Very true, but following what they (CDC, WHO, and medical community) tell us is a moving target that's often at odds with each other. Neither organization is wrong regarding the current data, they're just looking at different evidence trying to fill in the gaps. After seeing all the TP fly off the shelves I don't blame them for trying to discourage hoarders from buying out lifetime supplies of N95s so they can improperly wear them to the super market once a month while frontline health workers have been using the same expired respirator for months now, but when you know there's an underlying agenda, no matter how noble, it does affect the credibility.

Every mask study done before COVID19 basically showed stopping viruses with a cloth mask was like trying to stop mosquitoes with an electric chain link fence, which is true. But follow-on research, most of which has been done after COVID19, suggests that the real benefit of masks has more to do with how it affects the fluid dynamics of air leaving an infected person's mask, which shortens the distance virus particles are sprayed. Most likely for the same reason the air filter on your car reduces the airflow into your engine (despite being designed for the opposite).

The more complicated fluid dynamics of "small particles" which are roughly virus-size (0.1 micron) cause them to behave erratically in the air, making them more likely to be trapped by a mask. Particles that are 0.3 micron are actually the most difficult to trap because any smaller, they exhibit the erratic movement and any larger, obvious reason. That's why 0.3 micron is the metric for N95 masks. I did manage to get an A in fluid dynamics, although it was for civil engineering.

Before all this I thought if you breathed in a virus you were infected and you were either infected or not, so the amount of virus didn't matter. Research from COVID19 has indicated the opposite, which adds to the case that masks do help:
https://www.statnews.com/2020/04/14/...make-you-sick/