Will they ever stop wearing masks?

[rabas]

2 hours ago, bob smith said:

all in all i think it is very peculiar behavior from a completely brainwashed populace. 

A Thai has no issue wearing a mask.

A Thai has no issue not wearing a mask.

A Thai has no issue wearing a mask sometimes and not others.

A Thai with mask has no issue with a Thai without one.

A Thai without mask has no issue with a Thai with one.

 

In this way they are vastly freer that you, Bob, and live a better life.

 

Sometimes, some of my family were masks, usually when sick, always have. No one has ever said a word.

[Highlandman]

6 minutes ago, transam said:

I never said diesel fumes, have another look.....🤭

You said diesel dust. Same thing. All comes from diesel exhausts. Anything else you'd like to say, Einstein? 

 

I'm not saying you can't wear a mask while riding your motorcycle, provided you also wear a helmet (the Vietnamese do that). Up to you as they say.

 

Thais aren't wearing masks while seated at restaurants to prevent diesel fumes or diesel dust from being inhaled. They're doing this because they've been successfully indoctrinated into what is a cult. A strange cult known as muzzle wearing.

 

Most locals don't even know why they're wearing masks anymore but I continue to see tons of locals always wear their mask, unless eating or drinking.

 

This is clearly permanent. We won't see any changes even in 2025 or 2027.

 

I predict only 10% less mask wearing than at present, come October 2024.

[ChrisKC]

The best reason I can think of for not wearing a mask is:

 

when I lose face!

[Highlandman]

4 minutes ago, rabas said:

A Thai has no issue wearing a mask.

A Thai has no issue not wearing a mask.

A Thai has no issue wearing a mask sometimes and not others.

A Thai with mask has no issue with a Thai without one.

A Thai without mask has no issue with a Thai with one.

 

In this way they are vastly freer that you, Bob, and live a better life.

 

Sometimes, some of my family were masks, usually when sick, always have. No one has ever said a word.

That's because they're indoctrinated.

 

If they wear masks because they're sick, that's one thing and while I don't think they're helpful in such cases, I don't judge. 

 

However, it's totally anti-social and abnormal to wear masks when you're perfectly healthy, for no good reason.

 

Wrong - Thais wearing masks have a huge issue with those not wearing masks in certain circumstances. During Covid, if you didn't wear a mask, you were an outcast and shunned by society.

 

Even now, some circumstances dictate mask wearing. As a retiree, you might not be subjected to these situations, but visitors to certain companies MUST wear masks as a condition of entry.

 

Masks MUST be worn at certain schools and during certain ceremonies. 

 

This won't ever change.

Edited October 21, 2023 by Highlandman

[transam]

1 minute ago, rabas said:

A Thai has no issue wearing a mask.

A Thai has no issue not wearing a mask.

A Thai has no issue wearing a mask sometimes and not others.

A Thai with mask has no issue with a Thai without one.

A Thai without mask has no issue with a Thai with one.

 

In this way they are vastly freer that you, Bob, and live a better life.

 

Sometimes, some of my family were masks, usually when sick, always have. No one has ever said a word.

Yep, it's the nosey "people watching" farang brigade here with nothing better to do than take the p_ss out of Thai folk, even one looking in folks cars to see what they are wearing..............🥴

[Denim]

2 hours ago, bob smith said:

out and about i still see about 80% of Thai people still wearing face masks.

    You should stay in more Bob.

 

[transam]

4 minutes ago, Highlandman said:

You said diesel dust. Same thing. All comes from diesel exhausts. Anything else you'd like to say, Einstein? 

 

I'm not saying you can't wear a mask while riding your motorcycle, provided you also wear a helmet (the Vietnamese do that). Up to you as they say.

 

Thais aren't wearing masks while seated at restaurants to prevent diesel fumes or diesel dust from being inhaled. They're doing this because they've been successfully indoctrinated into what is a cult. A strange cult known as muzzle wearing.

