If masks prevent microbes from escaping your mouth, won’t the build-up of germs make you sick?

Question

I’m not trying to start anything, just genuinely curious.

In: Biology

Answer 1

The germs that you expel are a tiny fraction of what is in your lungs. And if you are expelling germs, you are already infected, and so cannot get any sicker by a few germs being kept on the mask.