uhuh

12 minutes ago, geriatrickid said:

 These people can be infectious for up to 30 days. 

Where did you get that from? 

Treatment of BPH won't cost you 5m, even at BPH p)

37 minutes ago, izod10 said:

,excellent govt hospitals BKK

I said "BPH" = Bangkok Pattaya Hospital. Pattaya is not in Bangkok,  and quite a few TVF members are not in Bangkok. 

BPH is by far the best hospital in Pattaya,  but very expensive. 

39 minutes ago, izod10 said:

2 stretcher cases per flight too on some airlines cheap

I was not talking about a stretcher on a commercial airline.  That's cheap  (10.000 - 25.000 USD).

If you are in such a bad condition that a commercial airline will not accept you even as a stretcher case, that's when you need an air ambulance (not the same).

You seem to think like the so-called "self insured" who pretend that everything will come cheap in Thailand. It won't.

22 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

 

Nothing wrong with taking such a gamble if you (1) truly understand what it can cost you and do not greatly underestimate it and (2) can truly afford to lose it.

 

But I find that few really meet these criteria. Some yes, but very few.

So how much can it cost you?

One catastrophic event, maybe just a tragic accident,  treated in Bumrungrad or BPH, may cost you 5m baht. The first million should be available upfront, immediately. 

These costs have been rising very fast the last years. 

Chronic treatment - like cancer treatment or long-term ventilation - may cost 10m, rising.

Air ambulance to Europe,  Australia,  US - if you are not fit to fly for medical reasons,  a commercial airline will not let you on the plane - may be 100.000 to 200.000 USD. These flights are slowly getting cheaper,  you can easily get them for 70.000 USD already. 

To be paid upfront, before the air ambulance even starts to plan the flight. 

Certainly not something for people who consider 800.000 baht for a visa a lot of money. But something to be considered for people who think the Elite card is good value for money. 

PCR is a lot more accurate than all these antibody tests on the market. 

The hope that thousands and thousands of people have had the virus and no symptoms whatever is a mainstay on TVF, strangely it doesn't fit very well with what's happening in the US or the UK, in Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Sweden, Spain etc etc 

I know that NTU is not an institution to be dismissed easily,  so I am curious what results they will publish in September. 

18 hours ago, vermin on arrival said:

Maybe genetics. Or maybe the wave already passed through with many minor cases.

 

Interesting article from Taiwan says an antibody study of at risk people in one county which had only had 19 confirmed covid cases already came up with 3,000 people testing positive for covid antibodies. They haven't even completed all 10,000 of the people in the study (in a county of 1.3 million people in central Taiwan) and will have the results available August 25. This is from a country which has only had 480 confirmed cases to date and 7 deaths amid a population of 23.8 million. They haven't even done this in the hots spots of Taipei and New Taipei city. Most likely Taiwan had tens of thousands of minor cases of covid.

 

https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3983632

 

I suspect that there was a large amount of cases that already went though Thailand, most of them mild. Unfortunately, there is no antibody study being released here. The one mentioned in the Bangkok Herald has been retracted as the editor said there has been some reason to doubt it's veracity. However, if Taiwan which had much more proactive measures being done is showing so many past infections, most likely there were more here. However if they are here now, they are most likely mild.

 

Slightly off topic, but related to the issue of how many asymptomatic carriers there may be and this relates to IFR, I just watched a July 23 interview with Anders Tegnell of Sweden. At one point when he was asked what he thought covid's IFR would eventually come out to be, he said between .1 and .5% the same as you guessed it....a bad flu season. He also talked about Sweden's antibody testing, immunity and T cell immunity. It was interesting.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh9wso6bEAc

 

 

 

 

The lasr sentence in the article from Taiwan:

CECC experts had cautioned before that the test may not reflect the actual infection rate in Changhua as antibody test kits available on the market are not very accurate. They said this was one of the reasons why the CECC has decided against countrywide mass testing for COVID-19 so far.

The foreign workers in Singapore are young, slim (they remit their money home to their families) and healthy (they were screened before being allowed to work in Singapore).

Not many of them die.

9 hours ago, Why Me said:

I see the point of face masks where there is risk of infection. But that's not here in Thailand where there hasn't been a single local case in a couple of months which is several times the incubation period. Sure, there might be some silent asymptomatic carrier somewhere biding their time to explode in our faces but the possibility seems remote.

 

Off with masks! Down with social distancing! Rub shoulders and shake hands like it's 2019 again! In Thailand. Americans, stay away and do as your CDC tells you.

Remember Vietnam? 

1 hour ago, Brunolem said:

 

I don't know many there are, but a lot...of buildings and immigrant workers...

 

About a million workers

3 hours ago, sungod said:

To think its not here is naive, however a largely compliant public and reasonable healthcare system has so far kept it under check.

 

Myanmar basically adopts the same testing regime as Thailand centered on returnees. Every week there are a handful of imported cases from yes, you guessed it, Thailand!

How do you know about this?

10 hours ago, abrahamzvi said:

Are you insinuating that China knowingly and intentionally spread the virus to the US, Europe and Africa, but made sure the virus does not attack its neighbours? This is more than ridiculous, it's close to vicious.

Some Chinese say the new flare-up in HK is the result of mainland China bringing the virus there, on purpose, for political reasons...

16 hours ago, geriatrickid said:

No Thailand  isn't as good as the reports. Thailand would be a special case, and unique if it was. Unique because it would be the only country on the planet without a disease reservoir. 

