Yes they do! A new study out of Hong Kong shows that wearing a routine surgical mask reduces transmission through respiratory droplets by as much as 75%. They did this study in response to WHO questioning the usefulness of masks. The study was done in hamsters. They place the animals in 3 different scenarios to assess the effectiveness of masks. One with masks just on infected subjects, another with masks on healthy subjects and third with no masks at all. A fan was blown between the two cages to allow for transmission of droplets.
The best results as expected was when the mask was on the infected cage with only 15% getting infected. Next best was covering the healthy cage with 33% getting infected. Finally no mask showed 66% getting infected.
So this shows that masks absolutely do matter. So as we have been saying masks help the other person more than yourself. But we also found that wearing a mask unlike we have been told does protect you too. The infection rate dropped 50% even when the infected were not masked. So the mask is protecting you some regardless of if someone else is wearing one or not. They concluded masking at 80% adoption flattens the curve significantly more than a strict lockdown so this should be good evidence on getting back to work.
As for people telling you that masks are dangerous, that is very shaking information at best. If you have moderate to severe COPD and you are wearing an N95 mask then potentially you could be rebreathing carbon dioxide. It should be noted this is only in people with significant lung disease.
The above is from the Facebook page of Dr Louis P Coates.
In addition to people with significant lung disease I would add those who have psychological disorders that incline them, when wearing masks, to experience panic attacks. Panic attacks are severely debilitating.
People who have panic attacks hyperventilate.. they are usually told to breath into a paper bag.
Super elite Dr Louis P Coates must be proud!
My problem is that the standard surgical mask creates a severe case of Hypercapnia, physically disabling me, within 15 minutes of walking around masked with a shopping cart in a grocery store. (and I'm old, but I DON'T have COPD or any other serious lung condition)
Somehow, I feel that risk far outweighs whatever small risk there is for me from Covid-19
And by the way, me wearing a mask dosen't protect you any better than it doesn't protect me, for exactly the same reasons.
It’s interesting that surgeons and surgical nurses wear a mask all day, doing things a hell of a lot more stressful than wandering around a store or going for a walk, and do so without whining or crying that their rights are being imposed upon.