Thai Officials Announce "Innovative" Expat Health Measure

[brewsterbudgen]

1 hour ago, Dmaxdan said:

A couple of posters including with myself suggested that this was an April fool's joke very early on after this topic was first published. 

 

However, our posts were mysteriously removed...thus proving hands down it was all a wind up.

It's not a mystery.  Any post giving the game away before midday was removed (including mine) in order to keep the joke going.

[traveller101]

4 hours ago, TroubleandGrumpy said:

Clearly goat is a troll - deliberately provoking other members with negative insulting comments.

Solution - add to ignore list

On the other hand - incredibly amusing to see the number 1 numptie falling hook, line and sinker for the number 1 April foolsday joke

[Bill B]

Rather than facemasks..why not provide a bell and instruct tourists to ring it while chanting "Unclean Unclean"

[MangoKorat]

12 hours ago, webfact said:

"However, with global travel increasing, it's imperative to safeguard public health. This targeted approach ensures that our international guests don't unwittingly compromise the well-being of our citizens."

So, if this is brought in, will it also include those Thai's returning from trips abroad? Or are they immune from 'unwittingly compromising' the well-being of Thai citizens?

[Phil1964]

In response to this coercive action may I suggestforeugn governments rescind all visas of Thai persons overseas as we don't want them contributing to disease and viruses in our countries!?

 

FFS!

[Excogitator]

2 hours ago, Luuk Chaai said:

Dumb,Stupid,Non Informed,Low Intelligence..just plain old wrong..

 these masks do absolutely nothing to stop the spread of a potential virus    BUT...they DO WORK on

  masking some Fugly people and a bad case of Pla Ra breath...  

not to mention ..  I'll bet the farm this same official,  will go to a dinner function and use the same spoon to fill his plate and pie hole from the same communal dish that 10 other people are alao sharing their spit with. 

Stupis is as stupid does

Projecting much are we..?  You must be one of those anti-science hicks who injected chlorine to rid yourself of the 'choina-voirus'... It is scientifically proven, beyond any doubt, that an entire population wearing masks will slow the spread of a virus in said population.

[peter48]

11 hours ago, Celsius said:

it's okay. I have nothing against this requirement. I spent the whole 2 months in Canada sick because the people are filthy. First the cold and now bronchitis that won't go away.

I think the thing is once you get into mid 70s for example and you get a prolonged chest infection which gets serious and you 've never had that before in your life, you do think twice. In UK if you get even a little bit of blood in your plegm thats a red flag and you get blood tests, x-ray and hospital Scan within days. Mostly its not serious (if as is the case your scan shows nothing serious) but I wonder in Thailand what's the costs of those quick triple tests would be? 

 

PS You will always be asked: Do you/have you Smoked

Edited April 1 by peter48

[zzzzz]

13 hours ago, webfact said:

 

BANGKOK – In a move likely to raise eyebrows within the expat community, Thailand's Ministry of Health has unveiled a new initiative to combat communicable diseases: reinstating mask mandates for foreigners in major tourist areas.

 

Citing concerns about the potential for foreign visitors to introduce new illnesses, officials emphasize this isn't about pinpointing blame, but rather a proactive, preventative measure.
 

"Thailand prides itself on its warm hospitality," declared a Ministry spokesperson. "However, with global travel increasing, it's imperative to safeguard public health. This targeted approach ensures that our international guests don't unwittingly compromise the well-being of our citizens."

 

The regulation will apply to popular destinations like Phuket, Pattaya, and Chiang Mai. Locals, with their presumed stronger resistance to regional ailments, will be exempt.

 

Enforcement details are still under development. However, officials suggest a potential collaboration between health inspectors and immigration officers, possibly leading to on-the-spot mask checks and educational pamphlets for new arrivals.

 

Expat Community Expresses Concerns

 

The announcement has sparked a range of reactions within the expat community. Some express understanding, citing Thailand's history of vigilance during past outbreaks. Others voice concerns about potential discrimination and the slippery slope of increasingly targeted regulations.

 

"While I appreciate the desire to protect public health," commented one long-term Bangkok resident, "singling out foreigners seems like an oversimplification. Viruses don't check passports."

