Wear the mask to protect others.  Get vaccinated and vaccine boosted to protect your self from the worst consequences of Covid infections.  If you choose to live in denial and unwilling to be mindful of others then at the least keep your disgraceful opinions and behavior to yourself here and elsewhere. 

22 minutes ago, josephbloggs said:

Get vaccinated, move on.

 

It's also worth noting here that, unfortunately, COVID vaccines for now are not a one or twice and done thing....

 

Because of the nature of the virus, being both respiratory and constantly mutating, for vaccinations to remain the most effective, people right now are advised to continue getting boosters every 4-6 months or so....

 

And if you look at the U.S. as an example, the rate of people who have received the newer bivalent vaccines thus far is only about 15% of the overall population (which is paltry!), even though those vaccines have been free and available there for months.

 

That's "moving on" in the wrong way.

 

"About 52.5 million people, or 15.8% of the U.S. population, have received an updated booster dose."

 

 

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html

 

Edited February 14, 20233 yr by TallGuyJohninBKK

38 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

to wear good quality face masks in indoor areas when close around other people.

well thats a relief considering most of the masks worn here are not good quality. 

12 minutes ago, LatPhrao said:

Wear the mask to protect others.  Get vaccinated and vaccine boosted to protect your self from the worst consequences of Covid infections.  If you choose to live in denial and unwilling to be mindful of others then at the least keep your disgraceful opinions and behavior to yourself here and elsewhere. 

No-one wearing masks here in UK so long I even forgot about covid existing....finally did catch it about 3 months ago and never again that I could feel since then.

 

All-in I think n95 masks and gloves did stop me getting it through lockdown as I was in-and-out shops endlessly...same as now.

 

Ain't no-one wearing anything for anyone else here..it seems some countries have moved on and swept it under the carpet....especially UK with winding down any stats for

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

Just now, stoner said:

well thats a relief considering most of the masks worn here are not good quality. 

In general, any fresh, properly warn face mask is going to be better than wearing none, in terms of reducing virus risk both to the wearer and others... But obviously, N95 masks are the best available to the general public. I import mine from the U.S.

 

Who cares....

21 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

No one is trying to keep the world, or Thailand, "under lock and key."  There are no longer any such enforced lockdown measures here, as you well know. And hardly any restrictions on inbound travel.

 

But, getting vaccinated, wearing a face mask when appropriate, and trying to keep in general good health all improve people's odds against bad COVID outcomes.

 

Usually, the people who post on here saying "move on" are those who want to disregard all the things that would otherwise protect people from getting sick.

 

I actually agree with you. I was initially replying to a poster who said it was madness and greed to let "the Chinese" in, when it clearly isn't as we need to move on. Thailand did a good job in removing inbound restrictions, it would be ridiculous to bring them back again.

 

Get vaccinated / boosted, take sensible precautions and live life.

4 hours ago, Carriesatousa said:

I'd love to know how many of these people have already been vaccinated....

Why? For an agenda driven reason per chance. Does it really matter.

13 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

In general, any fresh, properly warn face mask is going to be better than wearing none, in terms of reducing virus risk both to the wearer and others... But obviously, N95 masks are the best available to the general public. I import mine from the U.S.

 

I double mask just to be on the safe side. 

9 minutes ago, josephbloggs said:

Get vaccinated / boosted, take sensible precautions and live life.

I gave you a like for your above comments... even though the forum's new anonymous system for emoticons doesn't allow you to know I did!  ????

 

55 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

I gave you a like for your above comments... even though the forum's new anonymous system for emoticons doesn't allow you to know I did!  ????

 

I just did the same.  Shhhhhhhhhh!

5 hours ago, Carriesatousa said:

I'd love to know how many of these people have already been vaccinated....

what difference does that make, vacs don't prevent getting it, only lesson the severity of it

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

In general, any fresh, properly warn face mask is going to be better than wearing none, in terms of reducing virus risk both to the wearer and others... But obviously, N95 masks are the best available to the general public. I import mine from the U.S.

 

move on john....the rest of the world has. 

2 hours ago, LatPhrao said:

Wear the mask to protect others.  Get vaccinated and vaccine boosted to protect your self from the worst consequences of Covid infections.  If you choose to live in denial and unwilling to be mindful of others then at the least keep your disgraceful opinions and behavior to yourself here and elsewhere. 

But there's no requirement to wear a mask "to protect others", so obviously the medical consensus here and in most countries of the world is that it's not something that actually does "protect others".  getting vaccinated and boosted is obviously sensible to protect yourself.

A troll post and a misinformation post have been removed

57 minutes ago, brewsterbudgen said:

the medical consensus here and in most countries of the world is that it's not something that actually does "protect others".

