The broad answer is no, first of all because the narrow situations where masks are believed to help would not amount to a significant difference when considerin

The broad answer is no, first of all because the narrow situations where masks are believed to help would not amount to a significant difference when considering the effect on an entire community. Secondly, I said "believed" because the evidence is actually rather limited and ambiguous, so the promotion of masks is based more on plausibility rather than firm proof. However, there does appear to be slight but consistent evidence for greater contagion rates in the general community when there is a mask mandate.