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Re:London put in emergency lockdown as U.K. fights new strain by DanielleMolloy on Saturday December 19, 2020 @04:38PM (#25481457)
They obviously don't offer 100% protection. Though I've heard a nice analogy by Christian Drosten on the popular German coronavirus podcast:

Imagine you are standing close to someone at a party who starts talking to you. You immediately notice their bad breath (~aerosols). Now imagine they are wearing a mask, then imagine you both are. How much of the bad breath would you still notice in each case? That's the effect of masks.

Re:London put in emergency lockdown as U.K. fights new strain by dehrmann on Saturday December 19, 2020 @05:36PM (#25481924)
Those sorts of comparisons are good at making the mechanism or action understandable, but that's about it. The huge thing they miss is if masks only somewhat effective, but people wearing them act like they're moderately effective. The real-world, systemic parts of this is where it gets complicated and interesting.