This is fairly conclusive now. A recent Cochrane review found:

 

'Compared with wearing no mask in the community studies only, wearing a mask may make little to no difference in how many people caught a flu-like illness/COVID-like illness (9 studies; 276,917 people); and probably makes little or no difference in how many people have flu/COVID confirmed by a laboratory test (6 studies; 13,919 people).'

 

'Compared with wearing medical or surgical masks, wearing N95/P2 respirators probably makes little to no difference in how many people have confirmed flu (5 studies; 8407 people); and may make little to no difference in how many people catch a flu-like illness (5 studies; 8407 people), or respiratory illness (3 studies; 7799 people).'

 

https://www.cochrane.org/CD006207/ARI_do-physical-measures-such-hand-washing-or-wearing-masks-stop-or-slow-down-spread-respiratory-viruses

 

Full article:

 

https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub6/full

 

On 2/11/2023 at 1:41 PM, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Around my neighborhood in BKK, most Thais still are wearing face masks when close around other people, especially in indoors venues... And a lot of expats as well....

 

From what I'm seeing, it's the western tourists who are the most conspicuous in not wearing face masks these days, even in places like the BTS, where they're specifically being asked to wear them.

 

 

37 minutes ago, edwardandtubs said:

This is fairly conclusive now. A recent Cochrane review found:

 

'Compared with wearing no mask in the community studies only, wearing a mask may make little to no difference in how many people caught a flu-like illness/COVID-like illness (9 studies; 276,917 people); and probably makes little or no difference in how many people have flu/COVID confirmed by a laboratory test (6 studies; 13,919 people).'

 

'Compared with wearing medical or surgical masks, wearing N95/P2 respirators probably makes little to no difference in how many people have confirmed flu (5 studies; 8407 people); and may make little to no difference in how many people catch a flu-like illness (5 studies; 8407 people), or respiratory illness (3 studies; 7799 people).'

 

https://www.cochrane.org/CD006207/ARI_do-physical-measures-such-hand-washing-or-wearing-masks-stop-or-slow-down-spread-respiratory-viruses

 

Full article:

 

https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub6/full

 

Further to this, the lead study author stated very clearly: 

 

“There is still no evidence that masks are effective during a pandemic.”

 

The Cochrane reviews are the gold standard of evidence based medicine for healthcare. 

 

Clearly, masks are not as effective as some in Thailand think they are!!!
 

 

10 minutes ago, anrcaccount said:

 

Further to this, the lead study author stated very clearly: 

 

“There is still no evidence that masks are effective during a pandemic.”

 

The Cochrane reviews are the gold standard of evidence based medicine for healthcare. 

 

Clearly, masks are not as effective as some in Thailand think they are!!!
 

 

This from the actual conclusion and Authors note, so your view is tainted as far as not reading the whole article.

 

Authors' conclusions: 

The high risk of bias in the trials, variation in outcome measurement, and relatively low adherence with the interventions during the studies hampers drawing firm conclusions

There's no way of knowing.

 

I've personally stopped masking up but I notice in Issan compared to Bangkok or Pattaya masking up is still prevalent.  Perhaps 90%.

 

The people in this covid count must have reported to a hospital or clinic otherwise nobody else is going to bother getting tested or reporting a positive result if there feeling unwell. 

33 minutes ago, anrcaccount said:

 

Further to this, the lead study author stated very clearly: 

 

“There is still no evidence that masks are effective during a pandemic.”

 

The Cochrane reviews are the gold standard of evidence based medicine for healthcare. 

 

Clearly, masks are not as effective as some in Thailand think they are!!!

 

And the Cochrane report you cite -- which is merely a recap of various prior studies, including ones that predated COVID, and not itself any original research -- isn't all it's cracked up to be by anti-maskers...

 

Per a commentary on it by Johns Hopkins:

 

"the review emphasized that the findings could be due in part to multiple factors such as poor study design, low adherence to mask rules, quality of masks used, and incorrect mask usage. Notably, several individual studies have shown an association between community mask use and a reduction in COVID-19 cases.

...

Results of the review have split infectious disease experts, leading some to critique its methodologies and emphasize the importance of public messaging on nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to prevent disease transmission."

 

Source link

 

Edited February 14, 20233 yr by TallGuyJohninBKK

13 minutes ago, MrJ2U said:

There's no way of knowing.

 

I've personally stopped masking up but I notice in Issan compared to Bangkok or Pattaya masking up is still prevalent.  Perhaps 90%.

 

The people in this covid count must have reported to a hospital or clinic otherwise nobody else is going to bother getting tested or reporting a positive result if there feeling unwell. 

 

The only COVID cases counted and reported by the Thai government since last fall are those that result in hospitalizations.

 

Anything less than that for COVID isn't being publicly reported here.

