brucec64

5 hours ago, keith101 said:

We will be the last to be vaccinated unless we get it through private hospitals paying through the nose for it and that way the Government doesn't have to consider buying vaccines for us dirty farang as Anutin called us .

Only one post in before "dirty farang'was quoted? This was said quite awhile ago by Antin and has been quoted thousands of times on TVF.  Maybe time for posters on this site to come up with a little more original material. 

12 hours ago, 473geo said:

I'm far from a rich man but 300 baht is not going to have an effect on me, however there will be a cumulative benefit for Thailand

 

I don't begrudge 300 baht in these hard times

There is already a tourist departure tax baked into the flight cost. This used to be paid separately at the airport. This is just double dipping, and the usual Thai strategy to raise prices in a downturn.

48 minutes ago, couchpotato said:

Big update for y'all.

Okay we have 2 pages of pure speculation by all posters.

I have just this minute returned from Bangkok.

Ekkamai-Rama9-Highway 7-pattaya railway road-to Makro area.

Not one checkpoint of any type (on either side of the highway). Actually only saw one Highway police car during the whole journey. Traffic as per normal, but a lot less as schools are closed.

Overall a nice drive.

Considering the order just came out last night, it will take a few days for processes and checkpoints to be established.

15 hours ago, ourmanflint said:

I must admit to being baffled. Surely Thailand has committed to building a new vaccine production facility, you know the one announced with big fanfare, "we are the big boys of SE Asia, and we will save you all". Other countries in the region were relying on Thailand to have this facility up and running this year as promised, but now Thailand is ordering 35 million doses from AZ instead of manufacturing them. 

 

AZ is a private company. Even if manufactured in Thailand, the Thai government still needs to order and pay for the vaccine. That's how business works...

51 minutes ago, Dart12 said:

The lockdown was initially sold across the world as the only way to avert calamity. The cost of the closures (in terms of lost liberty, lost livelihoods, and, indeed, lost lives through non-coronavirus health conditions) was so vast that there was no other way to justify it. Lockdown proponents didn’t say, “This might slightly reduce the mortality rate.” They said, “Do it or our hospitals will be overwhelmed!”

 

Which was, to be fair, what they initially expected to happen in Sweden. “Heading for disaster” was the headline in Britain’s right-wing Sun. “They are leading us to catastrophe,” agreed the left-wing Guardian. Time magazine reported that “Sweden’s relaxed approach to the coronavirus could already be backfiring” and quoted a doctor saying that it would “probably end in a historical massacre.” “We fear that Sweden has picked the worst possible time to experiment with national chauvinism,” chided the Washington Post. President Trump, justifying his own crackdown, bizarrely claimed that Sweden “gave it a shot, and they saw things that were really frightening, and they went immediately to shutting down the country.”

 

Not one commentator in March or April argued that Sweden might be less at risk than other places. Lockdown enthusiasts have switched very suddenly from “Sweden is heading for a genocide” to “well, we couldn’t do that here because we’re nothing like Sweden.”

 

What we are seeing is a version of the sunk cost fallacy — a determination to justify the huge losses imposed by the lockdown. It is beyond depressing to see scientists give in to these basic cognitive biases.

If only these thousands of scientists, in 196 countries, all coming to to the same same conclusion, were smart enough to listen to you... It must be beyond depressing to be such a genius and no one will listen.

2 hours ago, connda said:

Yeah.  I'm happy that a few billion people will be clamouring over the first year's doses and probably right into 2022.  By the time we're forced to show a vaccine to obtain an extension, I'll opt for proven "old" technology over these unproven "new" technologies line mRna.
Personally I could care less about the efficacy.  If I'm not forced to take the vaccine I will not, so I could care about efficacy. My immune system will provide all the efficacy needed as far as I'm concerned (I don't care what anyone else thinks. I won't even discuss that topic further than to state it)

What I care about is how much damage the "new" technology have the potential to do i.e.,  those new vaccine technologies with no long-term human studies in the 5 to 10 year range. 

Personally - I don't care what anyone else does.  It's up to them.  But I have no plans to be a willing lab rat for new vaccine technology especially considering that all of the world's governments have given the vaccine manufactures complete indemnity so no one can sue their companies for damages.  If the brand new vaccine technology hurts or kills you?  Too bad.  You could try to sue your own government but may be tied up for years if you can find an attorney to take your case.  In countries like India, you can't even do that.  
I don't want to go there, so I'll avoid 'new vaccine tech.'

