News Forum - Travellers will still have to wear face masks post-endemic phase in Thailand

[rc1]

3 hours ago, BigHewer said:

Exactly. Political currency trumps any health concerns in the next phase we’re entering. Unfortunate but a sad reality.

Can someone explain to me while keeping citizens masked adds to the political currency?

 

No one enjoys it, they're serving little to no health purpose, why are they politically wise?

[rc1]

2 hours ago, Cg66 said:

As many virologists and epidemiologists said at the beginning of all this, before they were cancelled, you can’t stop a virus. Can’t believe that many still don’t understand this they are stopping wearing masks on all European flights and airports from the 16th of May. I will never go to a country that makes me

wear a mask

Correct, while the rst of the world drops masks even on flights and airports, Thailand seems to be an alternate reality. 

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/eu-lifts-face-mask-requirements-flights-airports/story?id=84646609

 

Will it take Thais to start travelling internationally again to realise the rules need to change? 

 

 

[Grumpish]

In Bangkok wearing a mask outdoors is actually not a bad idea pretty much all year round, but that is just because of the bad air quality.

[Cabra]

4 hours ago, Thaiger said:

travellers to wear face masks

What the does that even mean? Traveling to/from where? 

[Cabra]

p.s., people (without family/loves ones, or work in Thailand) will not choose Thailand for any type of holiday if you are enforcing indoor and outdoor masking.

[Chatogaster]

1 hour ago, Freeduhdumb said:

Didn't they recently change the definition of what a covid death is? That change was something to the effect that only confirmed cases of covid, without other co-morbitities, would be counted... that certainly drops the death count aspect.

An article (*) suggested that deaths wouldn't been counted "when the cause of death is related to an underlying illness", projecting a 30% drop. It may have been due to awkward wording or a bad translation, but that's illogical (a condition like "when the CoD is not related to Covid" would have made much more sense).
 
For example, if someone with some cardiovascular disease dies of a heart attack during a violent, Covid-induced coughing-fit, the immediate cause is hearth attack and the underlying causes are CVD + Covid. It makes sense to count that both as a CVD-death as well as a Covid-death, but it may be that now such deaths are ignored in the Covid-statistics.

Just add 43% to the current death counts to make them comparable to the historical ones (and next multiply by 1.5 ~ 3 if you're interested in the actual number of deaths).

(*) https://thethaiger.com/coronavirus/thai-government-to-change-how-covid-19-deaths-are-recorded

1 hour ago, Freeduhdumb said:

And it is my understanding there is no law requiring face masks in Thailand. This article uses the words encourage and require in the same article... So which is it?

It was made offense under Section 51 of the Communicable Disease Act, based on the Royal Gazette (*), so the rule is valid for as long as the Emergency Decree is upheld. So your question about require vs. urge is a shadow of the much more important question of when they'll get too embarrassed to keep on extending the decree (perhaps by the time Prayut resigns?)

(*) https://ratchakitcha2.soc.go.th/pdfdownload/?id=138D122S0000000000400

 

Edited May 12, 2022 by Chatogaster

[Soidog]

1 hour ago, rc1 said:

Can someone explain to me while keeping citizens masked adds to the political currency?

No one enjoys it, they're serving little to no health purpose, why are they politically wise?

By keeping the mask mandate, even after declaring Covid endemic, allows justification to keep the Emergency decree. They can justify it with the excuse that we still need to be vigilant to control the virus. Therefore masks and the Emergency decree are still required. Emergency decree means no street protests or mass gatherings and hence political stability. 

[Soidog]

59 minutes ago, rc1 said:

Will it take Thais to start travelling internationally again to realise the rules need to change? 

I’d love to think it was that easy. Apart from the coordinated political street protests, the Thais don’t seem to complain or demand change about anything. Docile and compliant. Things like the annual flooding in Bangkok wouldn’t be allowed to happen in developed countries. The docile Thais just accept that it’s nature and hence can’t be changed. 

