rickudon

Well, if those figures are right, they are fairly close compared to the UK - 1 per 100,000. Maybe the USA is also a 3rd world country ????

For those of you who say "if you are under 60 years old there is literally zero risk" are missing one important fact. First, ignoring Covid, it is those in their 80's (or older) who are most likely to die. say about 100 in every thousand per year. if the excess death rate for a country is 10%, then 110 die. But your risk of death in any year is 10% greater. If you are in your 40's, Normal risk of death is about , say, 10 per thousand. add on a 10% excess mortality rate and 11 die. Only one extra person died! But the increased risk of death is still 10%. And that is true for Covid across all age groups above about 30. Doesn't matter how old you are, the excess deaths are approximately spread as an equal percentage increase in death rate for all age groups.

Take Thai statistics with a pinch of salt. One reason why very few deaths among triple vaxxed people is because most have only had the last vax recently, so only a small cohort and time period for them to get sick. Excess deaths are 2.5 times higher than the total reported Covid deaths, that in itself is a caution as to accuracy of Thai statistics. Positive side - in Udon Thani, the local government has been pretty good at vaccinating people, nearly everyone who wanted them has had 2 shots, many have had 3. Typically about 100 or so cases reported a day, but no deaths for about a week. 10 year old daughter vaxxed last week (pfizer). I am still waiting for my booster. I had Moderna, told i have to wait 6 months before booster. damn!

I renewed my 5 year licence a week ago (in Udon Thani). It was 10 months expired, not a problem. You need to apply online, watch a video, answer a few simple questions and then select where and when to get your appointment. In some areas all appointments are booked for weeks, try a smaller more rural centre if that is an issue (what i did). Take the required documents, do traffic light test and brake test, take a photo, pay, pick up licence 10 minutes later. Whole process at the test centre took about 1 hour, their were sufficient socially distanced seats (there is a cap on the number of appointments each day).

My M-in-L is totally untrainable.

Covid-19 statistics in Thailand are pretty meaningless due to the lack of testing. Actual deaths going by excess deaths is actually about 2.5 times greater. As for 'nothing more than a cold' yes, true for most people. But death rates are still at 0.2-1% ( going by reported cases) around the world. Still makes it a lot more dangerous than say, Dengue, which has a death rate of about 0.1%, Global deaths still ticking away at 5-10,000 a day, no great change. Live with it? Yes, we will have to. But it is a long way from being 'over'.

I have drunk the Cha tra Mue brand. Rough as the old Sainsbury's brown label floor sweepings. But it is cheap. I prefer PG tips, Typhoo or Earl Grey any day. Fortunately brought back a box of 240 PG tips in November, will last me a few more months.

Reality - in the 12 years i have lived in Thailand, this is at least the 3rd time we have had a prolonged cold spell in February. No other month in my experience has prolonged cold periods, only 2-3 days at most. In fact, the lowest temperature record for Isaan was set during the last few years in February; if i remember that time the cloudy weather lasted 2 weeks. What has been changing is the rainfall pattern and the end of most of the cool nights in the dry season. Watching Thais warm themselves in the morning by a roadside fire just doesn't seem to happen anymore. The tropics have seen little impact from global warming, mainly impacts the temperate and polar regions.

How well has Thailand been doing? Well in 2020 very well. 2021 to now, not so much. Because of the pathetic testing rate in Thailand, you cannot rely on the Thai Covid figures. But excess death rate doesn't lie. In 2020, Thailand's excess death rate was mainly slightly negative, with just a few months when it was up to 9% Compared to the UK, the excess rate was usually a lot lower. But 2021..... Although the UK started off badly, from the beginning of March 2021 until the end of January 2022, Thailand's excess death rate was higher than the UK except for 6 weeks in October and November. Thailand only reports monthly figures - excess death rate was - - 11% in March - -3% in April - 7% in May - 12% in June - 19% in July - 36% in August - 19% in September - 6% in October - 18% in November - 21% in December - 6% in January That is an average of about 14% excess mortality over a 11 month period. Not 'insignificant'. Over a 22 month period of the epidemic, Thailand reported 22,000 Covid deaths, but excess deaths were 2.5 times higher at over 57,000. That is not a bad performance, but not brilliant either. https://ourworldindata.org/excess-mortality-covid https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/coronavirus-excess-deaths-tracker

Buy some nice powerful bangers next time fireworks are available. One tossed over the fence works wonders.....

