Masks - Why still now?

[Presnock]

28 minutes ago, Cameroni said:

 

Well, when the UK's finest started arguing in Cobra on whether wearing masks actually confers any benefit I knew we were in trouble. They didn't even know that. Conflicting studies, sorry. Marginal benefit. Maybe. Possibly in closed spaces. Maybe not. Conflicting studies sorry.

 

They did their best, Neil Ferguson and his crack team. Sadly it wasn't good enough. Predictions way off. Numbers way off. Sweden doing great. I'm sure they believed what they were saying. I'm sure they did their best. But it was just not good enough. Biggest failure of science in our lifetime. Stunning political abdication to clueless scientists. We all paid the bill.

But, speaking of the world, also recall the more than 500 BILLIONAIRES created during the pandemic - surely some of them will help us out with interest-free loans!  In the world there were even more reich created by these false claims.  I will be difficult or near impossible to ever get folks to agree on anything anymore as there is way too much free air to opine anything and everything.  So, all should just sit back and wait for the dust to settle and see if we are still survivable in the next few years.

[connda]

Moronic stupidity.

[Negita43]

The bottom line is that if I want to wear a pink shirt I do, if I want to wear  yellow trousers I do and if I want to wear a mask I do. What business is it of other people what I choose to wear?

[BKKBike09]

3 hours ago, Jonathan Swift said:

Ask the Thai people themselves. They were wearing masks long before covid. 

What twaddle. They were not.

[Acharn]

I wore masks and have never caught Covid. It's still there. I'm 87 years old. Why should I not wear a mask? They aren't that much of a hassle. Lots of people get vaccinated and catch Covid, maybe even Long Covid. Do what you like.

[brewsterbudgen]

35 minutes ago, Acharn said:

I wore masks and have never caught Covid. It's still there. I'm 87 years old. Why should I not wear a mask? They aren't that much of a hassle. Lots of people get vaccinated and catch Covid, maybe even Long Covid. Do what you like.

Who's saying you shouldn't?  If I were elderly or had underlying health issues, I would too.  Not just because of Covid either.

[SAFETY FIRST]

On 4/11/2025 at 12:31 PM, 2long said:

Still so many locals wear masks.

My wife does when she's on the motorbike, and she claims it's to protect her skin from the sun.

Recently in Vietnam and Taiwan i saw the same.

Covid is still active. 

 

Asians at greater risk 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/12/black-and-asian-people-at-greater-risk-of-getting-covid-meta-study-finds

 

They are protecting themselves. 

 

 

[blaze master]

6 hours ago, BKKBike09 said:

 

 

Having lived in Bangkok since the late 1980s I can assure you that, prior to Covid, virtually no-one wore masks at any time. Seasonal mask wearing because of air pollution only started once people had access to smartphone apps warning about PM2.5 levels and even then, it was a very small minority that wore masks.

 

It is false to suggest otherwise. This is an image from 2016. Not a mask in sight.

 

 

 

 

I don't understand why this myth is still pushed. 

 

You can also see literally hundreds of videos on YouTube showing that very few people wore masks prior to covid. 

 

Yes some did but it wasn't even a couple percent of the population. To say that mask wearing was popular is just not true.

[Tomtomtom69]

On 4/11/2025 at 12:31 PM, 2long said:

Still so many locals wear masks.

My wife does when she's on the motorbike, and she claims it's to protect her skin from the sun.

Recently in Vietnam and Taiwan i saw the same.

 

In Vietnam, generally speaking it's ONLY motorcycle riders that still wear masks. Of course, exceptions exist, but there are generally fewer mask wearers than in Thailand.

 

I remember going to Vietnam back in August 2022, on my first post-Covid trip and noticed how in Ho Chi Minh City, barely 50% of people still wore masks, vs 97% in Bangkok at the time.

 

I went to Taiwan in October of last year and that's one of the very few countries where the rate of mask wearing is comparable to Thailand. You'll still see some babies, toddlers and young children masked up (just like you will in Thailand).

 

In any given setting in Thailand (and Taiwan) you'll see anywhere from 10-30% of people masked up, excluding hospitals, where, depending on the type of hospital (public or private) and it's location (urban, rural, in a suburban area or popular with expats/tourists), the rate of mask wearing may be as high as near 100%. 

[Tomtomtom69]

3 minutes ago, blaze master said:

 

I don't understand why this myth is still pushed. 

