Do surgical masks work?

Now that most everybody, it seems, is under orders to wear masks when in public, here's a bit more bad news.

We've know for a bit, and a quick consideration of most any virus will confirm, that a standard surgical mask, let alone a homemade cotton mask or a bandana (with a 10-gallon hat, that's a fashion statement here in Arizona) will not stop the new virus itself; the virus is much too small.  The idea behind the aforementioned masks is that they will stop virus-containing droplets coughed out by in infected party; cough and sneeze droplets are large enough to be stopped.  So the uninfected party is protected, not by his own mask (it's irrelevant) but by the mask on the infected party's schnoz. 

An article released by the Annals of Internal Medicine shows very little stopping power, as measured by Petri dishes placed 20 cm from the sufferer.  It does show much contamination on the mask itself, curiously enough more so on the outside than the inside.

My commercial janitorial crews are pretty religious about masks, and also gloves, sanitizer and handwashing.  I shall reemphasize hand washing, especially after removing the mask.