Masks were never a magic bullet, but as a cronic nail biter & face scratcher I can tell you that they greatly limit those activities just by creating a physical barrier to dirty fingers entering mouths.

You people beating me up for not being surprised that the flu is greatly attenuated using techniques that have been known for decades to be affective at preventing the spread of the flu which is mostly transmitted via fomites and dirty fingers touching mucus membranes seem to be fixated on magic bullet solution or failures, but when taken as a whole it would appear that the techniques of washing hands, surfaces, wearing masks and distancing that we've been told for decades are effective at preventing transmission of the flu are actually effective at preventing transmission of the flu. And then you're getting all up in my ass like I'm a pro-mask-covid npc while telling me I'm wrong about a virus that is many times more infectious than the flu to what I'm saying about the flu. Please do me a favor and piss off with your infantile bullshit of absolutes.a