[diegogg]

MOPH Confirms No Legal Obligations For People To Wear Face Masks

https://thainews.prd.go.th/en/news/detail/TCATG220203155951127

[AdvocatusDiaboli]

7 hours ago, Thaiger said:

including any requirement for travellers to wear face masks,

So noting the EXACT phrase here ….. travellers ….. so if your not travelling, you don’t need to wear a mask! 

[Guevara]

5 hours ago, Soidog said:

Yea I think that is correct. It’s been said many times, but I wouldn’t believe any of the numbers provided by this government. I know many people in the U.K. who have had Covid, but I know many many more in Thailand. I speak to many people who use phrases such as “The whole village has Covid”. It’s utterly rife and I would imagine deaths are at least twice those published.   Time to move on now I’m afraid. 

In defense of Prayut et al, they have ordered a new calculator from China and the abacus still has a few beads missing. Whilst I can't prove it, I suspect you could multiply the figures they submit by at least 2, maybe more.

[JJJ]

4 hours ago, rc1 said:

Can someone explain to me while keeping citizens masked adds to the political currency?

No one enjoys it, they're serving little to no health purpose, why are they politically wise?

Thai people are highly superstitious. For the government and their supporters masks have a mythical benefit.

Not to mention the government thinks and tries to convince people they’ve done well—meanwhile doing well only has to do with highly managed statistics like cases and deaths. 

just look at South Korea which has reported like 18million cases and something like half of the deaths as Thailand. 

They have no real interest in doing anything for health benefits-it’s all about power and control as @Soidog rightly points out. 

That it’s hurting and continues to hurt the economy makes no difference. 

[Chatogaster]

2 hours ago, diegogg said:

MOPH Confirms No Legal Obligations For People To Wear Face Masks

https://thainews.prd.go.th/en/news/detail/TCATG220203155951127

-

Edited May 12, 2022 by Chatogaster
clarification

[Tim_Melb]

So much crap in this thread about masks being political. Masks are not political they are neither a political statement nor a political oppression, they are a life saving tool period. 

Don't spout crap about them being ineffective because that's crap too. The only masks that are ineffective are light weight cloth masks and those stupid masks designed for sun and wind protection on motorcycles. Surgical masks and better if worn properly block between 30% and 95% of the particles that transmit Covid-19 depending on the type of mask. These are the FACTS and they are indisputable.

It can be argued that when most of a population is vaccinated that wearing masks is not necessarily needed to protect the general population that are not vulnerable. But high level rated masks will continue to be necessary for vulnerable people while Covid is in circulation and seeing that it is likely to be in circulation for all the foreseeable future masks are going to be necessary for those individuals and their regular close contacts for the foreseeable future. 

While having mask mandates will largely become a thing of the past very soon, encouraging the general public to continue using them as added protection for the vulnerable is a good thing not a bad thing and most definitely not a political thing. If you believe it's a political thing then you need to take a good hard look at yourself in the mirror because masks are not the problem, YOU ARE! 

[Stevejm]

9 hours ago, Soidog said:

Correct. And the compliant Thai public will do as they are told. Tell them to wear masks to protect their life and they all do. Tell them to wear motorbike helmets to protect their life and at least 30% don’t. Inscrutable people. 

It said encourage people to wear masks not make them mandatory. It’s probably a good idea as everyone that I know who caught Covid even after vaccination has suffered. What % of tourists wear helmets on motorcycles? And they come from countries where they are mandatory and compliance is basically 100%. You talk about Thai people being compliant and not protesting mask wearing but have you considered that people might not mind wearing masks? Personally I don’t mind wearing a mask because I think it is still worthwhile so does that make me compliant or sensible?

[Stevejm]

15 minutes ago, Tim_Melb said:

So much crap in this thread about masks being political. Masks are not political they are neither a political statement nor a political oppression, they are a life saving tool period. 

Don't spout crap about them being ineffective because that's crap too. The only masks that are ineffective are light weight cloth masks and those stupid masks designed for sun and wind protection on motorcycles. Surgical masks and better if worn properly block between 30% and 95% of the particles that transmit Covid-19 depending on the type of mask. These are the FACTS and they are indisputable.

