The sheer audacity of the government and media to spread lies that particulate masks & filters don't work really boiled my blood.

We know COVID-19 can be transmitted through airborne particles, specifically aerosols created from an infected person coughing, sneezing, talking, or just flat out breathing. Masks that form an air-tight seal against your face and strain air through an N95, P2, P3, or P100 filter WORK at straining these particles out.

It is true that just because you wear a mask, doesn't mean your chances of infection are 0. But people can wash and sanitize their hands. They can't soap or scrub down the insides of their respiratory tracts. If a contaminated particle gets on their hands, they can wash it off. If a contaminated particle gets inside them, there's literally nothing they can do to get rid of it.

I question, constantly, how many immunocompromised people who would have bought working, protective masks that would save them from life-altering lung damage or death didn't because they believed the government and media. The government and media has endangered millions by spreading such woefully untrue information around.

TL;DR: Masks work, but they need to form an air seal and be N95, P2, P3, or P100 rated. I would personally advise P3/P100 rating, as they strain the highest quantity of particles out of the air. N95 strains 95% of particles. P3 and P100 strain 99.97% - which is as high as it goes.