If Thailand is Covid-Free, then why are masks still required in public places?

[CALSinCM]

This is a legitimate question people should ask themselves and then ponder.

If Thailand is Covid-Free within the borders of the general population, then why are masks still required in public places?

I'm asking this question because eventually anyone who doesn't particularly want to piece of cloth/paper over their month all the time when the initial reason for wearing the mask has disappear in the general public.  Is this the New Normal - even when the WHO, CDC, and others declare Covid is under control most likely due to global mandatory vaccinations or restriction such as closed and sealed borders - will the public still be required to wear masks?  For what purpose?  And the same for "social distancing."  For what purpose when domestic cases drop to zero?

And, if anyone truly believes that masks should continue to be worn and social distancing needs to continue along with the economic destruction its causing - then for how long?  What will be the criteria to allow the public to take off their masks and socialize again?

[tonray]

First domestic case in 100 days reported yesterday ....stay tuned

[SteveK]

90% of people have stopped wearing them in my village.

[tribalfusion001]

If you want to socialize and take your mask off, then do it. Although first local case in 100 days was yesterday, that's if your bothered or not. All this getting really tedious now, a few more riots will makes things interesting.

[1FinickyOne]

11 minutes ago, CALSinCM said:

all the time

it is not all the time - mostly just malls and supermarkets... 

 

And I think they don't know the answer - when you are dealing with a deadly pandemic, better safe than sorry... 

[kingdong]

to give ugly bargirls more chance of getting bar fined?

[mr mr]

it was never about the virus. it was always about control. 

[Matzzon]

I guess that was the most irrelevant complaint thread today. Anyway, thanks to all the posters and members in this forum that actually sees the benefit of wearing a mask and how great Thailand have been doing during the pandemic.

Sure, Thailand is very vulnerable. people are trying to walk in and out through natural borders all the time. That will probably create some problems in the future. However, I guess the ones that see it as something positive instead of complaining, following the rules instead of complaining and breaking them and are wearing a mask as long as it takes. Yeah, they will probably find out that Thailand wasn´t such a bad place to stay in and wait out the pandemic in.

[scubascuba3]

To give LBs a better chance at being picked up.

 

The last couple weeks most people don't bother signing in to shops

[richard_smith237]

7 minutes ago, tonray said:

10 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

Covid-19 is still serious, but serious enough to maintain the current hysteria ?

Not much hysteria around....outside of mask and temp checks...pretty much life back to normal...which is more than can be said for most western countries where people are still dying in droves and gyms and salons and other places of business are still shutdown.

 

Locking out tourists, starving the tourism industry, making so many people unemployed and desperate is a response of government hysteria, IMO. 

 

 

 

 

[Olmate]

6 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

To give LBs a better chance at being picked up.

 

The last couple weeks most people don't bother signing in to shops

I go to a busy sports bar in Soi Bukow, everyone still signs in with temp checks,well run and patronised.

[scubascuba3]

4 minutes ago, Olmate said:

I go to a busy sports bar in Soi Bukow, everyone still signs in with temp checks,well run and patronised.

yes some still do, i went to a agogo a couple weeks ago and had to sign in. People are fed up with signing in at shopping centres when there is zero covid

[tonray]

21 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

Locking out tourists, starving the tourism industry, making so many people unemployed and desperate is a response of government hysteria, IMO. 

 

 

 

 

Better than the hysteria of watching your elderly family members die in nursing homes, a wackjob President pushing every latest quack cure, and people afraid to go out. My friends and afamily members in the USA still basically go out to the grocery store once a week and hide inside their homes the rest of the time. My cousin who is a critical care nurse (for 30 years) says this is the worst period she has ever seen in her career. Thailand far better off than anywhere else right now. In fact I'm heading in BKK today to enjoy some shopping, eating and girl watching....love it here

[kingdong]

56 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

To give LBs a better chance at being picked up.

 

The last couple weeks most people don't bother signing in to shops

same same london,started off like that now most people (in the pubs clubs shops i go in ) don,t bother.

[CALSinCM]

1 hour ago, kenk24 said:

it is not all the time - mostly just malls and supermarkets... 

 

And I think they don't know the answer - when you are dealing with a deadly pandemic, better safe than sorry... 

If someone thinks, "Better safe than sorry" does that mean that they plan to wear a mask for the rest of their lives?  SARS-Cov-2 is here and I doubt it will ever go away. Vaccines with a 50% efficacy are not going to eradicate the virus.

If you believe that everyone should wear masks in public, the please answer this:
What criteria must be met in your mind to make you personally comfortable with being in public without a mask?

I'm not trying to be cheeky, on the contrary, I truly want to understand how people who feel the need to wear masks at all time in public think this is will end - or in your opinion - will it ever end?  I'm simply trying to see where there is an end to this particular string.  Is there an end to this string?  Honest, heartfelt feedback would be appreciated. 

[1FinickyOne]

2 hours ago, CALSinCM said:

I truly want to understand how people who feel the need to wear masks at all time in public think this is will end - or in your opinion - will it ever end?  I'm simply trying to see where there is an end to this particular string.  Is there an end to this string?  Honest, heartfelt feedback would be appreciated. 

First, I did not say all the time... I do not wear a mask all the time... maybe in total, an hour or so a week, if you add together the time that I go into a supermarket and 7/11 - I think you non-mask-ers are making an enormous deal and conflating a small issue w/loss of freedom or whatever is your problem...

