Those two studies you cite aren't strong scientific evidence. There is no control group, so we don't know what would have happened if they had not been wearing masks. Also the sample size is quite small (n=2 across the two studies).
I've seen some studies that have good controls on influenza, in particular there is a college dorm study that compared no intervention vs. masks vs. hand washing: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2010/01/masks-pl... . This specific study doesn't give strong evidence that masks stop influenza spread.
Also, the individual rights argument is pretty strong. If mask wearing is already at 70% without any government mandate, I'd want really strong evidence and strong reasons to justify government intervention just to push that number a little higher.
I've seen some studies that have good controls on influenza, in particular there is a college dorm study that compared no intervention vs. masks vs. hand washing: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2010/01/masks-pl... . This specific study doesn't give strong evidence that masks stop influenza spread.
Also, the individual rights argument is pretty strong. If mask wearing is already at 70% without any government mandate, I'd want really strong evidence and strong reasons to justify government intervention just to push that number a little higher.