candide

I am known for not being a Trump supporter and I agree with you that Trump, for once, was intuitively right. Well not completely as the key issue is not about each European country independently spending enough, It's about how these military expenses could be coordinated in order to efficiently complement each other.

I was just being nasty! ????

Sorry, #$%^& autocorrect. That's GDP.

Exactly. Russia has absolutely no soft power. Putin is a fail. Even Ukraine, despite its cultural and historical proximity, doesn't want to be associated with Russia. As he also failed to develop his country, Russia has not much economic power to exert (unlike China) Needing to exert military power is a proof of failure

And I guess that in order to get a new Thailand lass for day 1 only, you need to provide a day 1 certificate from the hotel! ????

The numbers are so unreliable that it doesn't really matter....

The Chinese government is not stupid. China has absolutely no interest in getting involved in it. When it's outside their strategic zone (i.e. Taiwan and SCS), they are only interested in making business.The economic significance of Russia for China is peanuts compared to Nato countries. On top of it, they need to protect the investments they have started to make in the EU according to the Belt and Road strategy.

On day 5, it's a self test. So one only needs to upload a photo of a test kit showing a negative result....

Exactly, they arrested army officers (including a General) for human trafficking. Then Prayuth quickly forgot about the idea of fighting corruption in the RTP. ???? Army general among Thais convicted of human trafficking https://apnews.com/article/eaa174075aa14f0e9355e557d9255954

It's very easy to check, as the number of excess deaths from all causes is available and is quite reliable. If the number of Covid deaths is higher than the number of excess deaths from all causes, it is likely overestimated. If the number of Covid deaths is significantly lower than the number of excess deaths from all causes, it is likely undercounted. In Thailand, since the beginning of the pandemic in April 2021, the number of excess deaths compared to previous year has been consistently 3 times higher than the official Covid death numbers, including in January 2022 (1,692 excess deaths compared to January 2021 vs 575 official Covid deaths). I guess you can draw your own conclusion.... https://ourworldindata.org/excess-mortality-covid

The full quote is better: "Deaths in the period from Dec. 19 to Jan. 15, when Omicron infections were at a peak, averaged 9 per 1,000 COVID cases, compared to 16 per 1,000 in the previous winter peak and 13 during the Delta wave, the study showed." If these figures are reliable (I have no idea about it), they show that the death rate is far from being neglectible. The death rate is more than half of the Delta or Beta variants' death rates. And as the article outlines, the Omicron wave occurred at a time when people were more vaccinated (more people and most of all more jabs).

Thanks for this interesting article. Actually, it wasn't a study I was referring to, it was a database. It's the same database used in the article. The difference between my approach and their approach is that they use an estimate based on previous years (2015-2019) as a basis for comparison, while I simply compare with the previous year's numbers. I feel safe with my approach as I remember what happened one year ago and whether some factors may have impacted death count For example, I know that 2020 was not significantly impacted by Covid or other issue. It also allows me to calculate excess deaths every month. For example, in January this year, the official Covid death count was 575, while the number of excess deaths compared to last year was 1,692. So still around three times the official Covid numbers. As there is a delay between infections and deaths, the full impact of Omicron on excess deaths will be observable only in February and March data.

No. The figures I posted were only for January 2022 compared to January 2021, as the figure shows. 48,377 -46,685=1,692 The total number of excess deaths during the previous wave (April to December 2021) was 65,291 compared to the same period of time in 2020. There is no other identified cause which can explain these excess deaths.

There were 1692 excess deaths in January, compared to 2021. What else than Covid-19 can explain these excess deaths? An epidemy of of heart attacks? https://ourworldindata.org/excess-mortality-covid

Excess deaths may not double the number of Covid deaths, but triple them.. Since the beginning of the pandemic in April, they have consistently been around three times higher than the official number of Covid deaths. 65,292 excess deaths between April and December 2021. So 37 official Covid deaths should correspond to around 100 excess deaths. https://ourworldindata.org/excess-mortality-covid

No! It's people who are rational and looking for facts, and are not trying to downplay them in order to keep their misconceptions.

Maybe. However, when I was there in January/February 2020, there were plenty of foreigners there, including Chinese, Koreans, etc... and as you mentioned there were already some cases in January, and borders have only been closed at the end of March. In Italy, the pandemic probably started with one identified case, same for NY, and it diffused quickly. Actually no one really knows why SEA has not experienced an Alpha variant pandemic. NZ and Australia, It's another story. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/world/asia/coronavirus-thailand-photos.html In case all merits should be attributed to the government's policy for the low first wave, which is doubtful, it remains that they did not manage well the next one.

This is not true. I have provided the graph and the source in a previous post. Since April 2021, the start of the pandemic, the number of excess deaths compared to 2020 is around the triple of the official number of Covid deaths during the same period.

As everyone knows, there was nearly no pandemic in Thailand in 2020, for unknown reason (possibly some form of immunity acquired from related CVs in SEA), so comparing cumulative numbers since 2020 is irrelevant.

It looks like Anutin has the required qualities to become the next PM! ????

The excess deaths numbers are available. https://ourworldindata.org/excess-mortality-covid

Only if you believe official numbers. The number of excess deaths is around the triple of the official Covid deaths number.

The good side of it is that, the Thai education system being inefficient, pupils will likely not learn that either.

Nah... just a mere coincidence! ???? https://thewest.com.au/business/finance/thai-tycoon-launches-bid-for-kingsgate-ng-ya-118478

Actually, It's "us, us, us". He may leave some day, but as long as Thailand is keeping the current constitution, it will be the same "us" governing the country in one way or another.