Why are you still wearing a Mask? 

During my 12-year relationship with Thailand, I have come to know many things about the wonderful culture, people, and food of Thailand, and even though I am only a lowly farang, you will most often find me sitting in a sea of Thai faces at some tiny Thai restaurant in Chong Nonsi instead of hanging out over at Patpong or Soi Cowboy. I am also a thirty-year-plus Buddhist and have been blessed to have received many in-person teachings from amazing teachers. Therefore, I believe that my actions must lessen both the mental and physical sufferings of myself and all other beings. With this in mind, I decided to pass on some of the latest health information about masks, their effectiveness, and possible dangers.  

Personally, I do not wear a mask and will not wear a mask (and have also, by some miracle, never managed to catch Covid or even a common cold over the past 3 years.) I do however, believe that every person can do what they like, mask or no mask, and those with medical conditions certainly have my respect. But in order for each individual to decide what is best for their own health, I feel they must be well informed. Yet, for some unknown reason, it appears that no one in power, media, or healthcare worldwide is interested in providing that very necessary information.  

For me, this all seems quite unfortunate as I have always considered Thailand to be the Land of Smiles. But now, due to the unnecessary intervention of the medical community, corporate interests, TV know-it-alls, ego-driven fear mongers, and other types of fanatics, most of those happy faces I used to so appreciate have all but disappeared.  

So in an effort to right this wrong and help restore one of the most wonderful aspects of Thai culture, I will present a quick list of quotes from an article published on August 27th 2023 by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research in their magazine City Journal and authored by their contributing editor John Tierney. Those wishing to learn more can find the article entitled "No Masks, Please, We're Rational" at city-journal.org or realclearpolitics.com. Just for the record, I am not a doctor and am not qualified to give any medical advice or otherwise. I'm just concerned. So on to the quotes. 

"Actual experts—the ones who studied the scientific literature before 2020 and drew up plans for a pandemic—advised against masking the public." 

"The mask mandates imposed harms on the public that were well known before Covid, which was why occupational-safety regulations limited workers' mask usage. Dozens of studies had demonstrated Mask-Induced Exhaustion Syndrome whose symptoms include an increase of carbon dioxide in the blood, difficulty breathing, dizziness, drowsiness, headache, and diminished ability to concentrate and think." 

"While eight times the normal level of carbon dioxide is toxic, research suggests that mask-wearers (specifically those who wear masks for more than 5 minutes at a time) are breathing in 35 to 80 times normal levels." 

"The researchers warn that this level of carbon dioxide is often exceeded when wearing a mask, especially an N95 mask, and they point to 'circumstantial evidence' that mask usage may be related to the increase in stillbirths worldwide (including in the US) during the pandemic." 

"At the start of the pandemic, even Anthony Fauci advised against masks because there was no evidence of their efficacy." 

"The Cochrane Review concluded that wearing a mask of any kind 'probably makes little or no difference' in reducing the spread of Covid, flu, or respiratory illnesses." 

"Unmasked Swedes fared much better than other Europeans forced to wear masks." 

"A 2021 study comparing states across the U.S. found no association between mask mandates and the spread of Covid." 

"There was also virtually no difference in the rates of cumulative mortality (the rate was slightly lower in the states without the mandates)." 

"The Lancet analysis compared Covid outcomes in the 50 states with the states' varying policy responses. It found that a state's cumulative rates of infection and mortality were not significantly related to restrictions on public gatherings, to stay-at-home orders, or to closures of primary schools, colleges, restaurants, bars, or gyms."  

"Researchers found that a [mask] mandate had no significant effect on cumulative Covid infections or mortality, but that it did correlate with one statistically significant effect: a decline in fourth-graders test scores. 

As I said at the top of this commentary, it is (to coin a familiar Thai phrase) up to you to make the choice. But at least now you have a little bit of factual data. I do recommend though, that before you make any hard decision based on what I have sourced here, talk with your doctor, and then just for fun, take a look around and try to notice exactly where those masks are being so vigorously displayed. Is it among your friends and family, or maybe out on the faces of the busy people rushing around the streets, are the masks inside the cars lined up after school? Are the rows of vendors showing them off in Silom or Victory Monument?  

Or do you see those little squares in other areas? Perhaps at corporate buildings and places of power, maybe at the gym or on the BTS and MRT? They're certainly in the department stores and malls, every taxi driver and guard is wearing one, and all those hard-working maids too; the news people and talk-show commentators seem to love them!  

So take a good look, and then ask yourself, why? Why are all those corporations, media personalities, and service business bosses so eager to cover their mouths and the mouths of their employees? And what about all those masked office workers and other professionals, are they really believers, just average citizens trying to protect themselves and everyone else from a deadly virus? Or are those individuals just living in fear? Fear that if they showed up without a face covering, they just might be out of a job or otherwise embarrassed. And could it be possible that those people have no choice, that some company policy is forcing them into the deal?    

Then, knowing what you now know, you might want to consider exactly how anyone could allow school-aged children to be forced into wearing masks as some kind of new normal. And what does that mean for their brains and futures and the future of your great country? As one final effort, why not take a minute and try to remember the last time when such a huge group of powerful and glamorous people decided to come together simply for the benefit of your personal health? I'm pretty sure you won't be able to find any other example of such generosity, and that might make you wonder why something that was once so normal, a human smile, must now be looked upon as some kind of defect. But like I said, it's up to you to decide what to do; it's your country! 

Farang One ( The reader )