 

Tourism Industry Anticipates Challenges

 

The Tourism Authority of Thailand has issued a statement acknowledging the Ministry of Health's concerns while emphasizing the importance of maintaining a welcoming environment for all visitors. Industry figures are privately worried about negative publicity and potential confusion among travelers.

 

Whether this new regulation will have a significant impact on public health or tourism numbers remains to be seen. What is certain is that Thailand, known for its sometimes labyrinthine bureaucracy, has once again sparked a lively debate on the balance between precaution and inclusivity.

 

TOP: File photo

 

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april fools!!

[Highlandman]

1 hour ago, simon43 said:

Santisuk, I have exactly the same long-term illness as you, and I appreciate the benefits of wearing a mask.  I live in Laos and people can make their own decision as to wear or not wear a mask. I always wear a mask when entering shops or close to others and my health benefits from it.

 

I visited Bangkok last week for a few days and I see perhaps more than 50% of Thais wearing a face mask.  I say 'Good on them' for considering the health of others and minimising the risk of spreading bacteria etc).  As for the 'I hate face-nappy' brigade, I don't want to waste a moment in my life listening to the rubbish spouted by them..........

 

You must be the only person in Laos still wearing a mask. There's a term in the industry we use for people like you: a virtue signaler. 

[Hellfire]

6 hours ago, roo860 said:

I can confirm this, just walked into my local 7/11, not wearing a mask, I was verbally threatened by staff and locals, seems its been taken very seriously.

Only verbally?  Really lucky… I get the reports of the shootings involving maskless foreigners all over the country. 8 years old farang boy was shot in Chayapum province this morning. Thanks God his parents were fully masked, they are alive but a little bit shocked. The Thais took this new measure seriously. Beware everybody.

[peter48]

1 hour ago, SantiSuk said:

Should not pick on particular groups of people. A mask wearing rule should be applied to all people in specified high risk situations. Public transport, attendees at events where large groups congregate in enclosed situations. Those who have a specified health condition (which is what Thais typically did voluntarily before Covid - if sick they would choose to wear a mask to protect others - credit to them)

My approach/attitude is based on personal experience of the effectiveness of masks in stopping the spread of bacterial infections. I have a lung condition called bronchiectasis (not the same as bronchitis). Sufferers are prone to pick up bacterial infections quite regularly and some of those can turn nasty. Prior to covid I would catch an infection that was unpleasant roughly 3 to 5 times a year and one of those typically would put me in hospital with a bad flu, pneumonia or worse every year.
With the advent of covid I was a supporter of the Thai masking rules and wore them whenever outside. During (and since) covid I have had only one bacterial infection to speak of and that was easily cleared by standard antibiotics having not developed into the likes of flu/pneumonia. I am convinced that mask wearing has a significant effect on the reduction of serious bacterial infections (you will note that I cannot extend that determination to viral infections as I still get an occasional cold or runny nose).   

Japan did far, far better than Johnson's high Covid deaths UK during Covid Pandemic. Japan is more densely populated, has far more elderly people than UK. Clown Johnson delayed and delayed masks in 2020 despite Far East superior performance. UK got highest global Covid deaths in Spring 2020. Wear a mask especially in very crowded subways/buses/planes   like Bangkok or London especially in mid winter, flu times or whenever things are worse in Thailand. This goes especially for those with a poor health record or likely over 75s. Its difficult but you have to make that judgement sometimes. The Chinese medics established in 2020 that Covid began to spread from longer coach journeys.

[BarraMarra]

Blame the Chinese tourist groups coming in and bringing Covid with them.

[MicroB]

9 hours ago, Expat Tom said:

Kindly show me the peer reviewed major medical studies from world famous medical institutions that show that paper or cloth masks filer anything other than dust......I won't hold my breath. 

 

Some reading material for you (all peer reviewed)

Lima MMS, Cavalcante FML, Macêdo TS, Galindo Neto NM, Caetano JÁ, Barros LM. Cloth face masks to prevent Covid-19 and other respiratory infections. Rev Lat Am Enfermagem. 2020;28:e3353. doi: 10.1590/1518-8345.4537.3353. Epub 2020 Aug 10. PMID: 32785565; PMCID: PMC7417132.

 

Jain M, Kim ST, Xu C, Li H, Rose G. Efficacy and Use of Cloth Masks: A Scoping Review. Cureus. 2020 Sep 13;12(9):e10423. doi: 10.7759/cureus.10423. PMID: 33062538; PMCID: PMC7553716.