No one has mentioned Valerian? A natural herb used to reduce anxiety and help fight insomnia. I rarely suffer from insomnia but the 2 things which help me get a good sleep are playing computer strategy games (makes the brain work) for an hour or two before bedtime, and not sleeping early. But for me 5 hours sleep is sufficient.

I wonder how much revenue was lost on alcohol sales during the pandemic?

Exactly. My son is in West Africa currently. He made it through the UK pandemic for 22 months without getting Covid-19, but caught it within 2 months there; also a number of people he knew there had it in the same time period. But officially cases are just a few hundred a day. Why? Covid tests are not free - if you are earning 5 dollars a day no way are you going to spend 2 or 3 weeks wages on a test. Likewise, when someone dies, the chances of it being diagnosed as Covid is low. In Thailand, last year the excess death rate was higher than that in the UK for more weeks than it was less - but Covid deaths were supposedly a mere fraction of the UK's. They didn't have a 'wave' in Thailand, just a fairly steady death rate, but there is an obvious anomaly in the Covid-19 figures. There were practically no excess deaths in Thailand in 2020, so something was killing all those extra people in 2021. I wonder what?

I doubt your pension provider would accept them if in Thai. You would have to get them translated, and the copy certified.

More useless stuff. Faecal implants best to rebalance your microbial flora.

It would be more environmentally friendly to use paper. Can recycle, compost or burn, no waste.

My thinking is this: Firstly, you get jabbed to lower the risks to yourself. Secondly, you get vaccinated to reduce the risk of passing on an infection to someone else, who might die or become seriously ill. It is unfortunate that the vaccines do not provide 100% protection from infection, or even death, but they certainly lower the risk. Someone who refuses to get vaccinated for no good medical reason is being selfish - they do not care about other people. If someone doesn't want to be vaccinated, they have an incentive to get a fake vaccine certificate to allow them to travel more easily, also probably a fake Covid test. Certainly the percentage of people arriving in Phuket Covid positive from some countries is a problem. Hard to believe up to 4% of people catch Covid within 3 days of a PCR test before flying. Anything that reduces these risks should be considered. Yes, Omicron is probably so infectious that nothing short of quarantine will stop it - but probably in all countries now. But this is not a catch it once and i am immune virus; I know of several people who have had it twice or 3 times. Excess death rates in many countries suggest that deaths are actually a lot higher than reported deaths; also death rates among Covid-19 survivors remain higher long after they have 'recovered', and long Covid is still a poorly understood problem. Do we have to live with it? Yes, but it is sensible to reduce chance of infection by not taking risks. Not getting vaccinated is like smoking, it not only affects your health, but other peoples.

Just checked my passport. My first visa in it was put on the 4th blank page, although the previous page was then later used for 6 exit and entry stamps. Also, all the visa stickers (both Thai and Lao) were on right hand pages; maybe a coincidence? Pages 5 and 7 were filled in later with extension stamps. Even though i only usually leave Thailand once a year, have on average used up 4 pages a year, which means a standard 32 page passport just isn't big enough, have to get a 48 page one.

Which shows that health care in the USA is a massive rip-off.

Not sure this is true, Depends what you mean by 'defying this trend'. If you look at the top 20 countries by fertility rate, only half of them are mainly Muslim. What is true is they are all African, More a measure of poverty and lack of infrastructure and good government. Average world fertility rate is about 2.4, which has halved in the last 50 years. At current rates, this will fall below 2.1 in about 20 years. Thailand's rate has been falling for some time, the biggest 'age group' are those in their 40's. Fertility rate has fallen by 75% in the last 50 years. Thailand's population is about to start falling.

