From hearing nurse aquaintances talk on Facebook, listening to This Week in Virology, etc it seems that the idea that surgical masks don't protect you from getting sick is very pervasive in the western medical community. And from a medical community standpoint it's true! If you're working with sick people every day and just use a surgical mask you'll probably get sick eventually. But in the game of telephone that is horizontal knowledge transfer "Surgical masks are generally insufficient for consistent protection in a medical setting" becomes "surgical masks don't work" and then becomes "a surgical mask won't protect you when you're going to buy groceries."