Aerosol viral loads are (if I heard correctly) 50x smaller than asbestos particles. OSHA doesn't allow cloth masks to be used around asbestos.
If this were a flu that spread primarily as droplets, cloth masks would have their place. As it is, we have known since early on that wasn't the case, and that cloth masks are about as useful as a cloth bonnet would be useful as a motorcycle helmet.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.0c05025
"Materials were microimaged and tested against size selected NaCl aerosol with particle mobility diameters between 50 and 825 nm. Three of the top five best performing samples were woven 100% cotton with high to moderate yarn counts, and the other two were woven synthetics of moderate yarn counts"
This image in particular: https://pubs.acs.org/na101/home/literatum/publisher/achs/jou...
You can see N95 non-woven performs the best, but cotton twill does provide protection.
Cool analogy tho.
None are as effective as a non-woven material. But they are still more effective than no mask.
Edit: > asbestos dust or second hand smoke
You have to know what size of particulate matter that you're looking to filter is in order to determine whether that mask material works for the given application. What you're saying is too broad to be useful and isn't very insightful.