Regardless of the study and how well it was conducted etc, masks have never been the panacea. Taking the phrase from the airline industry, masks are part of th

Regardless of the study and how well it was conducted etc, masks have never been the panacea. Taking the phrase from the airline industry, masks are part of the 'swiss cheese' model of protection. When you stack a bunch of protective measures together (mask, clean hands, distancing, staying home when sick, clean environment etc) you limit the ability of the virus to go from source to yourself. None of the measures are perfect, but when working together they hide each others flaws.