 

Most locals don't even know why they're wearing masks anymore but I continue to see tons of locals always wear their mask, unless eating or drinking.

 

This is clearly permanent. We won't see any changes even in 2025 or 2027.

 

I predict only 10% less mask wearing than at present, come October 2024.

Dust is not fumes, the dust is in the gas from spent diesel...

In relation to everyday bike riding, it's a good idea......😋

 

You predict, how enthralling..........😬.......................

[connda]

14 minutes ago, Highlandman said:

The masks that are worn here don't protect you from diesel fumes and its not just diesel that's dangerous, gasoline fumes shouldn't be inhaled either.

Shhhhhh.  You'll be called a "mask-denier.'  It doesn't matter that they don't work.  It only matters that you do as you are told and conform.

Now with that said, I have a snug fitting 3M P-100 that is capable of filtering water-bound virus globules like the people in the hospital are hacking, coughing, and sneezing.  I wore it in 2020-2021 while at the local hospital where 100 people are jammed into a relatively small space. 
However, those cloth masks?  They are "feel good" devices.  Most have significant gaps.  Unless you believe that mask create the conditions that defy physics so that viruses and water droplets can't get past the gaps between your face and the mask where large quantities of air are sucked in as it is the path of least resistance?  At best it's a feel-good device.

I don't wear the P-100 any more.  Had Covid.  It was three days of feeling flu-like and generally like cr*p - and done.  Much ado about nothing.
All this public fear and loathing over a flu-bug.  Haven't had the flu for 20 years.  If I get it, like Covid?  I'll deal with it and get on with my life.

"It might kill you!!!"

Ever time I get in my car and drive on these road I have a much higher chance of dying than of dying of any kind of flu including Covid.  So "no," I don't mask, and "no" I can't understand the level of paranoia that drives people to willingly don a mask and re-breath their CO2 all day.  And "no" I don't take the shots.

"You're an anti-vaxxer!!!"

Nope.  I get rabies shots as I work with animals and don't particularly want to come down with a virus - that will kill you.

Oh, and then those putting on masks to filter out diesel fumes and other noxious airborne chemicals.  At a minimum they need a 3M 6000 series mask fitted with 6001, 501, or 5N11 filters.

But - I guess those flimsy paper and cloth masks are good for a placebo effect.  🙄

[Highlandman]

3 minutes ago, transam said:

Yep, it's the nosey "people watching" farang brigade here with nothing better to do than take the p_ss out of Thai folk, even one looking in folks cars to see what they are wearing..............🥴

It's not being nosey as just noticing how weird it is.

 

I'm not one to tell people what to do.

 

However, it is curious that ONLY Thai people are still masked, which was clearly NOT the case, prior to January 2020.

 

When I travel to Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, China etc. I now see more or less the same amount of mask wearing as pre Covid. Maybe slightly more, but not by much.

 

At most 20% of the general population is still masked in Vietnam and this includes all the motorcycle riders who ONLY wear masks while riding and take them off immediately upon disembarking. 

 

I was in Vietnam again last week for work and I didn't see even one Vietnamese person sit at a table in a restaurant wearing a mask. 

 

In Laos, 5% of the population wears a mask....in Vientiane. In the countryside its maybe 1%. If you count more than this, it's among motorcycle riders only (as dust protection).

 

In Myanmar, essentially no masks are worn by anyone.

 

In China, no one is masked outside of maybe 10% of train riders and hospitals.

 

The only country where I've had meetings with recently where people have been wearing masks during the meeting was in Thailand. In Vietnam, it's unthinkable to do this these days. Ditto for China, Laos etc.

[Highlandman]

1 minute ago, transam said:

Dust is not fumes, the dust is in the gas from spent diesel...

In relation to everyday bike riding, it's a good idea......😋

 

You predict, how enthralling..........😬.......................

Yawn. The semantics is getting boring. Off topic BTW. It's the mask wearing in general, particularly indoors, that makes zero sense.