 

You can also see literally hundreds of videos on YouTube showing that very few people wore masks prior to covid. 

 

Yes some did but it wasn't even a couple percent of the population. To say that mask wearing was popular is just not true.

 

Precisely. So few people wore masks prior to Covid, that I could barely recall anyone who ever did, except for the very occasional sick person suffering from a cold or the occasional nurse or doctor at a hospital. 

 

Even today, walking through any given mall, a good 15-20% of the population of all ages, though many of them tend to be older or they're women, wear masks. What I don't get is, when I see say a family or 3 or 4 and only the child(ren) wear masks but not their parents. 

[Tomtomtom69]

18 minutes ago, SAFETY FIRST said:

Covid is still active. 

 

Asians at greater risk 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/12/black-and-asian-people-at-greater-risk-of-getting-covid-meta-study-finds

 

They are protecting themselves. 

 

 

 

I'm not sure about that, but you are correct that Asians (some nationalities anyway) are still concerned about Covid. This is particularly true in Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan and explains the continued mask wearing in these countries and regions. 

[Tomtomtom69]

5 hours ago, Jerry777 said:

To cover their ugly noses or to stay off the radar for criminals

 

LOL. Thai noses are actually quite nice; our noses tend to be ugly, unfortunately. 

[Tomtomtom69]

On 4/11/2025 at 12:46 PM, KhunBENQ said:

Sometimes I think noone should ride without but for another reason.

Protect yourself from the terrible pollution from (Diesel) exhaust.

 

Was at an eye doctor with my wife recently and they simple insist on masks.

Also at most hospitals you won't see many without mask.

 

Unbelievable that some hospitals are still insisting on masks.

 

My understanding is that private hospitals generally no longer do, especially the ones popular with expats and tourists, but public ones still might. 

[sandyf]

On 4/11/2025 at 12:31 PM, 2long said:

Still so many locals wear masks.

What do you mean "still"

When I first came here in 1999 quite a number of Thais wore masks for various reasons, mainly pollution in the cities.

Along came SARS and that added some more but covid really highlighted the benefits and some institutions have adopted it as a preferred policy rather than compulsory.

I go back  to the UK regularly, latest being Oct, and use the buses quite a lot. Generally speaking during the day there is about 20% of the passengers wearing masks,  much lower when a higher percentage of younger people such as school kids and when the bars shut.

[Tomtomtom69]

On 4/11/2025 at 2:02 PM, BangkokReady said:

I think there is an element of pollution protection, but many Thais will put masks on before entering a building, having not worn one outside.  You can still see them lifting up masks when they see foreigners also.

 

There's definitely still an element of covid protection.  It seems that covid (or airborne viruses in general) is kind of a permanent thing for some Thais.

 

Possibly there's some snobbery/xenophobia around it also for a few people.  "Us good clean Thais need to wear masks around these dirty foreigners."

 

Things have definitely improved after covid, though.  Thailand was a couple of years behind the rest of the world, but they've softened towards foreigners a fair amount.  I don't know if it will ever go back to how it was before, though.

 

100% spot on!

 

It took Thais about 2 years to finally remove their masks but for some, they'll never take them off.

 

There's a cleaning lady who rides her bicycle home through our village with her mask on every afternoon. She has never not worn her mask since early 2020. I doubt she'll ever go back to the pre-Covid norm of not wearing a mask.

 

Some Thais, especially the upper middle and upper class ethnic Chinese Thais do in fact wear masks in the most absurd of circumstances, for virtue signaling or all sorts of reasons.

 

I know of one such family, they have a "little emperor" as a son. He's around 8 or 9 now. He's been wearing his mask most of the time since Covid began and nowadays still wears one on occasion. One of the most recent photos I saw of the family on Facebook showed him wearing a mask while reading a book inside a cafe in Japan. 

 

The same kid also wore his mask during a private boat trip down in Phuket not too long ago. He wears his mask while at school, even though most of his peers have stopped wearing theirs. 

 

The contrast with neighboring countries is huge. If, like me you went to Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar in the months following the post-Covid reopening, you would have noticed the striking difference with Thailand.

