> Masks are for keeping your own particles from spreading far, not the other way around.
Masks are for keeping your own particles from spreading far AND for lowering the probability of virions found in the environment from entering your respiratory system.
Masks lower the probability when all other variables are held constant. If someone thinks wearing a mask grants invincibility and in turn chooses to increase their exposure to high viral load individuals or environments, they're putting themselves at risk.
> Masks are for keeping your own particles from spreading far AND for lowering the probability of virions found in the environment from entering your respiratory system.
Both of you may be correct. I think the person you responded to may not have been precise in their framing.
I suspect that you had N95 masks in mind when you wrote masks, which doesn’t negate the point of the person you responded to, if they had surgical masks in mind when they wrote masks. Surgical masks are far more common than N95 masks since they are cheaper and do not provide protection against viral particles for the wearer.
Surgical masks do provide some level of protection against virus droplets and aerosol for the wearer they just are not as effective as N95. Even a teacloth or a scarf wrapped around your face will provide some level of protection to the wearer from virus particles entering their mucus membranes.
Sorry, my comment was not very clear and is prone to misinterpretation. I'm not saying masks don't keep infection out, but rather that the point of society-wide mask adoption is more to keep unwitting spreaders from spreading so widely. I mean it does both, but as I understand it, it's main value is to attenuate sources than vice versa.
I'm in Taiwan where masks are ubiquitous, and have been upset reading about the slow adoption of masks in the West because it was always from a selfish perspective ("do masks protect ME?") whereas here they're worn for a communal purpose ("how do I protect others?"). How effective they are at blocking incoming infection always seemed like a big distraction to me, since it's been clear from the start that it reduces spray from spreaders talking and coughing, which alone is enough of a reason to adopt it widely.