 

The Chula professor in the OP was estimating the likely number of real COVID infections here, predicting 2,800 to 3,900 per day, based on the fewer COVID hospitalization numbers the government does report.

 

 

Further:

Yes, masks reduce the risk of spreading COVID, despite a review saying they don’t

Published: February 6, 2023 2.04pm EST

...

"There is strong and consistent evidence for the effectiveness of masks and (even more so) respirators in protecting against respiratory infections. Masks are an important protection against serious infections.

 

Current COVID vaccines protect against death and hospitalisation, but do not prevent infection well due to waning vaccine immunity and substantial immune escape from new variants.

 

A systematic review is only as good as the rigour it employs in combining similar studies of similar interventions, with similar measurement of outcomes. When very different studies of different interventions are combined, the results are not informative."

 

https://theconversation.com/yes-masks-reduce-the-risk-of-spreading-covid-despite-a-review-saying-they-dont-198992

 

 

13 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

which is merely a recap of various prior studies

A Cochrane review isn't "merely a recap", it's a systematic review and, as stated by another poster above, is considered the gold standard:

 

https://www.cochranelibrary.com/about/about-cochrane-reviews

 

By pooling the results of different studies, the flaws of individual studies are reduced.

 

If you want to wear your mask, keep wearing it but you can't claim this is an evidence-based position.

 

 

3 minutes ago, edwardandtubs said:

A Cochrane review isn't "merely a recap", it's a systematic review and, as stated by another poster above, is considered the gold standard:

 

https://www.cochranelibrary.com/about/about-cochrane-reviews

 

By pooling the results of different studies, the flaws of individual studies are reduced.

 

 

See the explanation above. The Cochrane article is a hodge-podge of different studies measuring different things with different standards.

 

The authors of the Cochrane article themselves acknowledged the limitations of their findings.

 

As The Conversation report explained above:

 

"A systematic review is only as good as the rigour it employs in combining similar studies of similar interventions, with similar measurement of outcomes. When very different studies of different interventions are combined, the results are not informative."

 

https://theconversation.com/yes-masks-reduce-the-risk-of-spreading-covid-despite-a-review-saying-they-dont-198992

Edited February 14, 20233 yr by TallGuyJohninBKK

1 minute ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

See the explanation above. The Cochrane article is a hodge-podge of different studies measuring different things with different standards.

 

As The Conversation report explained above:

 

"A systematic review is only as good as the rigour it employs in combining similar studies of similar interventions, with similar measurement of outcomes. When very different studies of different interventions are combined, the results are not informative."

 

https://theconversation.com/yes-masks-reduce-the-risk-of-spreading-covid-despite-a-review-saying-they-dont-198992

And you feel people should live their lives by following someone's opinion in The Conversation?

Just now, edwardandtubs said:

And you feel people should live their lives by following someone's opinion in The Conversation?

Yes, I pay attention to credible COVID-related info sources such as John Hopkins and The Conversation. As for the latter, for your info:

 

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-conversation/

 

Of course, you could also actually read the entire Cochrane article, including the except that @ThailandRyan posted some posts above, and get it straight from the authors themselves:

 

Authors' conclusions

"The high risk of bias in the trials, variation in outcome measurement, and relatively low adherence with the interventions during the studies hampers drawing firm conclusions. There were additional RCTs during the pandemic related to physical interventions but a relative paucity given the importance of the question of masking and its relative effectiveness and the concomitant measures of mask adherence which would be highly relevant to the measurement of effectiveness, especially in the elderly and in young children.

 

There is uncertainty about the effects of face masks. The low to moderate certainty of evidence means our confidence in the effect estimate is limited, and that the true effect may be different from the observed estimate of the effect."

 

https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub6/full

 

Edited February 14, 20233 yr by TallGuyJohninBKK

1 minute ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Yes, I pay attention to credible COVID-related info sources such as John Hopkins and The Conversation. As for the latter, for your info:

 

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-conversation/

 

I know how much you like googling and pasting the results but it's still just an opinion article. They're not presenting any evidence that prove the effectiveness of masking.

3 minutes ago, edwardandtubs said:

I know how much you like googling and pasting the results but it's still just an opinion article. They're not presenting any evidence that prove the effectiveness of masking.

The authors of The Conversation article are all scientists explaining the science of why the claims that anti-maskers have made based on the Cochrane article are overstated and without credible foundation.

 

Edited February 14, 20233 yr by TallGuyJohninBKK

Covid, Thailand. always confusing figures... daily Covid cases are weekly Covid cases, estimated cases, confirmed????? wear masks .... if you want, no oligation but we urge you to wear them... alone in a car on a motorcycle, when nobody is around... 

 

I follow the western news.. It is more clear and reliable than THai news...and no mask for me anymore, in Thailand it is not a must..