So, aerosol contaminated with c-19 sit in your rag/mask etc while you, with added effort, suck air through the fabric, and exhale moisture into the fabric....
Sounds like what a home inspector tells you when you have have mold and mildew growing in your improperly ventilated and vapor barriers crawl space....
Continual respiration of fouled air.
Otoh, what happens when that big ol aerosol particle
Is inhaled into your primary sinuses and is stuck on a mucus membrane?
Your immune system slathers it will mucus and WBCs go to work, or not....
The issue is, the virus is riding on a 1 micron sized aerosol particle. It doesn’t float around in air as a “naked” virus. It has to be on the aerosol droplet (deceptive word).
The mask stops those. In both directions. If you’re infected and exhale, yes, a lot of virus will line the inside of your mask. That’s what it’s supposed to do. Stop it. You’ll wash that away or throw it away.
The issue of it going out the sides is of course there, but it won’t have much forward velocity. The 6 ft spacing then deals with the issue, certainly diluting it, and the guy next to you in a mask . . . it won’t get in.
Politically, no question, when people see masks on people they think virus. They think . . . if I’m going to the store I need to get in and out fast. If they see a mask they think . . . no way I’m going to sit in a crowded theater for 2 hours. Yes, seeing masks hurts business.
But it’s the only defense we have and it is not useless. That’s political preference in the other direction.