 

You want to see the end of this "string" - - - get just a bit realistic. Nobody knows. There has never been a covid -19 outbreak - how can anyone know which way or how the virus will mutate... the virus did not come w/an instruction manual as to how to best deal with it... you go with the most credible advice from scientists... quite simply, the places like Thailand that locked down early and wear masks are safer than the proliferation in places like USA where people go to super-spreader events and don't wear a mask. 

 

I don't spend much time in malls or supermarkets. I put on a mask in hopes that it helps and w/the understanding that there is little or no covid here. I do it for my family so that I don't bring it home - I do it for the other shoppers just to make them feel more comfortable... 

[Lacessit]

Masks were a part of Asian culture before COVID came along. It's probably one of the factors in limiting the spread compared to other parts of the world.

They aren't really required in public places, just designated areas such as shopping malls, dental clinics etc. They are inconvenient, but when in Rome...etc.

[cmarshall]

27 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Masks were a part of Asian culture before COVID came along. It's probably one of the factors in limiting the spread compared to other parts of the world.

They aren't really required in public places, just designated areas such as shopping malls, dental clinics etc. They are inconvenient, but when in Rome...etc.

The acceptance of masks probably helped, but it is obvious that the main cause of the excellent performance of the Asian countries in suppressing the virus is the competence of the governments especially the public health departments.  The South Korean CDC ordered twenty different companies to start producing Covid test kits at scale on Dec. 31, 2019.  They could do this despite that neither China nor the WHO was very forthcoming about the emerging virus at that time, because they had their own strategy for surveilling the emergence of pathogens in China as part of their overall epidemic control plan which they had designed after MERS in 2015.  And the politicians stepped aside and let the public health officials manage the response.  The story is similar in the other Asian countries that have been successful: Taiwan, China, Vietnam, and, of course, Thailand.

 

The US, by contrast was also surveilling disease outbreak in China with a Beijing office of the US CDC and USAID, among others.  But these were set up under the Obama administration and promptly shut down by Trump in 2017.  So the US has 569 deaths per million and rising while S. Korea has 6.

 

It's baffling why so many posters are looking so hard to find some explanation for the Asian success with Covid that doesn't imply greater competence than the Western countries.  

[Emdog]

7 hours ago, Lacessit said:

Masks were a part of Asian culture before COVID came along. It's probably one of the factors in limiting the spread compared to other parts of the world.

They aren't really required in public places, just designated areas such as shopping malls, dental clinics etc. They are inconvenient, but when in Rome...etc.

For a time before covid hit, Thailand had the honor of most polluted city in the world (Chiang Mai), plus runners up. People were already wearing N95 masks because of the particle pollution from all the burning going on

I suppose government could somehow spin this into "See? all that air pollution turned out to be our savior"

[Bender Rodriguez]

you see people in shoppings malls with uncovered masks, how else can you EAT & drink

 

but also walking around eating & drinking , so ... 

 

it is not that the paper or cloth mask STOPS anything ANYWAY

[malt25]

You don't have to like it.... You just have to accept it !

[Fairynuff]

On 9/4/2020 at 7:19 AM, Matzzon said:

I guess that was the most irrelevant complaint thread today. Anyway, thanks to all the posters and members in this forum that actually sees the benefit of wearing a mask and how great Thailand have been doing during the pandemic.

Sure, Thailand is very vulnerable. people are trying to walk in and out through natural borders all the time. That will probably create some problems in the future. However, I guess the ones that see it as something positive instead of complaining, following the rules instead of complaining and breaking them and are wearing a mask as long as it takes. Yeah, they will probably find out that Thailand wasn´t such a bad place to stay in and wait out the pandemic in.

You see.... if we wait long enough, you and can find something we agree on! Well said.

[Fairynuff]

The US and UK seem to have the most anti maskers. They also happen to be the basket cases of the world when it comes to controlling the virus. It’s a mask, nothing more, it’s not impregnated with mind control drugs, it won’t harm you, and it’s bu**er all to do with your civil rights. 

[chilly07]

Extensive use of masks is one principle reason why Thailand has resisted Wuhan Flu. Another is tight border control and supervised quarantine.

[onthedarkside]

A report citing One America News has been removed, along with several replies. OAN is not an approved, credible news source for ThaiVisa.

 

Also, a post with a debunked version of U.S. CDC findings has been removed, along with multiple replies and replies to those replies.

 

[Matzzon]

40 minutes ago, Fairynuff said:

You see.... if we wait long enough, you and can find something we agree on! Well said.

Thank you for your patience.

[AlQaholic]

On 9/4/2020 at 6:33 AM, tonray said:

First domestic case in 100 days reported yesterday ....stay tuned

Yeah, a DJ in BKK, megaspreader event reportedly at KhaoSan road, DJ hadn't been outside Thailand for a long time.

[JTXR]

I think most Thais assume that the virus is out there and circulating at some low level but that "no confirmed cases" could probably be the result of: low levels of testing, mild or no symptoms for most people, and older folks maybe dying at home and thus not reported as covid.  On the street, mask wearing in BKK is common but not universal.  In shops and especially malls it is.  I interpret it as a "better safe than sorry" attitude.

 

[ianwheldale]

On 9/4/2020 at 6:47 AM, mr mr said:

it was never about the virus. it was always about control. 

This!!!

[BritManToo]

On 9/4/2020 at 6:25 AM, CALSinCM said:

I'm asking this question because eventually anyone who doesn't particularly want to piece of cloth/paper over their month all the time when the initial reason for wearing the mask has disappear in the general public.

It's only required when you enter 7-11/Tesco/Makro ....... hardly 'all the time'.