I suspect that the poor protection that supposedly masks offer, according to current data, is due to how difficult it is to wear a mask properly. But a well set up mask, that closes tightly around the face should be very effective at blocking airborne (droplet borne) viruses.
I´ve had some experience wearing masks in extremely dusty environments in a job I did, and after trying many kinds of masks and methods of wearing them, I realised how hard it is to wear them correctly. Unless the fit is perfect the air enters through the openings left between the ill-fitting mask and the face, instead of through the filtering material. In a dusty jobsite, that means having dusty snot after a days work, so one keeps learning new things, eventually what I learned was that one needs to apply some sort of glue or paste where the mask contacts the face, and that the mask needs a valve. Even then the filtering is often not perfect. The only near-perfect filtering was with proper rubber masks, like this kind:
[qimg]https://sagola.com/images/cache/product/uploads/images/mascara-mp300.jpeg[/qimg]
(but then you also need to protect the eyes, of course)
