I am not a large-N group though, so my main interest is whether a properly worn FFP2 mask can protect me. Everything indicates that it can. My only worry was FF

I am not a large-N group though, so my main interest is whether a properly worn FFP2 mask can protect me. Everything indicates that it can. My only worry was FFP2 vs FFP3, since the former is not actually recommended to be used to protect against aerosols, but it seems that it's the default even for medical personnel - high aerosol inducing procedures aside. The fact that others are wearing surgical or even FFP2 masks is a protective bonus for me, even if the former vent or it doesn't protect them in all cases. I believe this was the reasoning of the German original fabric mask mandate starting spring/summer 2020: mask + no mask = 0, but mask + mask = good protection against droplets. Whether that made any significant difference with the transmission in aggregate is probably impossible to tell now, but it probably did prevent at least some infections. More importantly it made masks more normal, compared to spring where you were looked at like a maniac for wearing one. Regarding the graph, Germany was and still is in a lockdown, so numbers will be going down masks or not. Upgrading the mandate to surgical/FFP2 was done more out of fear of the new mutations and it wasn't FFP2 only because it's economically / socially not tenable. I don't know why the US decreased, but the US is way ahead on vaccines and also had more infected, so I assume it will continue to do so.