So for me personally?  I don't care what country makes the vaccine.  But considering that China (Sinovac's CoronaVac) and Russia (Sputnik V) are based on older tech you can guess which I'll take if I have to take any of them. 

Everybody else?  Do what you want to do.   Best of luck.

I'm alright Jack.

Vaccines only work to eradicate a disease when they achieve herd immunity. Numbers like 90% vaccination rates have been thrown around for Covid. Everyone has to do their part. So, apart from just being selfish, a healthy person who doesn't vaccinate is basically taking a spot away from those that can't vaccinate, like young children or those with underlying health conditions. Not getting vaccinated when otherwise healthy is basically the same as a healthy person taking a handicapped parking spot, but just a lot more despicable.

17 hours ago, Kadilo said:

.......and people like you would not be able to roll out the same ol cliches. 

and the food would be much better (one more cliche for you...you're welcome)

1 hour ago, Kadilo said:

.......and people like you would not be able to roll out the same ol cliches. 

I work on my condo's committee. I sure wish it was just a cliche...

11 hours ago, robblok said:

I see the point of banning people from the Uk to get in countries where there is no quarantine. The strain is just really bad and it thriving in the UK. 

 

But Thailand has state quarantine so what is the problem. Are they afraid that their standards are not up to spec ? I mean the precautions in the state quarantine are quite good tests are done and people kept isolated. 

 

I don't see why they should exclude Brits in this country. 

Except without Brits there would be a whole lot less complaining going on... ????

45 minutes ago, Stev Lam said:

Thailand seemingly trying to playdown reporting case numbers (reporting in a very confusing way)....trying to draw a line between migrant workers and locals...not sure what is their point? Afterll is local infection cases!

I think the difference is that the migrant workers are fairly contained (with barbed wire), and that these cases represent less of a chance of causing additional local transmissions in other parts of the country. Singapore had a similar migrant worker outbreak, and they were able to minimize the impact to general transmissions. Hopefully Thailand can do a similar job, but might be too late for that.

17 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

There's quite a lot of Mexicans that seem to manage it (Trump wanted to build a wall to stop them).

Last time I crossed from Canada to  the USA, I was sitting in a Canadian friends car (circa 1990), they just drove across and we were waved through (Niagara Falls if I remember correctly). 

The same friends also used to sail across the lake, have lunch in the USA and then sail back, nobody carried passports.

A few years back I went to the refugee camp at Mae Sot (2014ish), while I was standing on the side of the river people were wading back and forth across the border, a guy approached me and said he would row me across for 50bht. i said what about the Burmese army guys watching the people crossing, he said no problem, they don't mind.

Circa 1990. The world has changed a bit since then. Go give it a try now. 

1 hour ago, Leaver said:

 

Sure, but what gives you the right to enjoy the quality, whilst potentially taking the life of another?

No one has the right, and someone who thinks they do is a self absorbed POS.

7 hours ago, FarFlungFalang said:

Saving lives is what defenders of covid often quote when justifying the the extreme measures and level of attention because the lives of rich countries are being lost where as your argument supports this,it neglects supporting the lives of those who suffer and die in the poorest nations in the world because they can't afford clean water to drink.So you argument is a sad indictment of the rich caring only for themselves.

8 hours ago, BernieOnTour said:

 

Those people who don’t make that “huge leap of understanding” - as you? - are those, who invest their time to dig into scientific studies in leading scientific publications as BMJ or eg. take their calculators out, apply the Bayes Theoreme  and compute, what effects prevalence, specifity and sensitivity have on Positive or Negative Predictive Values of rtPCR- and antibody tests and on R0 ...

 

And by digging into studies, they find for example a study from ETH Zurich, which evaluated the “Querdenker” movement and found astonishingly not a lot of alt-rights, but that 23% of them elected before the Greens ... >250% than the Green Party’s share at the last election for parliament !

 

I apologize. BTW where did you get your PHD in epidemiology? Sure are a lot of scientists in this forum.

14 hours ago, 1fortheroad said:

So my plans might change depending on the virus, but I plan to head to Pattaya in early January. 

 

Will probably take the girlfriend.

 

I’m looking for recommendations on:

- what is the absolute best restaurant in Pattaya, higher end/fine dining (if possible)

- Best place for an English breakfast?

- Best place for selection of beers (I like imported/craft beers)

 

- Good day time activity to take the girlfriend and her niece

 

I'll be staying at the Dusit Thani but I have a car so transport is not a problem.

 

Thank you

One of the best fine dining restaurants is Cafe des Amis.