You mentioned Taiwan (24m people),  which doesn't seem to have a disease reservoir.

Same for New Zealand AFAIK, and Mauritius and quite a few of small islands and territories. 

Vietnam is bigger (95m) and most probably didn't have a disease reservoir for quite a while,  the current outbreak has probably been imported. That can happen if you have hard to control land borders,  and that may happen to Thailand, too. 

And of course western countries can never acknowledge that a developing country from Asia handled things better than the British Empire or God's own country. 

To OP:

Bangkok Hospital won't be much cheaper. It depends. 

Sukhumvit Hospital is a lot cheaper, maybe half, but you may get what you pay for. It's generally an ok hospital,  but it really depends on what kind of examination or treatment you are looking for. 

I give you an example: if you come for pneumococcal vaccination Bumrungrad will tell you they have 2 kinds and they recommend both. 

Cheaper hospitals may have only one (maybe never heard the another one), and this one is also cheaper as the same one at Bumrungrad.

It turns out that, for many patients, Bumrungrad is right,  and getting only one vaccine is a waste of money - it depends on the patient, though. 

In isolation it's long. 

In compounds it's supposed to be short,  but i do know speakers who even in compounds use a long /a/ (they are not native speakers of Central Thai)

Official statistics said, the average Thai had savings for 4 months. 

So the savings are gone exactly now.

And it begins to sink down even to the average Thai that this is maybe not a crisis that will pass soon. Read what Tisco writes in another thread. 

The ones I talk to are - slowly - losing hope, some are getting desperate already. 

10 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

 

That is a huge assumption. Unsupported by any data I have seen.

 

Do you really think employers would be pushing to bring in migrants if they could find Thai workers? It costs over 20,000 baht per worker just to arrange the visa, and is a huge hassle in terms of paperwork.

I agree,  but do you really think there is no massive unemployment in Thailand - contrary to pretty much every other country in the world?

Prognosis is 10 million unemployed, don't have the time to find a link, but it wasn't facebook or instagram ????

11 hours ago, Turkleton said:

Does that mean, I have to send my certificates to Thailand and somebody has to translate, "apostill" (legalize?) them twice at the MFA, and after that procedure send back to Germany?

Just for a "certificate of entry" at the Thai embassy in Germany...?

I tried to call the embassy(ies) several times, but it is almost impossible to get a competent person on the phone.

Only one apostille.

First translation, in Germany,  by a translator on the approved list of the Thai embassy. Takes a couple of days, plus time for Deutsche Post DHL (a week).

After translating get apostille from the Thai embassy in Germany,  maybe a consulate.  Send them the original and the translation. Takes a day or two, plus a week for the postal delay.

Check,  whether the embassy requires a stamp attached on the original (Ueberbelaubigung) from some higher German authority (eg Bezirksregierung).

That would take another day or two, plus postal delay.

On 7/9/2020 at 11:57 AM, Eindhoven said:

 

You have just pulled that off the top of your head. That's not based on any experience at all.

I arrived on an MT Visa and I am still here. It's also not my first MT, but then again I actually use the MT correctly, as I do attend for relatively expensive medical procedures. After which I relax at my leisure.

You are still here... because of the visa amnesty? 

Did you actually extend your MT visa?

Did you arrive during covid or before? 

For how long did they stamp you in when you arrived? 

6 hours ago, Aforek said:

When listening this, I think that " isuzu " is more a French phonetics than English ( maybe a light "eu " for the last syllabe , let's say " isuzeu"

I have noticed that phonetics in English are not always good

 for instance " chantaburi " is not good ; it must be "tjontaburi ( jo jan , a plate ) ; and of course, " porn " which must be written " pon "; I don't know where they found the " r ", which is not in the Thai name 

"Eu":

Yes, there is no vowel like an Italian u in Japanese. The first,  long u is an unrounded u and the posters here seem to hear a u.

The second u is much more centralized,   French eu is a better approximation than English u.

"or" stands for the sound of aw in pawn (called "open o"), pon would have a closed o like in French "trop"

On 7/7/2020 at 10:59 PM, reallyaffiliated said:

Checkup lol. It's an option they offered me over messenger for 15 day quarantine to get back.

 

Or do you think the Thai immigration won't approve that as a reason to be a medical tourist?

In the thread about 1700 medical tourists it is stated

- wellness is a valid reason

- can travel around after 14 days quarantine

It doesn't say for how long they will stamp you in when you arrive and how you can stay longer

It seems to me the answer to OP is no.

A farang investor I know took great pains to hide the true ownership of some of his condos,  so on paper he only owned a handful. I would ask for legal advice.

There are 2 private hospitals in Surin.

Both carry the same name "Ruampaet Surin".

Dr Hann's, not far from the government hospital, looks nicer and is bigger. 

It caters very much to Cambodians.

The other one is near Surin Plaza, sometimes has the better doctors, but it's probably not what you are looking for. 

The best hospital in Surin is, overall, the government hospital. 

There is no private hospital in Buriram that you would want to know. 

Best choice for you are the private hospitals in Korat, St Mary's or Bangkok Hospital Ratchasima.

15 hours ago, DrTuner said:

If one single case freaks the entire country out, what does that tell you of their test & trace capacity? By now, thanks to the long time in lockdowns, it should be a very well oiled and practiced machine.

 

Yes, that's sarcasm.

Not sure whether they are really so incompetent. 

TVF has, like,  10 threads about it. 

Thai and farang friends talk only about it. One case!

Brainwashing at it's best.