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pentagara
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Posts posted by pentagara
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8 minutes ago, Mr Meeseeks said:
We have been told the cost was 2,000thb in Thailand though?
Based on the contract between Oxford University (the developer of the vaccine) and AstraZeneca, the vaccine has to be sold by AstraZeneca at cost. Few people will get their jab from AstraZeneca directly.
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10 minutes ago, cyril sneer said:
most of those probably suicides or accidents, no symptom
That number is rather useless, since most people die of multiple underlying causes. The only scientifically somewhat comparable number would be the death rate compared to previous years, ideally made even more comparable by taking out absolutely clear death causes e.g. due to traffic accidents (went down in 2020), but considering the death numbers that's not even necessary. You can even take a comparison year with an unusually high number of influenca deaths like 2015. But overall you're right, the total number of deaths will not go up much due to Corona. Eventually everyone who died earlier due to Corona would have died anyway. Just later.
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11 hours ago, ourmanflint said:
What a bunch of absolute muppets! I give up trying to understand their nonsense day in day out
They are the same muppets as everywhere else on this globe, since there is not one single country globally that has relaxed border or quarantine rules due to vaccinations. The reason is quite simple: Based on current knowledge it would be reckless and rather stupid, especiallly for countries that have low infection rates.
If it were that simple, people with a positive antibody test would have been quarantine excempt from the start. Just research why, if interested. It will take at least (!) until summer 2021, before you will see relaxations anywhere, for multiple reasons, and Thailand likely will not be the first country to relax border rules (or Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Greater China for that matter), instead it will be countries with currently very high infection and death rates, i.e. countries that are currently rushing their people to get vaccinated.
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4 minutes ago, mrfill said:
They must be nuts...
It's similar to the pre-Covid visa rules, not too different except for the additiinal 15 days. Just for the record: This only relates to the visa. Currently to get in, you also need a certificate of entry. This is unlikely to change on 01 Jan 2021
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16 hours ago, Kadilo said:
But why are they needed?
According to one regular Thairang poster all Thais already wear them.
You missed the signs in English haha.
Based on some comments here, this high-tech gate seems to be necessary unfortunately... Ah, and for the big brother guys: No need to wear sun glasses on top, face recognition doesn't work with masks currently (Apple is feeling the pain...) and the cameras aren't good enough to do iris scans at such a distance.
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37 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:
Abbott has received FDA emergency use authorization for a COVID-19 antigen it is pricing at $5 that delivers results in 15 minutes. Other companies including BD and Quidel already sell antigen tests but Abbott’s scale led some analysts to identify its entry to the market as a potential game-changer. Abbott plans to ship 50 million kits a month starting in October, making mass testing more feasible
PS. The test that was used for the rose garden event in the US president's case was the Abbott rapid test. 'Rapid' currently comes at the price of a relevant number of false negatives. The test is still valuable, but it should not be the only means of protection. For that, the test has simply too many holes. You also wouldn't say: Checking every 10th person for guns is sufficient at an event with the president. Unfortunately it isn't.
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24 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:Dumb and dumber.
A simple plan. A non antigen test 72 hours before the flight. And Thailand ups their game, and invests in some modern technology, and provides on the spot antigen testing at Suvarnabhumi or elsewhere. It is easy. You pass two different tests, using two different methodologies, and you are covid free.
No, you're not Covid-free then, for multiple reasons:
1. What would be needed is a PCR test which checks whether you currently have the virus. An antigen test checks whether you have had covid in the past and have developed antibodies. Having antibodies btw currently is no guarantee that you can't get and spread covid again, especially if it was a light case of covid.
2. A covid test doesn't work like a metal detector. Testing is very important, but only proves that you don't have enough viruses (yet?) so that a test can detect them. You might already be a carrier, but the virus could still be in the process of hijacking enough of your cells to multiply, so that you actually only become a spreader the next day (or even later). Covid has an incubation period of on average (!) 6 to 7 days, most people show signs of infection (and test positive) within 14 days (there are even cases with longer incubation periods though). That's the reason for quarantine which almost everywhere globally is 14 days and it's why you need a test at the beginning and at the end of quarantine to reasonably show that you're covid free.
3. Tests, especially the one with quick results test false negative in about 10% of all cases.
Case in point for all this: The US president. He was only surrounded by people that got tested everyday. He still got Covid. Before the rose garden event for the Supreme court nomination every guest got tested, but then unfortunateely received the recommendation that they can take their masks off, eben thoughbit was a group of more than 150 people. As a result, a relevant number of participants caught the virus, based on current understanding. Testing is important, but not self-sufficient.
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26 minutes ago, Dustdevil said:The man may have been naïve about Thailand's fascist defamation laws. In the U.S. it's difficult to win a libel case, much more so than in Europe, let alone Asia, thanks to the First Amendment. It protects ordinary citizens from the wrath of the powerful. That's why Trump has spent a career threatening defamation suits but hasn't brought one yet. The plaintiff has to PROVE that the defendant outright lied and that damaging loss of reputation has in fact occurred. Maybe the arrogant Brits and Commonwealth people here wisecracking about "self-entitled Yanks" think it's part of your empire and that two years in prison for defamation without the aforementioned evidence is just fine. But criminal penalties for tripadvisor posts?
1. "In the US": Thailand and many other countries are not in the US. I am aware of the concept of US exceptionalism and that Americans think their rules are best, but that's just an example for the term 'arrogance'. All in all, the US society including its legal system has many positive sides, but also negative ones, just like in any country.
2. "That's why Trump": Trump obviously has learned that in the US you can lie all day and don't risk to bear the consequences that adults in other societies would face. Luckily, the first amendment protects the US president "from the wrath of the powerful". Good for him and his cronies. Bad for everyone else.
