It's the opposite, when you are wearing one of those masks you touch your face more often. It also is a warm damp environment for bacteria. Now if you are sick and you are travelling to the doctors or something, then yes, a mask is a good idea. If you are healthy and trying not to be sick a mask is a bad idea, gloves and frequent handwashing with soap and water is a much better plan.

Why would you touch your face more often? At least you won't have a direct contact with your hands. Besides, why do you think putting on a mask and washing hands are somehow mutually exclusive?

To adjust the mask. You won't have direct contact with your hands, but the mask is a better environment for disease than your skin is, so touching it instead of your skin isn't any better.

> It's the opposite, when you are wearing one of those masks you touch your face more often.

What?? How do you figure that?

People adjust the masks often. They aren't very comfortable and it's unpleasant to wear them for long, they can feel itchy which promotes face touching. The seal around your mouth probably won't be great unless you've been fit-tested as well so you'll be tempted to touch there.

Where are you getting your stories from? I don't see people keep touching to adjust. People in Japan are used to wearing them for the pollen seasons.

All of those sound like issues that would be fixed by using better masks, that fit snugly and feel comfortable, and can be washed or even medicated, instead of the very cheap disposables.

If the masks don’t seal during regular breathing, how are they going to contain a cough or a sneeze?

They catch the water droplets.

...they’ll still blast out through the openings. That’s like saying putting a toilet seat down prevents fecal matter from coating your bathroom (it doesn’t)

Quantity matters. Both the size of the aerosol cloud generated from a cough/sneeze and the number and size of the droplets produced is reduced while wearing a mask.

Stopped completely? No. Reduced enough to be a useful measure in some circumstances? Yes.

If I were going out and genuinely worried about inhaling something, I'd skip surgical masks and N95 disposables and just wear a sealed half mask using P100 filters. They're way more comfortable than either of the disposables, and provide much better filtration. Since they use exhaust valves, they may not provide much protection to others from your own potential pathogens, although I would expect some droplet suppression simply from the redirection of any exhalation through a small valve.

If it's a fabric variety facemask, I bet it absorbs a lot of the droplets. Not perfect, probably better than a smooth plastic facemask.

If the mask doesn't fit properly, you are MORE likely to touch your face to adjust it.

This is just false. Humans touch their mouths and noses all of the time. The mask makes you less likely to touch your lips or nostrils.