 

Collard MK, Vaz A, Irving H, Khan MF, Mullis D, Brady D, Nolan K, Cahill R. Reusable cloth masks in operating theatre. Br J Surg. 2023 Sep 6;110(10):1260-1263. doi: 10.1093/bjs/znad104. PMID: 37119205.

 

Jefferson T, Del Mar CB, Dooley L, Ferroni E, Al-Ansary LA, Bawazeer GA, van Driel ML, Jones MA, Thorning S, Beller EM, Clark J, Hoffmann TC, Glasziou PP, Conly JM. Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2020 Nov 20;11(11):CD006207. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub5. Update in: Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2023 Jan 30;1:CD006207. PMID: 33215698; PMCID: PMC8094623.

 

MacIntyre CR, Seale H, Dung TC, Hien NT, Nga PT, Chughtai AA, Rahman B, Dwyer DE, Wang Q. A cluster randomised trial of cloth masks compared with medical masks in healthcare workers. BMJ Open. 2015 Apr 22;5(4):e006577. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2014-006577. PMID: 25903751; PMCID: PMC4420971.

 

Shimasaki N, Okaue A, Kikuno R, Shinohara K. Comparison of the Filter Efficiency of Medical Nonwoven Fabrics against Three Different Microbe Aerosols. Biocontrol Sci. 2018;23(2):61-69. doi: 10.4265/bio.23.61. PMID: 29910210.

 

If you understand how a car air filter works, then you will have some understanding how medical filters work.

 

Firstly, medical air filters do not work like a sieve; ie filtering materials based on a size cutoff. Given a virus is 0.02um, you would likely suffocate with such a mask. But you do know HEPA filters work, don't you.

 

Car air filters and medical air filter work off a similar principle; that the direction of brownian motion on a small particle can be disrupted by electrostatic charge.

 

Bacteria and viruses tend to be negatively charged, due to the presence of things like teichoic acids. That makes them quite sticky when it comes to a positively charged surface. Plain cotton is neutral. Dyed cotton is weakly positive (thats how you get cotton to take up dye). Woven cotton fibers are quite evenly distributed, in a mesh. That means the chances of of a small particle coming close to these surfaces is less than a randomly woven material. The chances of a particle coming into close proximity to a charged fiber might be increased with a double layer of cotton, ideally with the second layer at 45 degrees to the first.

 

The problem with cotton is when it becomes wet, it becomes negatively charged, so it doesn't work well.

 

Now bring in the car air filter. Most people will know the standard air filter is usually made of paper, a randomly woven cellulose material, and assume it will sufficiently filter particles of a certain size that might harm your engine. Some might also know these filters can be quite restrictive to air flow, and cause loss of power. So an upgrade might be to use a cotton filter from someone like K&N. Ah, but you can't just fit a K&N dry. It has to be oiled first. The oil, lightly applied to the cotton, gives a decently charged surface to capture most of those dust particles, without impinging air flow. But K&Ns don't work in very dusty environments, where the average particle size, instead of being 3-5um, is more like 100um, where the particles have sufficient mass not to be affected by the charged oilm and just pass by.

 

Which is where the medical masks come in; they are generally not made from paper, but from spun polypropylene, polyurethane, polyacrylonitrile, polystyrene, polycarbonate, polyethylene, or polyester. These material are quite strongly positively charged (like nylon trousers), and also they are water resistant; water is not going to change that inherant property. N95 masks are not rated to remove 95% of viruses, but 95% of a standardised mix of particles.

 

Whether cloth masks "work" depends on the policy objective; what is your definition of the measure having worked. Clearly there is a hierarchy of masks, with homemade masks at the bottom, and fully sealed hepa filtered active air units at the top.

 

The effect of masks in controlling transmission is additive. The more masks worn, the greater the knock down. Two individual with N95 masks face each other. One exhales. 5% of the viral particles he has exhaled escape. Assuming the other person gets the full brunt of the other person's breath, he gets 0.25% of the particles breathed out, which is better than the 5% he would have been exposed to without a mask. For a surgeon, thats probably enough, given all the other measures put in place to reduce nosocomial infection.

