Masks don’t “work” the way most people use them. WIth correct usage, hygiene, and maintenance, masks do work. Disposable masks have to be disposed of or disenfected, or allowed to sit separately until any infectious material is inert. The way people toss their masks around, pull them down, wear them under their nose, constantly pull them off and put them back on, constantly touch their hands to their mask and their face, they are doing it wrong and the masks lose most or all of their effectiveness.
I guarantee that if we were truly in highly-infectious environment, 90% of the people I see wearing masks would be infected within a week’s time. That infections are so low shows that there really is very little infectious material going around at any given time, except in hospitals and nursing homes.
Just people washing their hands more has probably done more for the public’s health than all of the masks in world will.