COVID-19: When should you wear a face mask?
For those who don't want to take the time to read the linked or uploaded information, masks increase the risk to the individual. Loose fitting masks (including surgical masks and home made cloth masks) do deflect and absorb larger droplets, from sneezing and coughing. If you are not sneezing or coughing the masks aren't doing anything, especially once they become saturated. Your breath is picking up the moisture as it goes through the mask, and breath that goes out the sides of the masks is the same as not wearing a mask. That means the number of infectious agents floating in the air in an at any given time is the same whether everyone wears a mask or not.
To top it off, you have a damp rag strapped to your face, that rag is picking up infectious agents and giving them a nice environment in which to hang out and continue staying active. Once the filtering capability of your mask is overcome, you are getting breaths of highly concentrated infectious agents. Or you go to adjust your mask, and inadvertently rub your eye, and now you're infected.
Mask effectiveness is about ten minutes on average, which is why they are helpful in a controlled, clinical environment where they can be changed out frequently. That is also why, for the average person, wearing a face mask is like strapping a cesspool to your face. Sure, wear a mask if you are sneezing and coughing, or just cover your cough/sneeze and wash your hands frequently. Same as always.