As a member of the research community, who is not a "leftist" or "libtard" or "vaccine pusher," or whatever conclusion anyone wants to jump to, I can tell you that this article is incredibly slanted, uses old quotations from March of 2020 and earlier, most of which changed as our understanding of the virus grew, and cherry picks obscure studies, some of which are misinterpreted badly. It comes from a think-tank with no real citations or peer review.
Masks can be effective in stopping transmission, especially between individuals who are non-symptomatic. Masks made the 2020 flu season disappear, and no it wasn't covid taking credit for the flu, as the original covid tests could only identify covid - so a positive test could only be covid. Yes, I am aware of all the misinterpretation around that data as well. It's horrific. Here is some real data about masks effectiveness. They aren't the end all be all, but they have shown effectiveness. I am happy to send more, as there is a large financial wall between what the research community has access to, and what the general public can access. Just ask. I warn you, what you're about to read is written by people who took every measure possible to eliminate bias, as it is basically impossible to do so completely.
The science around the use of masks by the public to impede COVID-19 transmission is advancing rapidly. In this narrative review, we develop an analytical framework to examine mask usage, synthesizing the relevant literature to inform multiple areas: population impact, transmission...
www.pnas.org