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I know this is not you making this claim, but this type of thinking is what led both the CDC and WHO to mislead the public I'm masks for months.

Masks clearly work, but not perfectly. Better masks work better. Wear one if you want to reduce your risk and risk to those around you.

We knew this prior to this pandemic.

Governments and doctors should stop being so paternalistic and just tell the truth.

We still do not know that cloth masks work, especially not since before the pandemic, otherwise the WHO and CDC would have recommended them.

We especially do not know whether cloth masks reduce personal risk.

None of the links given in this overly assertive article show that cloth masks work or that they reduce viral load.

All of these are plausible hypotheses and beliefs, but they are still not backed by high quality data.