Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests we are discussing masks, not exactly my favourite topic in the world. I got to thinking about this when reading a recent article from ASEAN NOW, that is aseannow.com, the article is titled: Face Masks to be still needed in Thailand even after the emergency said Minister Anutin this week." Interesting that the emergency could end but yet masks must remain indefinitely. What kind of sense does that make?

Anyway, quoting further: "Minister still on a mission about face masks. A key committee within the Ministry of Public Health is looking to make sure that the public, including foreign tourists continues to wear face masks even after the virus has been declared endemic in the coming months which may still include some sort of mandate or legal provision in certain circumstances." I love that. Mandate or legal provision, because there never has been a legal provision. We are going to make a follow-up video to this one and I am going to do a deeper dive into my thoughts on all of this but a big one, I have seen it bandied about out there, "well you know we could pass a law on this", well you shouldn't. It's wrong and in my opinion it would not be correct in any sense. It is a basic human right to breathe unfettered, period. Quoting further: "Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister of Public Health Anutin Charnvirakul has come out strongly this week to insist on the need to make sure that face masks are still worn throughout the Kingdom even after the current emergency comes to an end with endemic status declared." And again I kind of say why. What is the purpose of that? Again in an upcoming video we are going to deep dive into that pretty heavily. "On Thursday, he told reporters that he has asked his officials to find a way to direct the Public's behaviour in this respect even if the current health threat itself can be seen as under control for now." One thing, public servants, people that are in the Government, the Ministers are there to assist the public not direct the Public's behaviour. That is not the purpose.

Look, I have been ambivalent about certain aspects of this whole thing but I think you could say overall I have been on the positive side with respect to the Government's response here in Thailand. I think honestly here lately in my opinion, things have become less justified under present circumstances than they were before. But long story short, the purpose of the Minister of Public Health is not to sit around and tell us what to do or what to wear in my opinion, the purpose of that individual is to try to maintain as much Public Health as possible. Here is a good question. In the history of time, with all the endemic diseases we deal with on a regular basis we have never done masking and so the question posed then is: "Why now?" And the next question is, "Aren't there possible ramifications to all this masking?" People's immune systems are supposed to interact with each other; they are supposed to constantly be moving things between them. So-called herd community is created by that. So my question is, because there is really not a lot of data out there, in fact there was a recent Finnish study I believe that came out and basically said yeah this doesn't do anything. This protocol does not have any appreciable impact. Okay leaving that aside so let's just view it as a net neutral, okay? It just does nothing. Could we then maybe, humanity has never walked around this way in history and interacted with each other using masks. Could there be negative ramifications? I am not saying I know the answer to this but could there be negative ramifications? Is there any studies out there trying to gain insight into herd immunity for other diseases that may be diminishing as a result of masks?" I don't know. I don't know the answers to those questions but at this point, especially 2 years in, at the beginning of this okay arguments can be made however you want to look at it. I think in hindsight it is fairly clear that a lot of this was hysteria quite frankly. I think the one thing Thailand did well was just sealing up. They did a true quarantine unlike a lot of other countries including the United States which made a lot of bombastic sort of announcements but didn't do anything in the first few months of this thing. Thailand when they said look we are invoking Emergency Decree on this issue and we are just closing down, they did it, they didn't let Thais back in. I mean that was a true quarantine however you want to look at it.

What I am saying is prudence has existed with respect to the Government's responses here but in my opinion this is ridiculous. The notion that we are just going to have to wear masks in perpetuity even though there is no outstanding threat. Come on, come on. We are people. We are humans and in Thailand we are free people. The Government should not be out there directing the Public's behaviour to change the way that they breathe.