I’m seeing articles like this from the New York Post which question whether mask-wearing did any good during the pandemic currently winding down. While I am certainly willing to view the science findings, should such ever appear, I have reached a tentative conclusion - based on an atypical personal experience - that face coverings helped.
The other DrC and I were finding masks uncomfortable and tough to breathe through. My smart lady ordered up some transparent plastic face shields mounted on eyeglass frames which we wore in lieu of cloth masks. Except in doctors’ offices, we got away with wearing the shields although I think 49 out of 50 people we encountered wore masks.
What we learned from our shields is that humans expel way more tiny droplets of saliva while talking and perhaps breathing than you’d ever believe. We found them dried on the inside of our transparent shields which consequently needed cleaning with some frequency. The shields caught our droplets and others’ masks caught theirs. You wouldn't learn this wearing a cloth mask.
From this experience I conclude that mask wearing is mostly helpful to keep your own saliva (and germs) corralled and out of circulation. If everybody wears one or the other, there is much less germy spit flying about and we are all safer.
I doubt any face coverings do much real filtration of inhaled air, the key is intercepting the exhaled spray. That they do accomplish. I bet the increased hand washing was helpful, too.
