No, the masks are not 100% virus tight. Yes, they prevent spreading of diseases. That's why they are worn by surgeons.
They are 20 cents a piece, that's nothing compared to the current economic costs of useless social distancing as long as people still go to work. Unless we stop the economy, masks and hand sanitizer are the way to go.
"If you are healthy, you only need to wear a mask if you are taking care of a person with suspected 2019-nCoV infection."
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2...
"If you are not sick, do not buy a face mask. If you have one already and you are well, it is not recommended that you use it."
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/03/dont-panic-the-compr...
Is this in your opinion "false information"?
I mean, maybe they're going for the social dissaproval angle - you can stop people from hoarding masks by making it socially bad to wear a mask, but that seems misguided if true.
If there were an infinite supply of masks the advice would be entirely different.
So, some protection is better than no protection. Consequently, It's difficult for me to understand why discouraging people from using face masks is a good idea.
Use it properly and keep social distancing, while regularly cleaning your hands.
If you're sick but don't know it, your coughing/breathing is spreading the virus.
So everyone wearing a mask prevents the infected, including those that don't know that they're infected, from spreading the disease.
And for those who are not sick, it may offer small protections.
Tiny downside for a large upside.
I noticed this when I was wearing one during a flu infection. My fingers were frequently surprised to touch the mask instead of my face, and I went "oh, right, don't do that!"
Regardless, most reputable source for advice is probably from WHO, even though my gut feel/logic would tell me otherwise.
The specific question that is relevant is, given droplet exposure containing COVID, are there any differences in infection rates for people wearing a mask (use different levels of mask protection for comprehensiveness, from bandana to N95) versus without a mask?
A mask can be only 10-20% effective but still show a clinically relevant result. If you think about the effectiveness of washing your hands to prevent getting sick, it is probably a low reduction but it is still highly recommended.
People do not argue against hand washing just because the virus can still get into your system through other means. They support hand washing despite its imperfections.
Is that proven?
> Secondly the mask only help avoiding spreading the virus from yourself to other and it doesn't protect from receiving the virus
Doesn't this contradict your first statement? In fact the statement contradicts itself, stopping spreading the virus from one person to another by definition protects from receiving the virus.
Reducing the likelihood of infection by ten percent can make the difference between eradication and an epidemic.
This is a large contribution for containment. Masks should be worn by anybody at this point.