 

Now you have to consider the infectious dose (ID50); the number of bacteria or virons required to cause illness or death in 50% of participants. Generally this is lower for threat agents that are delivered direct to the blood rather than inaled. The body has its own measures, to knockdown the inhaled dose, such as saliva, cilia and the like. So that also contributes to the perceived efficacy of a mas material. ie the efficacy will vary depending on how well the threat agent does against the body's own defences. eg. anthrax spores are bullet proof, and negotiating the body's primary defences is super easy, barely an inconvenience.

 

The ID50 of most viruses is usually around 1000; so 1000 of these have to get through before they will probably give you problems. But ID50 is an average; for some people, its much lower, for others, its much higher. The Amerithrax attacks following 911 highlighted that, when anthrax laced letters were sent through the US post. No one in the postal service got sick, despite exposure, but the recipiants did.

 

So that relates to the policy objective. Are you hoping to eliminate all infections through a cloth mask policy? No, because it will likely fail. A manufactured cotton mask, at best, has 25% efficiency, will reduce risk to another mask wearer by 44% and that is probably not enough to eliminate risk of infection to all. But it will reduce the risk of infection to some.

 

Is the policy objective to reduce hospital admissions?  Yes it will work, but the problem is the limited efficacy of the mask is impacted greatly by how it is worn, and the design. Plus there is a time factor; even if correctly worn, the performance degrades over time. How well it works is largely down to the etiology of the virus. Even before COVID-19, it was known that flu would affect people in different ways, with some being very seriously affected. A test was being developed to identify specific biomarkers associated with high risk. The risk of COVID-19 becoming serious was not simply a case of cardiovascular health, weight and immunorobustness, because there were exceptions. The fit young person developing issues. The 95 year old lung cancer with one lung being barely affected (yes, this was a case). Those comorbidities might also be the result of genetic traits.

 

Is the policy objective to be a nudge  factor alongside other control measures? I believe it did. Masks were a reminder that you should do something, as simple as keeping a distance, no coughing in someone's face etc.

 

If you want good studies on population use of masks, hospital studies are not them. That's because hospital studies are concerned about the efficacy of masks among a very niche part of the population; sick, hospitalised people. And the masks are not operating in isolation, they are part of a layered approach to infection control.

 

The best studies are those prepared for the military, and these are mostly restricted. There are some in the public domain:

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/trecms/pdf/AD1213764.pdf

 

This is not a comment on the proposed policy/prank, but a reaction to "paper masks don't work".

 

 

 

Edited April 1 by MicroB

[Dmaxdan]

1 hour ago, brewsterbudgen said:

It's not a mystery.  Any post giving the game away before midday was removed (including mine) in order to keep the joke going.

In a roundabout way, that was precisely the point I was making...

[sirineou]

1 hour ago, brewsterbudgen said:

It's not a mystery.  Any post giving the game away before midday was removed (including mine) in order to keep the joke going.

What joke?

 

[rattlesnake]

6 hours ago, n00dle said:

Gotta be April fools, but too close to home. 

 

I was counting the pages until someone finally noticed. 8 pages! And still on page 12 there are guys posting seriously.

Edited April 1 by rattlesnake
Okay so in all fairness, some people did suss it out but their posts were deleted. Still funny watching the rants go on though.

[UbonEagle]

Another hare brained spur of the moment idea and impossible to enforce….you idiots

[thailand49]

8 hours ago, Goat said:

You think you are smarter than the Thais.

Thats funny. 

Maybe!  But what I do know I'm not existing to be a SMF walking around with two left feet day dreaming through the life! 🤣

[Excogitator]

20 minutes ago, MicroB said:

 

Some reading material for you (all peer reviewed)

Lima MMS, Cavalcante FML, Macêdo TS, Galindo Neto NM, Caetano JÁ, Barros LM. Cloth face masks to prevent Covid-19 and other respiratory infections. Rev Lat Am Enfermagem. 2020;28:e3353. doi: 10.1590/1518-8345.4537.3353. Epub 2020 Aug 10. PMID: 32785565; PMCID: PMC7417132.

 

Jain M, Kim ST, Xu C, Li H, Rose G. Efficacy and Use of Cloth Masks: A Scoping Review. Cureus. 2020 Sep 13;12(9):e10423. doi: 10.7759/cureus.10423. PMID: 33062538; PMCID: PMC7553716.