 

Cambodia was largely mask-free already in November 2022. I distinctly remember estimating the rate of mask wearing in Siem Reap to be no higher than 2-3%. The only employees still wearing them were 7-11 workers (CP owns 7-11 Cambodia as they do in Thailand, which may explain the continued mask mandates for employees). In contrast, Bangkokians were still wearing masks at that time, indoors and outdoors, to the tune of somewhere between 70-90%, depending on the setting and whether it was indoors or outdoors. Mask wearing on the Skytrain and many malls was still at 90%+. Even in rural areas, mask wearing was still at around 15-25%, spiking to 70-80% or higher as soon as you stepped inside a 7-11, a Lotus or any store. In Phnom Penh, mask wearing at the time was higher than Siem Reap, but still not higher than 5-10%. I remember snickering after passing a double masked Thai expat, who's Cambodian driver was unmasked at the AEON mall. 

 

I also noticed how seriously Thais still took mask wearing in June 2023 at the Lao-China border. There was a group of approximately 10 Thai tourists of whom, 9 out of the 10 were masked up. Some were double masked. Approximately 100 people were in the immigration hall, of whom about 70% were Chinese, none of which were wearing masks. Around 20 Laotians were also there, of whom 2 were masked, but one of them (a monk) removed his mask as it was getting pretty stifling in there.

 

The power went out and we had to wait for 45 minutes in intense heat and humidity. During this time, Chinese immigration staff, still required to wear masks at the time, all lowered their masks every 2 minutes to take a breath, but the double masked Thai tourists didn't even flinch.

 

By the time the power came back on and we all started passing through immigration, i noticed that the Lao driver employed to take the Thai group to Jinghong in Sipsongbanna wasn't wearing a mask, while his group of Thai tourists were all obediently masked up.

 

Once I got inside my train, I noticed only 10% of passengers masked up, and maximum 5% anywhere else (such as at malls, or outdoors).

 

Thus mask wearing is definitely more of a Thai thing than in most other Asian countries even. 

[Tomtomtom69]

4 minutes ago, sandyf said:

What do you mean "still"

When I first came here in 1999 quite a number of Thais wore masks for various reasons, mainly pollution in the cities.

Along came SARS and that added some more but covid really highlighted the benefits and some institutions have adopted it as a preferred policy rather than compulsory.

I go back  to the UK regularly, latest being Oct, and use the buses quite a lot. Generally speaking during the day there is about 20% of the passengers wearing masks,  much lower when a higher percentage of younger people such as school kids and when the bars shut.

 

I don't recall many Thais wearing masks during SARS. I spent some time here then. 

 

It is true that even in the west, be it America, the UK, Australia, there are some mask wearers now, that you wouldn't have seen at all pre-Covid, but the percentages are way below that of Thailand.

 

Even in August 2022, when I visited Australia for the first time pre-Covid, I could go all day without seeing a single mask, depending on where I was. In some places, I did estimate there to be around 3% of people wearing masks but this reduced to well under 1% by my next trip in April 2023. In September-October 2022 when I went to Europe, I counted about 15 people in total wearing masks on my entire trip. Out of probably thousands upon thousands I saw, excluding the 5% or so masked on the flights over and back. 

[sandyf]

7 minutes ago, Tomtomtom69 said:

 

I don't recall many Thais wearing masks during SARS. I spent some time here then. 

 

It is true that even in the west, be it America, the UK, Australia, there are some mask wearers now, that you wouldn't have seen at all pre-Covid, but the percentages are way below that of Thailand.

 

Even in August 2022, when I visited Australia for the first time pre-Covid, I could go all day without seeing a single mask, depending on where I was. In some places, I did estimate there to be around 3% of people wearing masks but this reduced to well under 1% by my next trip in April 2023. In September-October 2022 when I went to Europe, I counted about 15 people in total wearing masks on my entire trip. Out of probably thousands upon thousands I saw, excluding the 5% or so masked on the flights over and back. 

It is all about perception, if you don't want to see it you won't.

[ronnie50]

WTAF is it with Americans and their anti-mask brigade? During Covid it seemed this backlash was almost unique to USA.

 

While I'm at it, and I admit off-topic. why do so many retired Americans flock to Chiang Mai and other parts of the North? Is there some kind of right-wing cult colony up there? Sort of "The Boys From Boise"?

[Cameroni]

3 minutes ago, ronnie50 said:

While I'm at it, and I admit off-topic. why do so many retired Americans flock to Chiang Mai

 

Because it's the best city in Thailand to live in. 

 

It hits that sweetspot between all the big city amenities, restaurants, malls and massage options, but you can still drive in the city without 4 hour traffic jams.

 

In addition it is widely considered the city with the best food offering in the world (though probably Bangkok has more).

 

Not to mention the charm of a 1000 plus years, flower festivals etc etc etc.

