https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/m20-6817 - Only community RCT of masking for SARS-2 ever performed. Failed to reach significance, bounds are from (in plain english) “slight-moderate worsening” to “moderate+ improvement” in transmission. Endpoint was self infection not source control. No RCT of source control for SARS-2 exists, and yet everyone in this thread besides me is advocating for usage of this unproven intervention, how curious.

https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/5/4/e006577?fbclid=IwAR1eSyc... - cluster-randomized controlled trial of masking in hcw. Compared cloth masking to “standard practice”, not a no-mask control, but results caution against usage of cloth masks due to abysmal filtration efficiency and the increased infections in the group relative to standard practice

I’d have to cite like 10 different studies to show the full story on aerosol transmission and I’m on mobile so I’ll leave that as an exercise to the reader for now. But I’d like someone to at least answer this:

If you take it as fact that SARS-2 primarily spreads through aerosols, what does that imply about the efficacy of masking for source control of SARS-2? There is a reason that the health authorities advocating community usage of masks (which they never did for any respiratory pathogen pre-COVID btw) maintain that SARS-2 spreads through large respiratory droplets. It’s because otherwise the whole concept of community masking is absurd.