 

Collard MK, Vaz A, Irving H, Khan MF, Mullis D, Brady D, Nolan K, Cahill R. Reusable cloth masks in operating theatre. Br J Surg. 2023 Sep 6;110(10):1260-1263. doi: 10.1093/bjs/znad104. PMID: 37119205.

 

Jefferson T, Del Mar CB, Dooley L, Ferroni E, Al-Ansary LA, Bawazeer GA, van Driel ML, Jones MA, Thorning S, Beller EM, Clark J, Hoffmann TC, Glasziou PP, Conly JM. Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2020 Nov 20;11(11):CD006207. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub5. Update in: Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2023 Jan 30;1:CD006207. PMID: 33215698; PMCID: PMC8094623.

 

MacIntyre CR, Seale H, Dung TC, Hien NT, Nga PT, Chughtai AA, Rahman B, Dwyer DE, Wang Q. A cluster randomised trial of cloth masks compared with medical masks in healthcare workers. BMJ Open. 2015 Apr 22;5(4):e006577. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2014-006577. PMID: 25903751; PMCID: PMC4420971.

 

Shimasaki N, Okaue A, Kikuno R, Shinohara K. Comparison of the Filter Efficiency of Medical Nonwoven Fabrics against Three Different Microbe Aerosols. Biocontrol Sci. 2018;23(2):61-69. doi: 10.4265/bio.23.61. PMID: 29910210.

 

If you understand how a car air filter works, then you will have some understanding how medical filters work.

 

Firstly, medical air filters do not work like a sieve; ie filtering materials based on a size cutoff. Given a virus is 0.02um, you would likely suffocate with such a mask. But you do know HEPA filters work, don't you.

 

Car air filters and medical air filter work off a similar principle; that the direction of brownian motion on a small particle can be disrupted by electrostatic charge.

 

Bacteria and viruses tend to be negatively charged, due to the presence of things like teichoic acids. That makes them quite sticky when it comes to a positively charged surface. Plain cotton is neutral. Dyed cotton is weakly positive (thats how you get cotton to take up dye). Woven cotton fibers are quite evenly distributed, in a mesh. That means the chances of of a small particle coming close to these surfaces is less than a randomly woven material. The chances of a particle coming into close proximity to a charged fiber might be increased with a double layer of cotton, ideally with the second layer at 45 degrees to the first.

 

The problem with cotton is when it becomes wet, it becomes negatively charged, so it doesn't work well.

 

Now bring in the car air filter. Most people will know the standard air filter is usually made of paper, a randomly woven cellulose material, and assume it will sufficiently filter particles of a certain size that might harm your engine. Some might also know these filters can be quite restrictive to air flow, and cause loss of power. So an upgrade might be to use a cotton filter from someone like K&N. Ah, but you can't just fit a K&N dry. It has to be oiled first. The oil, lightly applied to the cotton, gives a decently charged surface to capture most of those dust particles, without impinging air flow. But K&Ns don't work in very dusty environments, where the average particle size, instead of being 3-5um, is more like 100um, where the particles have sufficient mass not to be affected by the charged oilm and just pass by.

 

Which is where the medical masks come in; they are generally not made from paper, but from spun polypropylene, polyurethane, polyacrylonitrile, polystyrene, polycarbonate, polyethylene, or polyester. These material are quite strongly positively charged (like nylon trousers), and also they are water resistant; water is not going to change that inherant property. N95 masks are not rated to remove 95% of viruses, but 95% of a standardised mix of particles.

 

Whether cloth masks "work" depends on the policy objective; what is your definition of the measure having worked. Clearly there is a hierarchy of masks, with homemade masks at the bottom, and fully sealed hepa filtered active air units at the top.

 

The effect of masks in controlling transmission is additive. The more masks worn, the greater the knock down. Two individual with N95 masks face each other. One exhales. 5% of the viral particles he has exhaled escape. Assuming the other person gets the full brunt of the other person's breath, he gets 0.25% of the particles breathed out, which is better than the 5% he would have been exposed to without a mask. For a surgeon, thats probably enough, given all the other measures put in place to reduce nosocomial infection.

