News Forum - Tourists not wearing masks face tough talk from Phuket authorities

[BeerIsLife]

I think  a lot of people have an exaggerated idea of how easily Covid transmits. You can't get it simply by walking past someone who is COvid positive, or if they cough near you, etc. You need to be explosed for a lengh of time ( at least 15 minutes is the general rule) before you are in danger. So no, a quick trip into a shop is not enough to be a danger to anyone. 

 

For me, if a shop wants me to wear a mask to enter, I will comply. It is their private operation, so they can set the rules. But in public? Outdoors? Completely useless. 100% virtue theatre.

[Stonker]

2 hours ago, sprez33 said:

True, but a symptomatic, infected person should not be outside......

Many infected are asymptomatic.

[Guest1]

24 minutes ago, Vince said:

Wasch mich, aber mach mich nicht nass ?

Sorry, I like this german expression since I heard it the first time. 

You may understand this one?

They want the milk without buying the cow.

[Stonker]

9 minutes ago, BeerIsLife said:

I think  a lot of people have an exaggerated idea of how easily Covid transmits. You can't get it simply by walking past someone who is COvid positive, or if they cough near you, etc. You need to be explosed for a lengh of time ( at least 15 minutes is the general rule) before you are in danger. So no, a quick trip into a shop is not enough to be a danger to anyone. 

Simply not correct.

12 minutes ago, BeerIsLife said:

For me, if a shop wants me to wear a mask to enter, I will comply. It is their private operation, so they can set the rules. But in public? Outdoors? Completely useless. 100% virtue theatre.

It's the law, in a foreign country you've chosen to come to and where the locals are overwhelmingly in favour of it.

If you don't like it, go elsewhere - the locals don't have that option.

[Stonker]

4 hours ago, sprez33 said:

Wouldn't it be easier just to drop the outdoor mask rule?  Outdoor mask wearing is useless and even counterproductive to the extent that it discourages outdoor activity.

Let's drop the rule about which side of the road you drive on too - many break it, so why bother at all?

[Guest1]

10 minutes ago, BeerIsLife said:

You need to be explosed for a lengh of time ( at least 15 minutes is the general rule)

This "general rule" was already questioned, with Delta. It is, anyway, not a "we have put a infected and a not infected person in a room, x,x meters apart, and  found that ...." rule.

Or in other words: It was a guess!

Omicron is how many times more infectious, now, as the original or the alpha variant? 

 

And to outdoors mask wearing:

It is an order from the government. And US wearing it makes most of the native people near you a lot more comfortable. Aside, get the mask you feel the most comfortable with and get over it.

[Vince]

16 minutes ago, Guest1 said:

Sorry, I like this german expression since I heard it the first time. 

You may understand this one?

They want the milk without buying the cow.

Ive heard it, I think, but in a slightly different form, as a rhetorical question: 

"Why buy the cow when the milk is free?" 

[Cabra]

Let it be so, but I doubt authorities will be strict enough. Which only makes them loose credibility when they make announcements like this and then do little to nothing. Any area (inside or outside) where people are stationary and unable to maintain distance, mask should be worn. It's not complicated nor difficult.

[BraveNewFahrenheit]

3 hours ago, Rkim said:

 mastake something like run or walk around the block with a police man waving a flag saying I am a fool for not wearing my mask to protect myself. Film the punishment and send it to their home country news stations to broadcast so their friends, family and employer to see. 

Totally not a cult.

[resetamy]

3 hours ago, Nivram said:

Exactly "follow the law".

Wear helmets on a motorbike.

Stop 3+ on a motorbike

Minors using a motorbike

Driving a car or motorbike without a license

Drunk driving.

Which is more concerning preventing road deaths or an asystemstic person without a mask ouside giving you a non live threatening illness (sore throat, fever, runny nose).

Great point! I remember seeing a family of 5 on a motorbike, no helmet, but they sure had masks 555

[Vince]

55 minutes ago, Cabra said:

Let it be so, but I doubt authorities will be strict enough. Which only makes them loose credibility when they make announcements like this and then do little to nothing. Any area (inside or outside) where people are stationary and unable to maintain distance, mask should be worn. It's not complicated nor difficult.

Is public caning strict enough? 

It always makes the news when foreigners get caned. 

Not that anyone is suggesting it. Just asking. 

 

[Cabra]

5 minutes ago, Vince said:

Is public caning strict enough? 

It always makes the news when foreigners get caned. 

Not that anyone is suggesting it. Just asking. 

Canned, pickled, or freeze dried. Any of those would work. Lol.

[Vince]

3 minutes ago, Cabra said:

Canned, pickled, or freeze dried. Any of those would work. Lol.

