Jimbo2014

You know its serious when deaths almost reach the daily road deaths. If someone refuses to get vaccinated then I think its almost time for this guy to step in.

Wow! - seems effective not at all. Empty words indeed. The open burning has been a disaster for Thailand. I know of many people contributing to the northern economy who have just packed up and left because they refuse to live in a cloud of toxic smoke for 6 months a year.

Anticipate numbers for medical diagnosis of pain to go through the roof in Thailand! :D.

Public safety or pushing an extremely conservative agenda? Lets hope Thailand returns to a semblance of normal next year. Let kids be kids and have fun.

Im not in that camp. But I am in the realist camp. Look at the latest data from around the world and its evident that Covid - as now Omicron - has fallen way down on the mortality scale. Well below other preventable diseases including heart disease, diabetes, road accidents, Malaria (in the case of most African countries). Anecdotally, I know more friends who have Omicron than not and all describe it as ranging from a mild cold to a flue. Average sick time is around 5 days with Omicron. There has to be a point at which we get on with life.

I feel like this article is from 3 months ago. The rest of the world has realised this and moved on now.

Well it only took Thailand 3 months to hear the news on this.

Believe me - there is money in that ????

You would think that logically, statistically etc.. it little difference if someone flies in with Covid or not. Testing before flying at the airport quickly is prudent as a safety measure for passengers, at least for a while longer, but testing on arrival seems to offer limited benefits but is a huge cost and deterrent to all.

Well well.... this story certainly wont be promoted in certain farang friendly night spots around Bangkok. Expect the mamasan censors to block it ASAP!.

Hopefully not Chinese ones with massive service contracts and aging diesel engines.

Oh no! - On the Naughty list! ????

On a global level yes agreed... but in relation to Southern Phuket there is a quite large Russian population, ranging from the rossíyskaya máfiya, to decent family types wanting to escape Putin's Russia or the climate. There will likely be some impact, and in 2019, 1.5M russian tourists visited Thailand, probably second behind Chinese in numbers.

Well to be fair to Thailand - all they can do is vote in the UN. Its clearly a NATO/European/American and its allies situation. At east Thailand didnt sit on the fence at the UN meeting like India, China did (nor endorse the envision as China did at the shameful olympics)

Well there goes the property market in Southern Phuket. Nice that Thailand found its spine. The ruble really will be rubble.

My heart bleeds for the long suffering Thai people in this conflict! - 6 days without Russian money. Give me a break

Omicron is somewhere between a fast spreading common cold and a fast spreading flue. Its morality rate is low but the impact still comparatively high because of its fast spreading nature. Even despite its infectivity, total deaths from omicron are now lower than many other risks we live with daily such as pollution, road deaths etc.. Better to start channeling medical and other resources where they are needed and plan for fully opening the economy as others are doing, albeit whilst ensuring deaths remain low and hospitals are not overwhelmed with genuine patients.

Why bother when you have 40000++ cases each day. Do a few more arriving on flights really matter?

This usually means they failed their performance review - to hand over enough $$$ to their superiors. Bottom line is - the police force here is bloated and ineffective. The military is equally so. Hard to reform without accountability in govt.

Fair comment. However its worth bearing in mind that 2021 was the excessive peak of the pandemic and unlikely to be repeated. The average over the pandemic is about 13000 per year and again unlikely to ever be repeated. Current death rates seem miniscule when compared to cases and not large when compared to other preventable forms of mortality. Tragically deaths may actually approach the road toll but doubtful with the high vaccination rates. Unlikely to ever see the 300 a day at the peak of 2021 without a new variant. Thus far the virus has followed a natural course to mutate into a more benign version.

Understand - however another interesting study released by the CDC noted that lockdowns didnt impact mortality significantly. ie: it will burn regardless. Omicron is likely to have far fewer deaths, more so because Alpha and Delta were probably widely underreported. Further, Omicron will leave the population with good long term memory T cells to fight other variants of Covid. Hopefully not too many have to die but some is inevitable.

Most excess deaths in the study you refer to occurred in countries with poorer heath systems. Thailand actually has a reasonable health system. The estimate here is likely about 2-2.5 times. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.07.22268886v1.full.pdf Needless to say this is not a small number - but its not a linear number either. The Alpha and Delta forms caused the highest excess mortality rates and excess mortality has declined since. The peak coincided with the period of the study (april - Nov 2021) as you can see here: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/thailand/ Omicron appears to have an extremely low mortality rate against vaccinated and even non-vaccinated (although about 50 x higher to unvaccinated by the latest CDC numbers). My argument, based on the data, would be that its time to exit many of the covid restrictions and start living again.

Hi Bkk Brian. 65 deaths a day on the road - not counting the life changing injuries and devastated lives and that was a quiet year (being a lockdown year). 22,000 covid deaths is the total - for 2 years (not one year) - hence half the rate as road accidents. I realise you are a big proponent of the fears of covid. Prior to vaccinations and Omicron I would have agreed with you. However on the most recent data I have adjusted my opinion. The death rate for vaccinated against Omicron is tiny and data from the US and UK have demonstrated that for vaccinated adults, Omicron is simply (generally) not a problem. Thailand needs to adopt a sensible policy towards it. Testing people at the airport when there are likely in excess of 40,000 real cases a day in Thailand is senseless. Sending people to hospital or closing schools simply because they have covid is a huge drain on valuable resources which would be better used in more meaningful ways to save lives, or to ensure the whole population is vaccinated with quality vaccines (rather than the S one). The economic and social damage is exceeding the savings. Pending a more ferocious variant emerging, it seems time to exit the covid fear camp and apply resources where they are really needed to help improve society and save lives.

Test and Go... must go