Those statistics mean nothing to me.
If I am standing at my grocery cart and an employee turns around less than a foot from me and yells his germs with a straight shot to the side of my unprotected face and my eyes and mouth..and he has covid...I absolutely could catch it. I have a better chance of not catching it with a mask and face shield but because it was to the side of my face I could still absolutely catch it.
There is someone here who has permanent eye damage after getting a shot to the side of his face from some Asians behind him in auditorium seating. This was back in November or december. There were students from Wuhan there.
What were his chances of catching it???? When very few in the US had it and no one even knew about it.
Those statistics mean nothing to me.
If I am standing at my grocery cart and an employee turns around less than a foot from me and yells his germs with a straight shot to the side of my unprotected face and my eyes and mouth..and he has covid...I absolutely could catch it. I have a better chance of not catching it with a mask and face shield but because it was to the side of my face I could still absolutely catch it.
This is true, but not a very likely scenario. Besides, large amounts of the virus are aerosolized anyway, so a face shield and/or a mask won't block that. Neither will your bandanna or scarf, either of which is apparently an acceptable "mask" for all these States' requirements, and nowhere close to an N95 rating (N0 more likely). Of course, N95 isn't even small enough of a filtration to catch much of the virus particles, only some of the larger drops you hack up.
How are you making sure your mask is sanitary? Obviously, since it is protecting you from all these germs from everyone else, that means large amounts of said germs are collecting on the outside of the mask, as it supposedly filters them out. Are you following proper decon procedures when removing the mask? IE not touching it with your hands or other material that then touches your hands? Do you dispose of it properly (a biohazard, is it not?)? Are you swapping out your mask for a sanitary one at regular intervals (every two hours? four hours? once a week?)?
Of course, you could catch it just about anywhere else.
2/3 of NY hospitalizations came from people that were mostly or entirely staying at home, so wearing a mask at the grocery store won't help with that, if the masks even were effective!