 

Show me how much diesel dust there is inside a Central Shopping mall with air filters and all. 

[bob smith]

15 minutes ago, transam said:

with nothing better to do than take the p_ss out of Thai folk

they make it incredibly easy for us though, dont they 😄 

[Stocky]

3 hours ago, bob smith said:

my question is, will they ever grow out of wearing these things?

What's it matter to you?

[Highlandman]

2 hours ago, mancub said:

Yet have just spent 2 hours with the kids (flu symptoms) at a clinic. where every man and his dog were coughing and spluttering. but 50% were not masked. 

Probably put them on when they go to Lotus's later mind !

Very unusual. Of all the hospitals and clinics I've passed by in recent months, mask wearing among both staff and visitors has always been 100% ever since early 2020, with the exception of very young children (although some parents mask their babies as young as 4 months old from what I've seen).

 

The one exception might be private hospitals popular with foreigners such as Bumrungrad, where there are lots of foreign patients who simply don't wear masks. Arabs were among the first to stop wearing masks in July 2022, when all restrictions related to mask wearing were scrapped. 

 

My guess is you live in a very rural area, because as soon as you go to a larger town, whether it's Surin, Sri Saket, even Prasat in Surin province, Nakorn Sri Thammarat, literally anywhere in the country, mask wearing jumps to high levels in certain settings, with hospitals being at the top.

 

You're right though, you will sometimes see strange things like Thais wearing a mask at Lotus, but not outdoors when it's dusty or in this case, a clinic. I'm just surprised, because I'm fairly sure nearly all clinics and hospitals still have mask signs up requesting (even if not absolutely requiring) masks be worn by all visitors and this is almost universally complied with from what I can tell, not only in Bangkok but most parts of the country.

[KannikaP]

30 minutes ago, PJ71 said:

This my favorite too, or people driving a car on their own with a mask on - brilliant!

A year or so back, they said that if there was only one person in the vehicle = no mask, two people = masks. So my Mrs, who I have just had mad passionate love with, gets in the car.........masks on. Stupid.

[bob smith]

Just now, KannikaP said:

So my Mrs, who I have just had mad passionate love with

how long did it take you to blow her up? 😄 

[Highlandman]

6 minutes ago, Stocky said:

What's it matter to you?

It matters because it's anti social, makes you feel strange and unwelcoming. 

 

I literally have to think about whether I want to visit people at a certain company we've dealt with because of their strange Covid obsession. I'm certainly not going to go through the whole testing and mask wearing ritual just to visit them. 

 

Instead, I'll insist on meeting them at a nearby coffee shop where I'm sure they'll be happy to take off their masks, something that they're not allowed to do in their workplace.

[pomchop]

Is there a book i can buy to find new things to complain about Thai people's behavior that has zero impact on me? 

 

Perhaps a catchy title like..."101 things to whine about"  with a subtitle of " How to mind your own business"...or maybe " If i were only back in farangland where everything was logical and perfect"

[Highlandman]

Not only do Thais wear masks at home, but they take this habit with them when traveling abroad.

 

Case in point: late June, 2023. I'm at the Lao-China land border. Having driven there, I'm about to catch a train up to Kunming from nearby Mohan station.

 

There are around 100 people inside the arrivals hall, consisting of roughly 70% Chinese nationals, 20% Lao and what I later determined to be Thai nationals (there were 10 of them).

 

None of the Chinese nationals were masked. 3 of the Laotians were, one a monk, but he quickly removed his mask as it was stifling inside.

 

The power then went off for 45 minutes. Yet out of the 10 Thais, 9 were masked, some of whom had 2 masks on. None of them ever attempted to catch their breath or remove their masks during this ordeal, where the temperature inside the hall, despite windows being open, must have exceeded 42 degrees Celcius.

 

They then boarded a Lao registered bus driven by a maskless Lao driver to Jinghong, Sipsongbanna, 160km away.

