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As the title of this video suggests, we are asking, where is the data? It has been a question I have been asking myself for like over a year now and I got to thinking about this from reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Water, water everywhere but not a drop to squirt. The thrust of that article is talking about Songkran primarily. Those who are interested in that topic go ahead and read that article, there is a lot going on in there. As usual with the Pattaya Mail, there is a lot of good data points, a lot of information but this excerpt is why I decided to make this video. Quoting directly: "The Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration is aware that the national purpose of Songkran is to get the tills ringing, but a return to water sports at the moment could increase the odds on Coronavirus biting even harder. The only legal way to splash water according to Dr. Taweesann Visanuyo, will be to select an "open and spacious area" and apply for a permit to start the fun. However, the organizers must ensure no alcohol is on tap, masks are worn at all times even when moist, physical distance is observed and white substances forbidden." By white substances I think they mean the prickly heat powder. Quoting further: "Anyone attending must show evidence of a negative ATK test, although to whom and how is not exactly free of ambiguity." 

Yeah well there is a lot of ambiguity going on in here. I want to break this down kind of point by point. So first off and I notice this just across the board, things are just stated as if they are self-evident. We are living in a world where the self-evident seems to be ignored and really bizarre claims are being put forward as if they are self-evident. A perfect example is this: "The Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration is aware that the national purpose of Songkran is to get the tills ringing." Well okay, fair dues on that. Yes, there is a business component, a commercial component but there is a history to Songkran. It is Thai New Year; it is a festival of renewal; it is about Thai families getting together, so there is a lot going on other than commercialism. But leave that aside, I don't think that is an unfair assessment especially under the circumstances. Folks are wanting to get Songkran going so we can get some money moving around, I don't think there is anything wrong with that. Quoting further: "But a return to water sports at the moment could increase the odds on Coronavirus biting even harder." How? Why? Where is the data for any of that? We have had, so why isn't there more transmission from showers or from watering lawns or from swimming in pools? We haven't seen any data that confirms this. That has been my biggest issue here. Quoting further: "The only legal way to splash water," okay so it is illegal to splash water which again, "according to Spokesman Dr. Taweesann Visanuyo will be to select an "open and spacious area" and apply for a permit to start the fun." So how does the permit, what does the permit accomplish in the mitigation of spread? How does having a legal document have any impact on that issue whatsoever? I don't understand that. I don't understand that. Quoting further: "However, the organizers must ensure no alcohol is on tap," Really? Why? What does having a beer around these festivities have anything to do with that issue; with spread of anything really in an epidemiological sense? "Masks are worn at all times even when moist", which I have to imagine there are ramifications for wearing around a moist mask but again I am a lay person, I am not a medical professional; I will leave that aside. Also we have discussed this before in other videos, WHO has noted that in an outdoor context, masks are not really doing much of anything. We have quoted that on this channel before but okay, leave that where it is. "Physical distance is observed and white substances forbidden." Well I didn't know prickly heat was particularly known to help spread this particular illness. Again all of this is sort of, again it is stated and this is throughout the media, I am not picking on the Pattaya Mail. I really don't want to seem that way because sometimes I will be quoting an article from anywhere and it will seem like "oh you are just focusing on," no I usually go to the article I first found and then I go and I kind of check the I don't know what you want to call it, the ether if you will surrounding that topic out on the internet and see if that is kind of the overall meme that is running around and believe me when I say that it is. There is this meme out there that it is just self-evident that somehow Songkran is going to make everything in the world worse with respect to this overall issue. 

Again and I am ready to stand corrected. If anybody has any data to back up any of these assertions, I will be the first one to read it on here. I am happy to stand corrected but it is 2 years, we have been doing this 2 years. We know what this is and this notion of "oh, the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence". Well after 2 years it pretty well is. I think we can pretty well say we have proven the negative that a lot of these protocols aren't really doing much of anything especially in the context of upcoming festivities. I fail to see where any data has been presented to affirm that these are necessary protocols and let's be clear, where the default setting is essentially freedom, not having to deal with any of this stuff, it is incumbent upon those who want to impose the restrictions to show that they are necessary and after 2 years I have yet to see any appreciable data that suggests the necessity of these protocols at this point in time.