The other DrC doesn’t like masks (honestly, who does?) so she purchased clear plastic face shields for us to wear in lieu of cloth masks. We did so through the early months of the Covid mess.
We quickly discovered we both speckled the lower front inside of the masks with tiny droplets of saliva, which dried and looked gross. We ended up Windexing the masks at the end of each outing. Eventually we tired of cleaning the shields and wore masks.
I doubt that we are unusual spit-sprayers, chances are most folks do it without noticing. I believe the main benefit of masks is intercepting the wearer’s spray. I have close to zero faith in the masks’ ability to filter inhaled air.
As long as most folks wear masks, there is much less airborne saliva mist about, and that has to reduce contagion. When most no longer wear a mask, I’ll probably stop too since me wearing it was mostly to protect the others in my vicinity as their masks protected me.
I haven’t seen this view written anywhere. As noted above, my opinion is both idiosyncratic and divergent.
Afterthought: People who oppose face masks have called them "face diapers" as a putdown. Actually, if my conclusion above is correct, that is largely why they're useful. Like a diaper, they don't protect the wearer, but those around the wearer who don't want to be exposed to what the wearer is shedding.