 

About a month later I was again in Laos, and it was a long weekend in Thailand. I've never seen as many Thai tourists in Laos as then. Out of all the mask wearers I saw, almost without exception, they were Thai.

 

You could easily hear them speaking Thai while walking past you, proudly wearing their masks, while none of the westerners, Chinese or Korean tourists did. Not a single Lao vendor at the Luang Prabang night market wore a mask. It was amusing seeing masked Thais haggle with unmasked Lao vendors.

 

Now only maybe 20% of the Thais that I saw wore masks, but that was 20% more than the number of other foreigners. 

 

There's something in Thai culture that has caused Thais to wear masks in a way they never would before Covid. It definitely comes from peer pressure, TV and social media.

[bob smith]

4 minutes ago, pomchop said:

If i were only back in farangland where everything was logical and perfect

so you are admitting that things here are illogical & imperfect? 🤔

 

Thai basher! 😄 

[Highlandman]

3 minutes ago, pomchop said:

Is there a book i can buy to find new things to complain about Thai people's behavior that has zero impact on me? 

 

Perhaps a catchy title like..."101 things to whine about"  with a subtitle of " How to mind your own business"...or maybe " If i were only back in farangland where everything was logical and perfect"

Except it does have a huge impact. Thais avoided foreigners during Covid and some still do now, because we're not obsessed with muzzling our faces at all times, even though the government removed the mandate long ago and has no intention of telling Thais to stop masking. Anutin said so himself in a July 2022 speech and of course, he's right.

 

Do what you want, but don't impose your lunacy on others.

 

If you do business in Thailand like I do, you'll notice that a majority of companies still have mask signs up. This is intimidating and spreads a negative message. A message of fear. Even if no longer enforced, which begs the question, why are these signs still up?

 

Forgotten or waiting to be employed again in the future?

[bob smith]

1 minute ago, Highlandman said:

Except it does have a huge impact. Thais avoided foreigners during Covid and some still do now, because we're not obsessed with muzzling our faces at all times, even though the government removed the mandate long ago and has no intention of telling Thais to stop masking. Anutin said so himself in a July 2022 speech and of course, he's right.

 

Do what you want, but don't impose your lunacy on others.

 

If you do business in Thailand like I do, you'll notice that a majority of companies still have mask signs up. This is intimidating and spreads a negative message. A message of fear. Even if no longer enforced, which begs the question, why are these signs still up?

 

Forgotten or waiting to be employed again in the future?

Wow.

 

A poster on aseannow with a bit of common sense.

 

It's quite the rarity these days...

[Seppius]

Popped in Foodmart Jomtien yesterday, 90% of the staff not wearing masks, big thumps up from me. Might be my imagination, but the staff seemed so much happier

 

Cannot wait for the day 7/11 also give their staff the option too, must be torture for them to do 8 or 9-hour shifts wearing one, and maybe health issues as well

[ravip]

TBH all populaces are brainwashed, in one way or another.

It's just that our own high nosed attitude that we accuse the other.

[Highlandman]

2 minutes ago, Seppius said:

Popped in Foodmart Jomtien yesterday, 90% of the staff not wearing masks, big thumps up from me. Might be my imagination, but the staff seemed so much happier

 

Cannot wait for the day 7/11 also give their staff the option too, must be torture for them to do 8 or 9-hour shifts wearing one, and maybe health issues as well

Great to see. I've noticed the same thing among staff working for Australian coffee chain the Coffee Club. As of last month, no masks worn by staff at their Pattaya branch, but inexplicably, at their Suvarnabhumi airport branch and all their Bangkok branches, all masked up still. 

 

I also noticed only a fraction of staff at Global House Chanthaburi wearing masks recently, which was very nice to see. However, go to a similar store in Bangkok and you'd be lucky to see more than 10% of staff unmasked. At least among customers, even in Bangkok, it's finally down to like 50-60% mask wearing. For some reason, certain places attract more mask wearers while adjacent ones have fewer.