For an unbiased assessment, look at excess death rate, a better indicator for the effect of Covid-19. In the last 6 months of 2021 in the UK, excess deaths were between 5-10% every week. So not insignificant and not just a 'bit of flu' but still well below the previous 2 waves, when they reached up to 120% and 45%. After each wave you get a period of negative excess mortality, because yes, SOME of the people who died previously did have health issues and would have died within say 6 months. However, that is not dying 'with Covid-19' their lives were shortened by it. Long Covid still occurring, but no claims yet of a massive increase in it, which considering the high number of infections, would have occurred if Long Covid was still as likely.

I live just outside Udon Thani. In the last 5 years, have seen a boom in construction by Thais; practically all the dry land in the village has now been built on, and the view from our fish ponds is no longer rice fields and swamps, but Moo baans and individual houses gradually creeping towards us. Land prices have trebled over the last 10 years. We are buying land, as long as it is next to a road and near the village. Only house bought (by sister-in-law) was an old Thai house. Proved difficult to rent, and tenants were usually short term and often a problem. House will be demolished and land sold. Thais always want something new.

I give the wife 30,000 baht a month. She pays all the bills (mortgage, water, electric, gas, parents funeral plans, car loan and theoretically shopping bill). I do not give her parents (both now close to 80) any regular support, but they have their 700 baht a month pension, live rent free and all utilities paid for. I occasionally pay a larger bill (usually ploughing or harvesting the rice). Both wife's parents still do a little bit of food production (grow vegetables, fruit, catch fish). They use a little bit of the food we buy. Some other family members (and the wife) did have debt problems which have also been expensive....... I just pay daughter's school fees, petrol and pay for some shopping. Not a lot left after all that!

I am in Udon Thani, have been doing marriage extensions for 8 years. I wouldn't call them actually friendly, but usually quite helpful - although they do like a tip! Have had some minor issues, But just have to grit your teeth and make the changes asked for. Extensions take about one hour from when you get to the counter - have had to wait up to 2 hours, but late morning or afternoon best. 90 day reports - under 5 minutes these days, fastest was 90 seconds! Reporting change of address is not an issue - I have never actually done it, i think they did it for me once, and if you never change your home address, never have to report address again, wherever you have been for holidays or out of the country. No need for appointments. Just turn up.

The pension system is in need of a complete overhaul. As said, the state pension system is 600 baht a month at 60 rising to 800 baht a month at 80. My in-laws are on it. They still work to survive, although all household bills are paid by me. They could just collapse in front of the TV all day and depend on me for food as well, but fortunately they also grow some and do other odd jobs. But if i died and wife got nothing, she would be trying to support 4 people (M-in-L, F-in-L and our daughter) on the income from her village shop and their pensions. It would be bloody hard - Electricity consumption would have to plummet, and food bill halved. Disability pension is also 600 baht a month - if they decide you qualify. I have a 100% disabled nephew who requires 24 hour care (cannot do anything for himself) - that pension pays for his needs for about 4 days, his parents have to work AND look after him so they work in shifts. My wife will get some pension - but maybe only the lump sum which wouldn't even last her a year. Have to remember that half of all people in Thailand work in the informal economy, which comes with no pension. My wife does pay into the social fund - but is limited to 100 baht a month! As you can imagine, that isn't going to add up to much when she stops work. Yes, most people pay no income tax - but VAT is on everything you buy, except for maybe fresh food at the local market. My wife has to have licences for her shop - one just for running a shop, one for selling beer, one for selling spirits and one for selling tobacco - so she does provide revenue to the government, And 75% of what she sells is bought from wholesalers so she is paying VAT on what she buys. State pension should be a minimum of 3,000 baht a month. Anything less than that and you would end up eventually depending on others to survive.