So where are all these "studies" saying mask mandates actually result in increased infection??   Just tried to search and not finding any.    Do I need to go to "thedonald.com" to find them? Closest I can find is this, based on a whole 4 participants, which was retracted - https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-1342 Are you just looking at cases from early on (despite probably at the same time complaining about false positives), and saying that must mean that it was increased because of masks?   Again, no one is saying masks will all the sudden stop infection, and even if we can agree that they "help," it's not going to be instantaneous (especially when you factor incubation period).    So if a place implements a mask mandate, if cases increase for the next 2 weeks, that doesn't mean that MASKS RESULTED IN INCREASED INFECTIONS! Here's what I did find though: Here's an interesting study which IMO actually also does a good job summarizing some of the prior studies and opinions, which studied areas with mask mandates vs. those without them, and found "The study provides evidence that US states mandating the use of face masks in public had a greater decline in daily COVID-19 growth rates after issuing these mandates compared with states that did not issue mandates" - https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00818#:~:text=Between April 8 and May 15%2C governors of fifteen states,retail stores) where maintaining six Here's another  that says "Mask mandates are associated with a 25 to 46 per cent average reduction in weekly COVID-19 cases across Canada" - https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201007085638.htm And another, "after implementation of mask mandates in 24 Kansas counties, the increasing trend in COVID-19 incidence reversed" - https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6947e2.htm Another "duration of mask-wearing by the public was negatively associated with mortality" - https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.22.20109231v5 Another study finds masks work with hamsters - https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/71/16/2139/5848814 CDC summary of a few different real world situations finds "Experimental and epidemiological data support community masking to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2" - https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/masking-science-sars-cov2.html   OK, I did my own research.  I think now I'm actually more convinced they do work.  Thanks cdub!