I choose to believe what I can see with my own eyes, over the word of any “experts” that presume to tell me that what I see is not true.
To be fair, most people don’t have microscopes nor know how to use them, and of those that do, most probably don’t have theirs calibrated as I have mine, to be able to not only see small objects, but to know the size of what they are seeing. I can forgive most people for believing an “expert” who tells them that a rag across their face will protect them from a virus.
Most people simply have no grasp, no concept, no sense of scale, of how tiny a virus actually is, and what it takes to block one. Most people, on this subject, are very easily deceived by the “appeal to authority” fallacy. Not having the ability, in this case, to see for themselves, they’ll simply believe any lie on the subject from anyone that they think they can trust.