From what I have seen, the cloth masks' effectiveness is pretty much nil except for following situations: - If you cough, it might stop large portion of drople

From what I have seen, the cloth masks' effectiveness is pretty much nil except for following situations: - If you cough, it might stop large portion of droplets from propagating and it will reduce the distance at which it initially travels. - As a constant reminder, it functions to prevent you from touching your face, keep you more aware of what you are touching/doing and to pressure a little bit other people to do the same. This is my current understanding. The real masks are actually pretty complicated things. For example, a lot of effort is on ensuring the air does not travel AROUND the mask, greatly diminishing its filtering ability.