"Caning" not canning (see video) Tourists usually pickle themselves, so that's out. Freeze drying ... Hmmm...

 

[Guest1]

1 hour ago, Fundok said:

I mean once I sit down to sip a drink I can remove my mask and chat woth the girl(s) around me (most likely within less than 2m distance), but walking to the venue all by myself I have to wear a mask? Really???

Maybe it's just me but I cannot see the (risk-based) rationale behind this.

You see, that is the thing, with making bars to "Restaurants"!

In most restaurants, your interaction with the staff is distanced. In this Barants it is like in, eh, Bars! But calm: You and them doing it, supporting the thoughts of money flow behind it! 

[Guest1]

2 hours ago, Fundok said:

Eating with others in a restaurant with no masks on is much riskier than taking a walk on the beach.

Seems to be right.

Just in the restaurant, YOU are actively taking that risk. And please,  don't tell me, you are one of the people, who takes the desk next  to the only other occupied  desk in there?

And: They do not talk about using a mask at the beach, any longer. ;-)

[Bike]

And how about the Thai people? I see them walking, riding bikes, etc. without masks. Just like ignoring the helmet requirement. Who is controlling this? Do they get a same fine?

[Grumpyoldman]

Yawn..... just another power hungry government official realising their power will soon end.... it's over folks.... storm Covid has been downgraded to a cold.

[Vince]

19 minutes ago, Bike said:

And how about the Thai people? I see them walking, riding bikes, etc. without masks. Just like ignoring the helmet requirement. Who is controlling this? Do they get a same fine?

Thais are hurt worse by weak enforcement. They suffer. 

You are on holiday during a pandemic. Is it so hard to change a little bit? 

[Noble_Design]

5 hours ago, Nivram said:

Give me a 100 baht for every road death vs corona virus death in Thailand.

Which do you think would be more costly?

I think the local government officials should worry about the road deaths as opposed to corona virus deaths.

I don't see how road accidents and Covid deaths are related. 

4 hours ago, Nivram said:

Yup.

After I got hit by a drunk thai driver with no license.

He was wearing a mask.

Road accidents happen in every country in the world, it is an inevitable risk that one takes when using the road. 

[Vince]

18 minutes ago, Noble_Design said:

I don't see how road accidents and Covid deaths are related. 

Road accidents happen in every country in the world, it is an inevitable risk that one takes when using the road. 

True. And more could be done in most every country to make roads safer. 

[Ttalk]

Good to see the UK is dropping  the nonsense, including the wearing of masks.  

https://globalnews.ca/video/8523725/u-k-drops-covid-19-restrictions-scraps-mandatory-face-masks

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the easing of COVID-19 restrictions on Wednesday, saying that face masks will no longer be mandatory in public places and schools in England and COVID-19 passports will be dropped in large parts of the country starting next Thursday.

Edited January 20, 2022 by Ttalk

[Paco]

7 hours ago, palooka said:

All these comments of "drop the rules" are wrong in that it is the law here.  Whether it is convenient, irritates, not good for selfies, don't believe masks do anything is totally irrelevant. 

This is probably one of the few rules Thais do obey and you want them to chuck it.

Obey the rules, if you don't like it you are welcome to leave and stop making life hard on all the resident farung.

Top, well said I was surprised too so many about dropping the rule , I think is better when they walk in let them sign that they wear it if not 500,000 fine

[AdvocatusDiaboli]

1 hour ago, Noble_Design said:

Road accidents happen in every country in the world, it is an inevitable risk that one takes when using the road. 

But …. Not all countries road tolls exceed or nearly exceed the COVID19 death toll. And that includes the time of isolation and curfew … I wonder if you could give us countries were Road toll of countries outstripped (or nearly) the COVID19 death toll?

[Craig9995]

We were in Phuket for a week after spending some time in Bangkok. We could not believe how many foreigners disobeyed the mask law in Phuket. They would walk past every local wearing a mask and seemed oblivious. It is disrespectful to the Thai government and the Thai people. Regardless of your views on mask wearing in open spaces, we are visitors in this beautiful place. We need to do the right thing. Or we can chose not to visit. 

[Noble_Design]

11 minutes ago, AdvocatusDiaboli said:

But …. Not all countries road tolls exceed or nearly exceed the COVID19 death toll. And that includes the time of isolation and curfew … I wonder if you could give us countries were Road toll of countries outstripped (or nearly) the COVID19 death toll?

Like I said I don't see the relationship between road deaths and Covid death tolls. Eliminating either one doesn't make the other one better or worse so why drag road death statistics as an excuse of not wearing masks?

To me it is just a classic "Whataboutism" or as the philosopher Merold Westphal once said that only people who know themselves to be guilty of something "can find comfort in finding others to be just as bad or worse."