You can put it like this..if you are around Asians coughing all over you and you have no idea if they or any of their relatives just got back from China..would you rather wear a mask and have some protection or no mask and no protection.
And like the other poster said..if the masks provide no protection then the first question should be why are health care workers wearing them. Not all of them have a tight seal.
Hopefully this thing won’t spread very far, but if it gets near me and I have to be around strangers and an N95 will give me any degree of greater protection, I’ll take it.