I think human behavior needs to be taken into account when it comes to safety measures like masks. I'm sure you can design 100 lab tests to prove that masks work, but the real world reality is always going to be different: people don't wear masks (even fitted masks) correctly.
Here's a short anecdote about how well-intentioned rules often work in the real world among non-trained people. While going to school to become a programmer, I worked in the food service industry. We were told to always wash our hands when shuffling between tasks: for instance when going from cutting potatoes to going to the register to handle peoples payments, we'd wash our hands thoroughly. This system was easy enough for anybody to come off the street and learn quickly and was strictly followed. One day a health inspector came by and started freaking out about this normal kitchen practice and started screeching that everybody had to wear gloves at all times. Of course anybody who understands reality knows how this turned out in the real world: pulling off and putting on gloves correctly for each task is a pain in the butt. What happened in the real world is people would put on one pair of gloves for hours, and go from working on the food to different tasks, including handling cash without changing gloves. As long as they were wearing the gloves at all times, they felt like they were doing the right thing. The reality is that people were just complying with the letter of the rule, but spreading far more dirt and bacteria around because of the rule.
I don't care what laboratory theory says: the real world reality of how untrained people follow rules is different. In real-world practice, masks are (IMO heavily dehumanizing) medical theater. I think masks work great when used as they're intended: by trained health care professionals doing one task in one room and properly disposing of them. Everything else is politicians ruining our lives covering their asses so the media doesn't have some clickbait headline to rip them.
Here's a short anecdote about how well-intentioned rules often work in the real world among non-trained people. While going to school to become a programmer, I worked in the food service industry. We were told to always wash our hands when shuffling between tasks: for instance when going from cutting potatoes to going to the register to handle peoples payments, we'd wash our hands thoroughly. This system was easy enough for anybody to come off the street and learn quickly and was strictly followed. One day a health inspector came by and started freaking out about this normal kitchen practice and started screeching that everybody had to wear gloves at all times. Of course anybody who understands reality knows how this turned out in the real world: pulling off and putting on gloves correctly for each task is a pain in the butt. What happened in the real world is people would put on one pair of gloves for hours, and go from working on the food to different tasks, including handling cash without changing gloves. As long as they were wearing the gloves at all times, they felt like they were doing the right thing. The reality is that people were just complying with the letter of the rule, but spreading far more dirt and bacteria around because of the rule.
I don't care what laboratory theory says: the real world reality of how untrained people follow rules is different. In real-world practice, masks are (IMO heavily dehumanizing) medical theater. I think masks work great when used as they're intended: by trained health care professionals doing one task in one room and properly disposing of them. Everything else is politicians ruining our lives covering their asses so the media doesn't have some clickbait headline to rip them.