Aha, found what gave me the impression (or at least the kind of thing that did): a quote from the study linked below:
“We cannot reject that [cloth masks] have zero or only a small impact on symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections.”
I don’t see how that impression could’ve resulted if cloth masks had any sort of appreciable impact. And given that paper masks, which plenty of people wear, must surely be worse than cloth masks, never mind gaiters and such, how is my original statement not at least possible? Shouldn’t we at least consider making surgical masks to be the bare minimum to have an impact on this hugely raging pandemic?