It can be argued that when most of a population is vaccinated that wearing masks is not necessarily needed to protect the general population that are not vulnerable. But high level rated masks will continue to be necessary for vulnerable people while Covid is in circulation and seeing that it is likely to be in circulation for all the foreseeable future masks are going to be necessary for those individuals and their regular close contacts for the foreseeable future. 

While having mask mandates will largely become a thing of the past very soon, encouraging the general public to continue using them as added protection for the vulnerable is a good thing not a bad thing and most definitely not a political thing. If you believe it's a political thing then you need to take a good hard look at yourself in the mirror because masks are not the problem, YOU ARE! 

Well said! This idea of politicizing mask use is BS. Masks should be encouraged even though people are vaccinated. Many people in Asia wear masks when they go out if they have a common cold as a matter of consideration for other people a concept that is alien in most western countries.

[Stevejm]

4 hours ago, Soidog said:

I’d love to think it was that easy. Apart from the coordinated political street protests, the Thais don’t seem to complain or demand change about anything. Docile and compliant. Things like the annual flooding in Bangkok wouldn’t be allowed to happen in developed countries. The docile Thais just accept that it’s nature and hence can’t be changed. 

Maybe they aren’t as unhappy about things as you think they should be?

[JJJ]

49 minutes ago, Tim_Melb said:

So much crap in this thread about masks being political. Masks are not political they are neither a political statement nor a political oppression, they are a life saving tool period. 

Don't spout crap about them being ineffective because that's crap too. The only masks that are ineffective are light weight cloth masks and those stupid masks designed for sun and wind protection on motorcycles. Surgical masks and better if worn properly block between 30% and 95% of the particles that transmit Covid-19 depending on the type of mask. These are the FACTS and they are indisputable.

It can be argued that when most of a population is vaccinated that wearing masks is not necessarily needed to protect the general population that are not vulnerable. But high level rated masks will continue to be necessary for vulnerable people while Covid is in circulation and seeing that it is likely to be in circulation for all the foreseeable future masks are going to be necessary for those individuals and their regular close contacts for the foreseeable future. 

While having mask mandates will largely become a thing of the past very soon, encouraging the general public to continue using them as added protection for the vulnerable is a good thing not a bad thing and most definitely not a political thing. If you believe it's a political thing then you need to take a good hard look at yourself in the mirror because masks are not the problem, YOU ARE! 

If these are facts then provide the peer reviewed broadly accepted studies proving it. Oh there are none. 

[JJJ]

36 minutes ago, Stevejm said:

It said encourage people to wear masks not make them mandatory. It’s probably a good idea as everyone that I know who caught Covid even after vaccination has suffered. What % of tourists wear helmets on motorcycles? And they come from countries where they are mandatory and compliance is basically 100%. You talk about Thai people being compliant and not protesting mask wearing but have you considered that people might not mind wearing masks? Personally I don’t mind wearing a mask because I think it is still worthwhile so does that make me compliant or sensible?

https://thethaiger.com/coronavirus/mask-up-pm-prayut-says-thailands-mask-mandate-is-still-in-effect
 

If there is no mask mandate, then why does the CCSA and cabinet have to approve lifting it for public parks? 

[vlad]

7 hours ago, Freeduhdumb said:

Didn't they recently change the definition of what a covid death is? That change was something to the effect that only confirmed cases of covid, without other co-morbitities, would be counted... that certainly drops the death count aspect. And it is my understanding there is no law requiring face masks in Thailand. This article uses the words encourage and require in the same article... So which is it? 

So would you walk into Makro without a mask Freed?

[PapayaBokBok]

10 hours ago, HolyCowCm said:

As I posted above, I think it is all about making them money and keeping the minions whipped.

minions indeed!

[vlad]

will this be ok Tim lol

[vlad]

Just now, vlad said:

will this be ok Tim lol

will this be OK Tim lol

[PapayaBokBok]

Just now, vlad said:

will this be ok Tim lol

dont sneeze...

[vlad]

Sorry for the double post still have not rumbled how to post a pic from an Album lol