 

Now you have to consider the infectious dose (ID50); the number of bacteria or virons required to cause illness or death in 50% of participants. Generally this is lower for threat agents that are delivered direct to the blood rather than inaled. The body has its own measures, to knockdown the inhaled dose, such as saliva, cilia and the like. So that also contributes to the perceived efficacy of a mas material. ie the efficacy will vary depending on how well the threat agent does against the body's own defences. eg. anthrax spores are bullet proof, and negotiating the body's primary defences is super easy, barely an inconvenience.

 

The ID50 of most viruses is usually around 1000; so 1000 of these have to get through before they will probably give you problems. But ID50 is an average; for some people, its much lower, for others, its much higher. The Amerithrax attacks following 911 highlighted that, when anthrax laced letters were sent through the US post. No one in the postal service got sick, despite exposure, but the recipiants did.

 

So that relates to the policy objective. Are you hoping to eliminate all infections through a cloth mask policy? No, because it will likely fail. A manufactured cotton mask, at best, has 25% efficiency, will reduce risk to another mask wearer by 44% and that is probably not enough to eliminate risk of infection to all. But it will reduce the risk of infection to some.

 

Is the policy objective to reduce hospital admissions?  Yes it will work, but the problem is the limited efficacy of the mask is impacted greatly by how it is worn, and the design. Plus there is a time factor; even if correctly worn, the performance degrades over time. How well it works is largely down to the etiology of the virus. Even before COVID-19, it was known that flu would affect people in different ways, with some being very seriously affected. A test was being developed to identify specific biomarkers associated with high risk. The risk of COVID-19 becoming serious was not simply a case of cardiovascular health, weight and immunorobustness, because there were exceptions. The fit young person developing issues. The 95 year old lung cancer with one lung being barely affected (yes, this was a case). Those comorbidities might also be the result of genetic traits.

 

Is the policy objective to be a nudge  factor alongside other control measures? I believe it did. Masks were a reminder that you should do something, as simple as keeping a distance, no coughing in someone's face etc.

 

If you want good studies on population use of masks, hospital studies are not them. That's because hospital studies are concerned about the efficacy of masks among a very niche part of the population; sick, hospitalised people. And the masks are not operating in isolation, they are part of a layered approach to infection control.

 

The best studies are those prepared for the military, and these are mostly restricted. There are some in the public domain:

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/trecms/pdf/AD1213764.pdf

 

This is not a comment on the proposed policy/prank, but a reaction to "paper masks don't work".

 

 

 

Thanks for that one MicroB, though there's probably a lot of reading involved for those who don't believe in science. They usually prefer slogans and one-liners..

 

One key-takeaway; 'The effect of masks in controlling transmission is additive. The more masks worn, the greater the knock down.'

[fondue zoo]

April Fools

[quake]

Must admit I never spotted it. ( yes so i was had )

Glad I never had a right old rant,  like some did.

well done AN.

you got a boat load of them.

this time. 

 

Edited April 1 by quake

[Ralf001]

3 minutes ago, quake said:

 

you got a boat load of them.

this time. 

 

 

AN deleted a boat load of posts calling April fools.

[it is what it is]

 

assume thais who have recently traveled abroad will also be required to comply, and that the authorities have a system in place to identify those citizens who should be complying.

[cdnvic]

Thirteen hours later the gift keeps on giving. 😃

[quake]

11 minutes ago, Ralf001 said:

AN deleted a boat load of posts calling April fools.

 

Yes, as they always have.

very funny joke this year.

anyone for 90 day report at 7/11.  

 

 

 

 

Edited April 1 by quake

[herb59]

