re: Do masks really work?

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and they wanted to prevent a run on N95 masks which were already in short supply.

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Yes, because N95 masks work. Well, 95% of the time. They are also intended to be disposed of after single use... hospitals are working on ways to safely sanitize and reuse them. If a hospital worker wore the same N95 for weeks at a time, it wouldn't be nearly as effective either.

Homemade cloth masks... you're just wearing a germ rag. Unless you have multiple masks, change them out every time you touch your mask with a contaminated hand or go somewhere new, and then wash them all before reuse. I'd be surprised if 1% of the people out there are doing that properly.