(What follows is an adapted version of a summary I wrote for a friend of my thoughts at present on these protocols being put in place, which I thought might help some, even we disagree. Rational and free discourse and debate is requisite for human beings, whatever we end up doing, so that we end up doing the right thing, as best we see it).
I am not ‘against masks’, nor of any protocols that are prudent and well considered; they may be of use in certain circumstances – hospital settings in particular.
That said, the evidence strongly suggests that the masks in general, outside such environments – and especially those masks people normally wear – have shown not to be effective in stopping the spread of infectious disease. The masks are almost completely porous to the virus – even tightly-woven surgical masks have 40 micron weave, and the virus is 0.1 microns, which leaves gaps 400 times larger than the virus. Added to this, masks themselves get infected, become sources of infection, and there are any number of other vectors by which the virus may be transmitted; hence, masks seem to be giving people a false sense of security. The more honest amongst the proponents of masking confess that the masks are more to remind us to ‘social distance’, which is another whole question.