Science: the cloth mask does nothing.

Well well. Mask bad again.

TORONTO -- A recent study from engineering researchers in Ontario has found that high-efficiency masks are up to six times better at filtering aerosols compared to more commonly used cloth and surgical masks.

Researchers at the University of Waterloo looked into how effective different types of masks are at filtering out aerosol particles, which are solid or liquid particles approximately 0.001 millimetres in diameter and suspended in the air. They published their findings in the journal Physics of Fluids on July 21.

The team put masks over a CPR mannequin that could simulate a person's breathing and exhale aerosol droplets, which were made using olive oil, and measured the amount of aerosols that would be built up in a large, unventilated room. The measurements were taken from two metres away, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC)'s recommended distance for physical distancing.

The researchers found that R95 masks were able to filter out 60 per cent of exhaled aerosols, and KN95 masks could filter out 46 per cent.

On the other hand, cloth masks and surgical masks only filtered out 10 per cent and 12 per cent of exhaled aerosols, respectively.

"There is no question it is beneficial to wear any face covering, both for protection in close proximity and at a distance in a room," said lead author Serhiy Yarusevych in a press release. "However, there is a very serious difference in the effectiveness of different masks when it comes to controlling aerosols."

Emphasis mine, of course.

What they're blathering about is the difference between "droplet" transmission, where the virus is held in a water droplet from a sneeze, a cough or from "speaking moistly" as the Shiny Pony famously said, and "aerosol" transmission, when the virus itself is floating around in the air, with no water droplet.

The difference, as one might imagine, is size. Water droplets from sneezing and coughing are pretty big, comparatively speaking. The shitty surgical masks and the cloth masks do stop some of those. Maybe half (50%) when taking into consideration all the leakage out the sides. You know how your glasses fog up when wearing the never-sufficiently-damned surgical mask? That's because wet air is jetting out around your nose and fogging them. Better than nothing, for droplet transmission.

Aerosol transmission, this is a different story. According to this story, the aerosols being tested are particles 0.001 millimetres in diameter. That's 1 micron in science speak. As it happens, the filtration of the N-95 mask material is ~99.5% for particles that  are 0.75 microns and up. The N-95 filters 95% of the most penetrating particle size, 0.1 to 0.3 microns in diameter. Anything larger or smaller than that is filtered at better than 95%.

The WuFlu virus itself, naked as it were, is roughly 0.14 microns, which falls into that "most penetrating" particle size. Therefore the N-95 "only" filters it at 95% capability. Here's a handy WuFlu size comparison chart.

This assumes NO LEAKS in the mask fitment. That's an important point, because the shitty stand-alone paper units leak atrociously. Your filtration effectiveness will drop down to 50-60%. Rule of thumb, if it fogs your glasses when you wear it, it's pretty much useless.

Naturally, the government mandates the shitty, useless surgical mask. You might as well tape a kleenex to your face. Oh, and that plexiglass barrier? Useless, at best.

On the bright side, despite the ever dropping effectiveness (currently hovering at 49% with two (2) doses) of the mad science experiment in genetic modification they are daring to call a "vaccine", 99% of people who catch the WuFlu recover. In fact, ~90-95% of people over 80 who catch it recover.