is not a panacea, it's really difficult (or even impossible) to quantify the impact,

I agree there's a lot of misconceptions and myths about masks. It clearly is not a panacea, it's really difficult (or even impossible) to quantify the impact, especially when combined with other precautions. Plus there's very little research about how masks affect this particular virus, because it's always somewhat specific. IMO the best thing we can do is look at experience from countries that managed to get the infection under control, like SK. I highly recommend these interviews with one of their leading experts, what he says makes a lot of sense: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwoNP9QWr4Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwoNP9QWr4Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAk7aX5hksU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAk7aX5hksU When he says face masks are one of the effective measures, I'd probably trust him ... The question is what exactly should be the rules. Our country is in a lockdown for ~2 months now, and most of the time face masks were required when leaving the house. We're probably going to relax the rules a bit soon, only requiring them when closed spaced, etc. Which probably makes sense, it's pointless to wear a mask when jogging alone in the woods, or something like that (and people were not following that perfectly anyway). My personal opinion is that face masks do help, partly because they limit how far your droplets reach, partly because it limits how frequently you touch your face. Even a simple home-made mask or scarf will help with that. I think a lot of the "do not wear masks" recommendations in many countries is due to concerns that a recommendation to wear a face mask would make the shortage even worse.