Here’s an official image from the UK NHS about what is and is not a mask.
A regular cloth face mask provides almost no protection at all for viruses or aerosols, yet in the top row that’s what the NHS recommends. The difference between an N95 certified mask and a cloth mask is enormous. A virus goes through a cloth mask like a marble through a garage door. And a surgical mask is not an N95 mask.
How could the NHS have such gross ignorance about PPE?
Here’s a graphic from a study showing the effectiveness of some masks. The effectiveness of a bandana or other cloth mask would be close to that of the towel in the graphic.
If masks are so important, why don’t key people wear them?
Then there are other unanswered questions.