You are misunderstanding what they are saying.
They obviously aren’t saying “masks don’t work”, because if that were the case, then medical professionals wouldn’t wear masks.
Nesrie:
The panic buying isn’t for people who are sick. They’re healthy people who think this is an answer, and in many cases it causes them to behave in a less safe manner.
The thing is though, a bunch of those people actually ARE sick, and just don’t know it. So actually having them wear surgical masks could be useful.