Are you really interested in an answer? It seems to me you have already made up your mind.
If correctly utilized, contemporary respiratory protection means a person will not get infected unless they want to. Period. Indeed, people dealing with the deadliest viruses in biology labs do not get sick. And if masks involved a risk, manufacturers would have been sued out of existence long since. There are a lot of surgeons and they all have an attorney.
If you would like to know how to choose respiratory protection and how to use it properly, there are many resources, ranging from manufacturers’ websites to government agencies’ informative material and regulations (you can pick any government and country you can think of, and they all say the same thing). Or you can post your questions and myself and others will take the time to answer. However it seems to me you already have made up your mind, and I can’t help with that.
With regards to your question about scientific works, you can pick up any aerobiology book printed before 2020 and you will find all the information you are seeking, complete with references to research articles that are not allowed to be posted here.