Having actually gone to the trouble of reading all the papers linked in the above article, here's my take: 1. The article attacks a straw man, in that it sugge

Having actually gone to the trouble of reading all the papers linked in the above article, here's my take: 1. The article attacks a straw man, in that it suggests that masks are supposed to be a cure-all against Covid-transmission. I have not heard this seriously claimed - rather, masks are only one of a range of responses. (Indeed, by far the most important and effective reaction seems to be reducing the number of personal contacts - masks are only intended for those situations where this is not possible.) 2. Masks can only be effective where they are worn. At least in Germany, recent data suggests that most infections are taking place in private settings - where masks are not compulsory (and usually not worn). This could be used to argue both ways: either that the widespread use of masks in public has been successful in reducing infections in the public space, or that the continued widespread infection in private settings means that wearing masks in public is irrelevant. (I do not have the data to meaningfully compare these two claims.) 3. The evidence we have on the effectiveness of masks does seem to be pretty patchy, with many studies showing methodological problems and coming to different conclusions. 4. Generally, the protection effect for the wearer seems to be low or non-existent. However, while not significantly reducing inhalation of virus particles, masks do reduce droplet exhalation (and so protect others in the vicinity of the wearer). I.e., there is an indirect protection effect. 5. It seems to be true that masks are not very effective against aerosol infection (preventing this requires other measures, specifically good ventilation). However, this cannot be used to argue that masks are superfluous, as droplet infection (which masks do help with) is another important transmission vector for Sars-CoV-2. TL;DR Masks are not a cure-all. They must be used in conjunction with other preventative measures, or they are useless. However, they are probably effective as part of such a larger package.