[Presnock]

I continue to laugh at so many folks here on this forum.  I am not and most say that they won't wear masks,  What difference does it make anyway.  Are you nay sayers afraid the facts will show a different story?  Seems like too much complaining about folks wearing masks when these very complainers about others wearing them are at fault,   I haven't seen anyone saying you have to wear masks, some claim that I started that but that is a false statement too. I wear a mask when I go outside.  I have been in Thailand since the 70's and US doctors visiting employees advised us to wear a mask when doing anything outside in the polluted air.  Yeah some of the pollution changed as unlead gas replaced leaded gas but the pollution levels did drop at first but then more and more burning every year throughout SEA means the air is polluted more often than not.  That is easy to see or know about as reports are done regularly by the government and by accuweather for particular areas.  Every day on the Thai TNN news, they give the government weather bureau warning for provinces with higher than the standard each day several times and they actuall show some of the polluted areas and the forest fires creating that foul air.  I didn't make any claims for people to wear masks, just that good quality N95 and N99 masks can block 2.5 micron particles.  AGAIN, no one is telling anyone that they have to wear masks unless it is the government stating masks to be worn in certain buildings or businesses can also require masks on customers.  Otherwise it is up to the individual.

[blaze master]

2 hours ago, sandyf said:

It is all about perception, if you don't want to see it you won't.

 

Because it wasn't there. Yes some people wore masks before covid but it was a very small percent of the population. 

 

A quick search on YouTube settles this. 

[BangkokReady]

3 hours ago, sandyf said:

It is all about perception, if you don't want to see it you won't.

 

If we cannot trust his perception, how can we trust yours?

[still kicking]

4 hours ago, blaze master said:

 

I don't understand why this myth is still pushed. 

 

You can also see literally hundreds of videos on YouTube showing that very few people wore masks prior to covid. 

 

Yes some did but it wasn't even a couple percent of the population. To say that mask wearing was popular is just not true.

Ask the Japanese 

[blaze master]

3 minutes ago, still kicking said:

Ask the Japanese 

 

Ok thanks for that totally irrelevant reply. 

[still kicking]

11 minutes ago, blaze master said:

 

Ok thanks for that totally irrelevant reply. 

No official mask mandate

https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.GNWLtpp1A6Ld0s9rRfwJBAHaE-?w=312&h=200&c=10&o=6&dpr=1.3&pid=placeholderpartnerid&rm=2

While there is no official mask mandate in Japan, wearing a face mask is recommended overall. The Japanese government introduced the possibility not to wear it outdoors in summer to avoid heat strokes, but most Japanese citizens still wear masks. Masking is still widely practiced in airports and on flights, but it is no longer required. Mask-wearing and other virus-related rules have never been legally enforced in Japan, and vaccination certificates have not been in wide use.

[blaze master]

13 minutes ago, still kicking said:

No official mask mandate

https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.GNWLtpp1A6Ld0s9rRfwJBAHaE-?w=312&h=200&c=10&o=6&dpr=1.3&pid=placeholderpartnerid&rm=2

While there is no official mask mandate in Japan, wearing a face mask is recommended overall. The Japanese government introduced the possibility not to wear it outdoors in summer to avoid heat strokes, but most Japanese citizens still wear masks. Masking is still widely practiced in airports and on flights, but it is no longer required. Mask-wearing and other virus-related rules have never been legally enforced in Japan, and vaccination certificates have not been in wide use.

 

And thanks 1 more time for information about Japan in a thread about Thailand. 

[zepplin]

On 4/11/2025 at 12:57 PM, Hamus Yaigh said:

It comes from respect for others, something visiting foreigners could learn from.

Why would every staff member of makro still have to wear one? It’s f horrible to breath your expelled air in over and over and has been shown to cause harm , it’s because they are sheeple and can never question authority, like most Thais do their whole lives…

[dinsdale]

7 hours ago, Negita43 said:

The bottom line is that if I want to wear a pink shirt I do, if I want to wear  yellow trousers I do and if I want to wear a mask I do. What business is it of other people what I choose to wear?

Yellow trousers, pink shirt and a mask. Well my guess is your not a Trump supporter.

[still kicking]

6 minutes ago, blaze master said:

 

And thanks 1 more time for information about Japan in a thread about Thailand. 

Say hello to Trump 

[blaze master]

1 minute ago, still kicking said:

Say hello to Trump 

 

Ok.