that is exactly how ridiculous it is! tight-fitting masks don't "work," and loose-fitting masks "don't work" just as well as the tight-fitting ones.

During the first year, before the N-95s became de rigueur, when fabric masks were all the rage, I made myself one out of patterned silk voile and tulle. Totally full of holes and breathable, and no one looked carefully because the patterned fabric made it look impermeable, and only one person noticed and complimented me -- and hers was a silk scarf tied bandit-fashion. I could not breathe otherwise. I live in an area of total mask compliance and yelling Karens. Oh, that idiocy was so miserable!!!!!

That it still persists in medical settings, of all places, is cognitively dissonant in a very disturbing way. Even more so because it's by design.