[ceejayoz]

> Everything was moot though if you ripped off the mask and wiped your hands all over your face when you were done.

No, probably not. There's very little evidence of transmission via surface contact; you have to breathe a significant amount into the nose/lungs, and the surgical and N95 masks are additionally statically charged to keep viral particles stuck to them; this is how they block viruses much smaller than their own pores. (https://www.wired.com/story/the-physics-of-the-n95-face-mask...)

[legitster]

I think the thing with the N95 masks is they could stay moist all day from your breath's condensation. Covid was very dependent on moisture to spread, and much of the evidence about surface contact implied that the surface was dry or dried out between contacts.

Though to your point it was probably a lower risk than what might have been implied.

[cameldrv]

To my knowledge there's never been a case of COVID conclusively proven to have resulted from surface contact.

[aredox]

Exactly. And this absence has never been as debated as masks, showing the huge biases in the public debate around the means to control the epidemic.