What? That makes no sense at all. Just because condoms can have low effectiveness it doesn't mean that wearing face masks makes the epidemic go magically away. What kind of twisted logic is that?

The main point is that face masks are known to not be full proof, and badly worn ones might even be less effective than not wearing anything as they provide incentives for people to repeatedly touch their faces. More importantly facemasks create a false sense of safety and thus invite unwitting people to needlessly expose themselves to the virus.

If you want to understand the problem, think of combat helmets. You can put one on and safely walk into a war zone, right?