3. If you're a guest in another country (paying or not), you should behave accordingly. This is admittedly my value and not necessarily yours, but if you don't like the rules of another society, go somewhere else. You have no say in that society, unless you give yourself an entitlement that you don't have (self-entitled) or unless you are awarded citizenship. I can't go to the US and vote Trump out of his office either, I'm not a US citizen. I'm actually not even sure I'd be allowed to state my opinion in the US, since that probably would be 'interference', something the US btw is constantly doing abroad. (Besides, even Trump has his pros: At least he's not fond of killing people abroad, in contrast to many of his predecessors including Obama).
4. "Many of the arrogant Brits and Commonwealth people here wise-cracking about self-entitled Yanks": I'm neither British nor Commonwealth (nor Thai for that matter), but they seem to have a point. I'm not fully ready to side with someone spreading lies about "slaves" (a bit US centric, no?) and Covid on rating platforms, just because he couldn't drink his 7-11 liquor on the public hotel premises (not that he would have been able to do so in the US). With this he hurts the hotel owner, the employees and also the reputation of the country as a whole, since most people will just read a headline like "American threatened with prison in Thailand for a bad tripadvisor review". Anyway, it would be very surprising if he ends up in prison, but it would be fair if he gets to feel some of the pain he inflicts.
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Yeah, Japan probably has a similar issue like Thailand or Hong Kong: People get exceptions to quarantine and testing even if they are coming from high risk countries and then they spread their virus in the local community. The only reason why you would allow such incredibly irresponsible and selfish behavior of foreign military personnel in your own country is power, I suppose. What else could it be?
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/07/15/national/coronavirus-outbreakas-u-s-bases-okinawa/
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25 minutes ago, hioctane said:It means they won’t be allowed in and local Thais in the tourism industry can get a job.
BTW, tourism only accounts for 10-20% of the GDP so they don’t really need to allow tourists in. Open everything back up and let the Thais get back to work without tourists. Same with every other country out there. I don’t think it is in any country’s best interest to open borders now.
Fully agreed. Most readers on Thai Visa obviously fall in the English speaking tourist related section, so the perception is somewhat skewed. It's economic sanity to keep potential Covid spreaders out of the country, as long as there is no vaccine and no cure. Why risk 80% of the economy by letting tourists in with a slim chance that you get some of the 20% tourist income back? And the chance that you sustainably get back tourist income while the Covid issue is not resolved is very slim, since it will lead to Covid spreading in Thailand and worst case you end up with a situation in Thailand like in the US or Brazil. Who's gonna come then voluntarily? Unfortunately that also means I can't come for quite some time. There are too many people who don't have their act together unfortunately. The closest thing we have to a vaccine right now would be everyone wearing masks, but of course, many people know better. For too many people the answer to the question "Masks or lockdown?" seems to be "lockdown", thus the borders stay closed.
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2 hours ago, SuwadeeS said:2. For all the people who are still wearing their pink sunglasses, go online and get some real information about China e.g.
"NTD News", "China uncensored", "EPOCH times". You will get shocked to hear the real story and not only synchronized
news.
Out of curiosity I googled those three. Based on Wikipedia, all three of the "real news" sites you mentioned are linked to the Falun Gong sect/religion (or whatever they are). Seems a bit like you hand-picked them.
Taking EPOCH Times as an example, what's even worse they don't restrict their news to religious stuff, but other great topics. To quote the Wikipedia entry for EPOCH:
"The media outlet is primarily known for promoting far-right politicians across Europe and the United States, and in particular for its promotion of U.S. President Donald Trump; a 2019 report showed it to be the second-largest funder of pro-Trump Facebook advertising after the Trump campaign.[11][12][13][14] The group's news sites and YouTube channels have spread conspiracy theories such as QAnon and anti-vaccination propaganda."
China state funded news with all their propaganda operations of course can't be taken at face value. But at least everyone knows this, they don't hide that they are propaganda operations. That's very much in contrast to the sites you mentioned above.
Don't think I'll become an avid reader of these "real information" sites on China...
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Vaccinated foreigners may be allowed to enter Thailand without quarantine
in Thailand News
Posted
This might be a draw for tourists that can't get the jab at home. The only problem is that Thailand doesn't have that much vaccine, like any other country on earth. From a medical perspective this of course would require the same quarantine setup as now, since the immune system takes about two weeks to build up partial immunity. On top, there's the booster shot after three weeks for most vaccines. Any reduction in quarantine would require full immunization with the two shots. Afterwards it might be possible to reduce quarantine down to one week, since the body will start fighting an infection more quickly once you're vaccinated. Basically the whole recovery process for the current version of the Covid virus is fast-tracked once you're fully vaccinated, so a week should be safe.
This of course assumes there is a good way to prove someone is vaccinated. There's a reason why Hong Kong constantly needs to suspend flights from India where people regularly happen to be negative before a 6 hour flight and positive after it. Considering incubation periods, that's quite miraculous, unless something fishy is going on.
Then, as soon as the majority of the local population is also vaccinated, from a medical perspective it would be ok to remove quarantine completely. This is assuming there's no major mutation coming from the countries that currently spread the infection (mainly North/South America, Europe, Russia, South Africa) which renders the vaccination useles. The more infections a country has, the more chance this country produces a mutation, especially if this country also vaccinates.
If a vaccine resistant mutation occurs, we'd be back at square one, with the need to wait for a booster shot. Maybe some countries would be willing to take the risk to skip clinical trials in such a case, if the vaccine booster is similar to the initial vaccine, not sure.