Like the many hundred thousands or millions of people around the world who have been affected by the current pandemic, I'm currently observing 14 days of self-quarantine.
It's been days since I started working from home after a potential exposure to the infectious disease that is increasingly dominating headlines every single day. Everything has changed so quickly and last week as I started my isolation period, my experience seems to be different than that of others, however, this phenomenon has become so common today that everyone on social media has an opinion on it.
Being homebound is no pleasure for anyone in journalism where you are constantly required to meet people and be on the go. Although my experience of being cooped up in my bedroom for nearly two weeks has been both immeasurably stressful and exceedingly boring, I've also learned a few new things during this time. I found myself binge-watching loads of TV series and discovered a lot of new music. But most of all, I had time to do some online research and learn more about the deadly virus as well as read people's various opinions regarding different methods on how to prevent the spread and not get infected.
Wearing or not wearing a mask is one of the main subjects people around the world are still debating about. Of course, people from various places and cultures have a range of opinions but apparently the different opinions have given way to a rise of misinformation and discrimination as we have seen in the news almost every day.
Earlier this month, I was on a work trip to Los Angeles to join a press junket for a TV series. Just before my arrival, California's governor had just declared a state of emergency and as soon as I stepped inside LAX airport, I noticed a lot of people staring at the face mask I had been wearing since leaving Bangkok. I eventually asked the immigration officer for his opinion about people wearing a face mask on the street in LA.
"It may look strange to some of the locals as nobody's wearing one around here. I would advise that a mask won't protect you from catching viruses but keeping your hands clean is far more important. It's your choice to wear one especially if it makes you feel safer," he responded.
Wearing a mask has become the norm in many places in Asia and the mask frenzy has hit Thailand especially hard over the past few years where people have also had to deal with the impact of PM2.5 crisis. As a result, it's become common to see residents walking in streets or riding public transportation with masks on at the height of Covid-19 panic.
Yet, in Western or European countries, wearing a face mask when someone is healthy has been discouraged to the point that it has become almost socially unacceptable. The World Health Organization (WHO) even came out and said that only those who are sick or their caregivers should wear masks. Despite international news services including the BBC warning people to stop buying and stocking surgical masks as they aren't effective in preventing the general public from being infected with coronavirus, many Thais still believe otherwise.
"With that kind of logic, no wonder people are infected across Europe," said a netizen.
"Before telling me not to wear a mask in public, can they really guarantee that we will 100% not get infected? What would I do if there are sick people on the train coughing and sneezing right in front of me?" said another user.
According to Prof Dr Yong Poovorawan, head of the Centre of Excellence in Clinical Virology at the Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, the virus enters the body through mucous membranes, which means the eyes, nose and the mouth. So it's more likely to be transmitted from person to person by touching each other's bodies rather than through the air.
"One reason that people wear masks is because they think that it's going to protect them from viruses but the virus isn't floating around in the air. So it's not protecting you against it because it's not there," said Yong.
"It's most likely to be on our hands. By shaking hands with someone who's got the virus, you can have transmission, especially if you touch your face after."
But no matter how many precautions we take, it seems like the spread of the virus will continue for at least the next few months. Dr Yong said that currently about 10,000 new infections daily are being reported worldwide and he believes that Thailand will definitely enter Stage 3 of the virus outbreak sometime soon.
"Everyone must strictly follow rules and guidelines issued by the Ministry of Public Health. Besides temporary suspension of all events and large crowd activities to prevent the rapid and widespread transmission of the contagion, it is crucial to work from home and practise social distancing as it should be efficient regarding the current situation," he explained.
At the moment when there is still no real cure or vaccine to fight this virus, one thing that everyone can do to help slow the pace of the outbreak is to give time to those who have already been infected to be treated and recover as much as possible.
Sure, I know how stressful this time can be. No activity, no dating and parties, no concerts, no school and university, no games on the playground for kids. However, the situation is now a pandemic and everybody has an equal chance to catch the virus. So it's about time people in the country start taking real action about it. We must minimise the risk of spreading the infection to others if we don't want the situation to deteriorate like what we saw unfold in South Korea or Italy.
Tatat Bunnag is a feature writer for the Life section of the Bangkok Post.
