Originally Posted by
oreocookies
From what I've read, studies show surgical masks are better than many cloth masks. The cloth masks have a wide range of effectiveness - for instance, people wearing those thin neck gaiters that you can see through probably aren't offering much protection if at all. At least surgical masks are consistent. Personally, I would wear a cloth mask or an N95 mask and put the surgical mask over it for extra protection.
This is not the reason. The main reason is that everyone knows that, with washable cloth masks, the immense majority of people are not changing them even daily, while with disposable ones you change them more often simply because the elastic is breaking easily.