 

Tops at Central Bang Na (and the mall in general) has a consistent 75% rate of mask wearing among shoppers, while at nearby Mega Bang Na it's barely 50%. Many of the shoppers at Central Bang Na are older though, which might explain things.

 

Among staff at Mega Bang Na, a lot of employees, at least at the smaller stores, have stopped masking. Strangely, at Paragon most staff are still masked despite being in a tourist heavy precinct, where mask wearing among shoppers is well under half, probably only 1/3 nowadays.

[ravip]

Not ALL 7/11 staff wear masks - visit a couple of 100's or 1000's of outlets and you will see.

[Highlandman]

Just now, ravip said:

Not ALL 7/11 staff wear masks - visit a couple of 100's or 1000's of outlets and you will see.

I've visited dozens all over the country and I can say that all of them have had masked staff. Occasionally, you'll see unmasked staff outdoors smoking a cigarette or some delivery person, unmasked, entering the store but among the employees, they're almost without exception, masked up.

 

It could be that's about to change but remains to be seen.

 

Another interesting thing is now THAI Airways (since October 1) are allowing their cabin crew to stop wearing masks, at least on international flights. Prior to this, not only did they require masks for all their cabin crew including pilots, but they blasted mask wearing "recommendations" at the beginning of each flight. No other airline I've flown with since August 2022 has done this. Yes Vietnam Airlines and Singapore Airlines cabin crew (though not their pilots) were wearing masks on flights I took with them last year and earlier this year, respectively, but there were no announcements requesting passengers wear one. Only Thai registered airlines and reportedly, Philippines Airlines has been doing this, since mask mandates were removed.

 

I haven't flown THAI recently thus I wonder whether the mask announcements have ceased. I know that as of last month, they were still happening as a friend on a flight to Phuket attests to.

[connda]

41 minutes ago, bob smith said:

how long did it take you to blow her up? 😄 

That was the "sexy European woman" that he shagged after a couple bottles of Vino. 

[connda]

5 minutes ago, ravip said:

Not ALL 7/11 staff wear masks - visit a couple of 100's or 1000's of outlets and you will see.

ALL of the 7/11 that I have been to in Lamphun and Chiang Mai have been masked.  If they aren't wearing one, then it's around their necks.  Now - obviously I can't speak for those outside of my area.  And I doubt that is something being enforced in places like the US where employees (not raised to conform) would rebel.
Other SE Asian countries.  Don't know.  But I firmly believe that some corporate entities make it policy for their employees to mask.

[bob smith]

5 minutes ago, connda said:

That was the "sexy European woman" that he shagged after a couple bottles of Vino. 

touche 😉 

[Highlandman]

10 minutes ago, ravip said:

TBH all populaces are brainwashed, in one way or another.

It's just that our own high nosed attitude that we accuse the other.

Yes but that "whataboutism" really isn't the point of this thread. We're not even examining whether we should consider Australians and Canadians brainwashed for following mandates during Covid (I would say they are brainwashed) the topic here is examining why Thais and seemingly only Thais, are still wearing masks, well over a year after the end of the government mandate and why citizens of other Asian countries simply aren't doing this.

 

While there are certainly some mask wearers in other Asian countries (you'll still see the odd mask wearer even in western countries) its nowhere near as prevalent as here. 

 

From what I can tell, even in Japan, the rate of mask wearing seems to be lower than here. It remains high only in certain situations, but outdoors, in meetings, on TV etc. hardly anyone is masking anymore. On Thai TV, I still see some people masking in the TV studio! 

 

Yes, you still have guests wearing masks being interviewed by a presenter also wearing a mask. When I see this in 2023, I immediately change the channel (not that I watch much Thai TV, though I'm prone to flicking through TV channels when I'm about to go to bed while staying at a hotel when I'm on business either in upcountry Thailand or neighboring countries).