Thailand-
Earlier this week, news came out that prominent Thai health officials had allegedly proposed to amend or remove outdoor mask mandates, leading to a flurry of anger and criticism on Thai social media and a quick reversal of the proposal as a misunderstanding.
This couldn’t be any further from the reaction on English language media and from foreigners, tourists, and ex pats who showed relief when the proposal was made and anger when it was announced as a misunderstanding and not happening.
This shows, in the opinion of the author, a sharp divide in the thought process of the overall Thai public and the foreign public over masks, which in many countries became a divisive and political fight. In Thailand, however, overall they have become widely accepted without much criticism from the Thai public. In fact, the only criticism has come from a “misunderstood” proposal to amend or remove the mandate.
It’s important to note that technically there is not a mask law. However, there IS a mandate covered by provincial health measures in every province and Bangkok. This mandate, that falls under emergency Covid19 decrees and regulations, can lead to fines and enforcement contrary to some belief. In reality, enforcement has been low, at least locally in Pattaya.
Indeed, mask wearing in general in tourist heavy areas and compliance has significantly fallen and is likely to fall further as more tourists arrive from countries that have dropped all mask rules. Outdoor mandates in particular, especially in the current heat and on beaches, parks, and other public areas have proven incredibly unpopular with foreign tourists and the feedback on the mandate on forums and social media groups is often brutal.
But, this doesn’t represent the majority of Thais and the country, especially rural areas that are still very much concerned about Covid19 and have become used to masks. Even the suggestion from government officials to ease the mask mandate at public parks or when alone outside, not even indoors or schools or other areas that were sensitive to arguments in the West, led to widespread Thai criticism on social media, saying it wasn’t the right time with record high cases and deaths.
We aren’t going to side one way or the other in the seemingly neverending mask argument. What we will say is that this shows that the Thai plan to treat Covid19 as endemic taking four months, especially to reassure the public that Omicron is not as deadly to most people, especially those fully vaccinated and boosted, is not as long as many readers may think.
Many people, especially expats, as evidenced in a recent survey we did, want all restrictions lifted and removed yesterday. Our recent survey showed over 90 percent of our readers that took the poll, out of hundreds of readers, wanted everything dropped now.
Quite simply, however, the Thai public isn’t ready for that yet.
