But what's the cost? You're walking around with a bit of cloth on your face. Other cultures have done this habitually for decades and are still able to function.

IMO this was never about masking. This was about a minority of cluster-B types having a public meltdown at the ideologically intolerable fact that collective responsibility is a real thing.

There is no ambiguity about "Masks work." It simply means masking is better than nothing.

There's nuance in the type of mask, and masking practices, and other fine details. But the principle is straightforward.

And unless you're seriously going to try to argue that dentists and surgeons have been wasting their time and money on PPE for all this time, the effects are clear.