this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2023
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The person said "masks don’t really do much to prevent getting covid", which is simply false. We'd all be safer if both sides wore masks, but a N95 is an effective method of greatly reducing your individual risk.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/cdc-updates-mask-guidelines-know-n95-kn95-masks-rcna12302
You're not wrong, but n95 is not the mask in the public consciousness. Generally the primary transmission vector is touching your face, eyes, mouth which obviously masks help with, but thinking you're bulletproof because of a random ebay mask actively hurts.
This sounds like old information from early in the pandemic. COVID is airborne. The primary method of transmission is breathing it in. And all masks help, N95 just help the most.
I do agree that thinking you're bulletproof with a cloth mask is not a good idea, but this is all straying from the original falsehood. Masks work, both for the wearer and those around them. The better the mask, the better the protection. Though personally I find that N95s breath a lot easier than cloth masks and since they can be reused aren't much more expensive, so I'd encourage anyone with a cloth mask to just switch to them.