JayBird

On 3/4/2022 at 9:06 PM, pegman said:

So the restaurant was giving away free food? Not likely. Like tour packages all over the world you pay the tour operator who then pays the restaurants, hotels, attraction operators.....

The restaurant's owner is Chinese and the money changes hand in China.

Brits can enter without visa for short stay.

Last i heard, only need to show vaccination status on arrival.  No other requirements, nor needing to show status within France.

Right now, returning requires pcr and test and go.  Can be tricky to do in rural France.  Hopefully that requirement is gone soon

Try this link for up-to-date info:

Covid 19 : International travel | Ministère de l'Intérieur (interieur.gouv.fr)

13 hours ago, Letseng said:

Why can't Russian government fly them out? Thai airspace isn't closed to flights from Russia.

They don't care?

Does it require a PCR test AND vaccination, or is just vaccination enough?

Anyone got a good list of ev options available here?

At least it's an article where it's not the foreigners getting scammed by Thais.

7 hours ago, pegman said:

These cases seemed strange from the get go. All inclusive vacation packages are on offer the world over. Likely the courts were being used to hammer the competition of friends of the junta.

I think the issue here was that payment was also made in China, so no money was put into the Thai economy.

Instead of giving the restaurant 1000 THB per person, they gave 0 THB.  Then transferred money from Chinese account to Chinese account in China.

Whatever your politics are.

The Russian ruble is not doing so well, and may limit interest in coming.

Countries that do not have much if any participation in the Olympics typically do not offer much coverage of it.

Thailand had a bigger presence in the summer Olympics, so they covered it better.

Will he be going through test and go, or sandbox scheme?

3 hours ago, Geoffggi said:

There must be more behind this subject than they are prepared to let on, surely they can extract the data on current tourists and delete the data on ones that have returned home what is so difficult in this??

They don't know how to delete records, only insert.

When it rains, millions get wet.

With COVID, everyone will get it.

What matters is how many get seriously ill.

COVID fatalities are comparable to road accident fatalities.

It's a good option if you need to prove you have the right to work without being bothered by the government.

Pretend to do a 100k/mo job, like a manager of some businesses.  But that's a cover job to hide the fact that you are really doing an illicit 10m/mo job.  

This way if someone points to you as working, you can point to your elite visa.

What happens if you only want to come for 4 days?  

It's not a long trip that would plan to do 2 weeks.

I used to go to Malaysia for 4 or 5 days at a time.  I certainly would not if I had to quarantine for 2 of those days.

Contact and work directly with Thailand Elite.  Their process is simple, and they are helpful.

There is never a reason to use a lawyer or agent for this.

I do not recall anyone ever having a problem with them.

You should be able to keep applying for STVs.

I'm unsure what tax incentives you are referring to for Thailand Elite.  I don't recall it having anything to do with taxes.  

6 hours ago, IAMHERE said:

That is what is being said about the vaccine immunity, now. Didn't make that clear and plain when they first rolled out those vaccines.

I can not speak to what 'they' said, as I'm not sure exactly who you are referring to.

It is an established fact that no vaccine ever created will eradicate 100% of all viruses and prevent even one particle from getting a foot hold in you.  This is now how vaccines work.  Anyone who suggested was this was not being accurate in this regard.

The purpose of the Vaccine is primarily two fold:

1) To help protect you (reduce the time you are sick, reduce the likelihood of death or hospitalization).

2) To protect society (by reducing the time you are sick, and therefore your viral load, it reduces the amount you will transmit to others).

I am unsure where you get your information on how vaccines work, but this is a well researched topic going back well over a century.  If you are keen, I would suggest books on the topics of Infectious Diseases, Microbiology, and Immunology.

It's actually quite an interesting topic, and once you work your way through the books, it becomes increasingly obvious why things are as they are.

5 hours ago, freedomnow said:

...and are the vaccines any better at stopping viral load shedding than natural immunity ?

Obviously not, or we'd not still have masks globally.

Actually, yes:

The Vaccine will allow your body to fight the virus much faster than natural immunity would.  This would allow for less population growth of the virus within the body leading to less shedding.

Additionally, as the amount of time infected with the virus would be far less on a vaccinated individual, the amount of time that the individual would shed virus would also decrease.

Think of it this way:

A vaccinated person will contain 1,000 particles, where 10% could shed per day.  But will only do this for 5 days.

An unvaccinated person will contain 100,000 particles, where 10% could shed per day.  And they will do this for 14 days.

So it is significantly better.

(An unvaccinated person will have a higher viral load because natural immunity takes time to kick in, and during this window of opportunity the virus will multiply quite quickly).

There is also the benefit to society as a whole:

If a Vaccinated person only manages to pass on the virus to 3 people, vs an unvaccinated person who might pass it on to 10.  After a 2 week period, the number of people infected would be significantly more amongst the unvaccinated community than the vaccinated community.

This has the benefits of less likely to target immuno-compromised individual, as well as less of a strain on the hospital system.

Have that considered lowering their rates?  I think it's the most expensive solution out of here, esp business class.