just read this:
https://www.aier.org/article/lockdowns-and-mask-mandates-do-not-lead-to-reduced-covid-transmission-rates-or-deaths-new-study-suggests/
Lockdowns and Mask Mandates Do Not Lead to Reduced COVID Transmission Rates or Deaths, New Study Suggests
https://www.onehealthjournal.org/Vol.6/No.2/3.html
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/8/4344
https://vixra.org/abs/2006.0044
https://dailysceptic.org/2022/03/14/new-spanish-study-finds-that-masking-in-schools-does-nothing/
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.04.22272833v1
https://adc.bmj.com/content/108/2/131
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2211144119
https://www.medscape.co.uk/viewarticle/mask-wearing-hospitals-had-little-impact-covid-19-omicron-2023a100076l?token=TpqdvbnXPeBfVMhRAQpJZRPdN6FK%2BNpa7uKGU1AYGsDFUHwMLUwGqbWnHGvAsHxgWSgHdX0FLCG0a3MNTh%2BrKDcJ2gfK9%2FDvJ56qcWSZQEfLuD%2BgK2Vz5yw9bH7vdxen4MZlJCVZLt83EKFcrQWFixtdWYgTsNJoIMECXZwb4LWmpUsAPmhShx379FwwC9SSZIAM%2FDkiEvyWCrG2rEelIrAQQnjP82xWtJkUGe%2FEZrFVZ5OHnrDAsjqpg2RgLt3Kz8yArOlr%2Fqd87KtuKm5Cl%2FU%2BqEzWZzZAgkBeNxZKUSqFiegIKgVOxn%2FqJB6kItOane9Q9viXntU9qbQQ%2BOmGjGcwJQm%2B33dwzyTVqV75IU0%3D
Mask Wearing in Hospitals Had Little Impact on COVID-19 Omicron Transmission

[Luuk Chaai]

1 hour ago, Excogitator said:

Projecting much are we..?  You must be one of those anti-science hicks who injected chlorine to rid yourself of the 'choina-voirus'... It is scientifically proven, beyond any doubt, that an entire population wearing masks will slow the spread of a virus in said population.

ha !   I'm all about science, facts and reality 

"an entire population wearing masks will slow the spread of a virus in said population."

so in the real world,  that means they get in on Friday instead of Tuesday

same uneducated low intelligence unaware people will still take that face diaper off and handle it then sit at a table in a crowded restaurant and swap spoon spit  and pla ra breath then put the same dirty useless diaper back on their pie hole

don't blame me..     blame Xi
 

[scottiejohn]

11 minutes ago, cdnvic said:

Thirteen hours later the gift keeps on giving. 😃

If nothing else it helps to tell the management of AN which members are gullible and who to direct some of their ADS towards and  which members are a tad more sane!

[Cardano]

15 hours ago, webfact said:

 

BANGKOK – In a move likely to raise eyebrows within the expat community, Thailand's Ministry of Health has unveiled a new initiative to combat communicable diseases: reinstating mask mandates for foreigners in major tourist areas.

 

Citing concerns about the potential for foreign visitors to introduce new illnesses, officials emphasize this isn't about pinpointing blame, but rather a proactive, preventative measure.
 

"Thailand prides itself on its warm hospitality," declared a Ministry spokesperson. "However, with global travel increasing, it's imperative to safeguard public health. This targeted approach ensures that our international guests don't unwittingly compromise the well-being of our citizens."

 

The regulation will apply to popular destinations like Phuket, Pattaya, and Chiang Mai. Locals, with their presumed stronger resistance to regional ailments, will be exempt.

 

Enforcement details are still under development. However, officials suggest a potential collaboration between health inspectors and immigration officers, possibly leading to on-the-spot mask checks and educational pamphlets for new arrivals.

 

Expat Community Expresses Concerns

 

The announcement has sparked a range of reactions within the expat community. Some express understanding, citing Thailand's history of vigilance during past outbreaks. Others voice concerns about potential discrimination and the slippery slope of increasingly targeted regulations.

 

"While I appreciate the desire to protect public health," commented one long-term Bangkok resident, "singling out foreigners seems like an oversimplification. Viruses don't check passports."

 

Tourism Industry Anticipates Challenges

 

The Tourism Authority of Thailand has issued a statement acknowledging the Ministry of Health's concerns while emphasizing the importance of maintaining a welcoming environment for all visitors. Industry figures are privately worried about negative publicity and potential confusion among travelers.

 

Whether this new regulation will have a significant impact on public health or tourism numbers remains to be seen. What is certain is that Thailand, known for its sometimes labyrinthine bureaucracy, has once again sparked a lively debate on the balance between precaution and inclusivity.

 

TOP: File photo

 

-- ASEAN NOW 2024-04-01

 

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some people are just so easily fooled!!! happy fools day.

[smedly]

3 hours ago, simon43 said:

I visited Bangkok last week for a few days and I see perhaps more than 50% of Thais wearing a face mask.

 

I think you will find that air quality is the reason