Brunolem

7 minutes ago, ExpatOK said:

These vaccines have been tested for how long, six months?  Might be better to be in the non-vaccinated 30%.

Anyway, 30% have to sacrifice themselves in order for the other 70% to get their shots...and that's a sacrifice I am willing to make for the greater good...

With a population of around 10 million for greater Bangkok, out of which probably 30 to 50% is already infected (and mostly asymptomatic), it will take years to test everyone at a rate of 10,000 per day.

One might thus expect the actual numbers of cases and deaths to keep coming up every day until year end and beyond.

Which makes one wonder:

How is it possible for a country that can test only a few thousands persons per day, to vaccinate 300,000 persons per day, starting next month?

1 hour ago, brewsterbudgen said:

The Chinese will be back in their hordes, once they can get back in!

And once they can get out...of China!

14 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

I've found most Thais are polite to me, perhaps that's because I am polite to them. I've learned enough Thai to get by with daily conversation and needs.

I really don't care if Thais accept me or don't accept me, I have my own daily life routines. I do wonder about non-Thais who want to become part of a society where face is all-important, and believes implicitly in ghosts.

I am a stranger in a strange land, I don't worry about it.

Nailed it!

9 minutes ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

 

One of the options includes the creation of a mobile app to facilitate registration

Considering how the 90 day report app works, or not, after years of efforts, this looks like an optimistic proposition.

Why not safely assume that both apps won't work most of the time, and instead give a shot to foreigners when they show up to do their 90 day report in person.

Of course, with immigration officers being part of the police corp, there will always be the risk that the word "shot" might be misinterpreted, but on the other hand such an arrangement would help killing two birds with one stone, or shot...

6 minutes ago, tomazbodner said:

I'm in deep red and other than mask on every time I leave the room, disinfectants every 10 meters and a thermal camera at the entrance to the building my life is no different from before. Our company ordered work from home over a year ago and very little has changed since.

 

But of course there will be those who can't stand the thought of having to stay home, and would die if they could not party every night. They are surely going to be affected badly.

 

You talk like a former prisoner, happy that he can now step foot out of his cell...from time to time.

As surprising as it may seem, many people are asking more from life than being free "on parole"...and it doesn't mean that they need to party in bars every night.

If your life today is not different from what it was before, then I am afraid you have missed a lot of what life has to offer...

3 hours ago, Poet said:

 

 Israel, with its now "zero-covid" levels of infection, provides a clear example of the effect that mass vaccination will have on all the other advanced countries as, over the next few months, their populations achieve the same levels of innoculation.
 

"Netanyahu says Israelis need to anticipate another shot for themselves, and their children (after the first 2 Pfizer doses) in 6 months.  Two month ago, Netanyahu was looking to buy 36 million more doses, 3 times what had already been purchased."

2 hours ago, Poet said:

No, I read your posts with respect and agree with much of what you say but, you have to admit, the suggestion that the pandemic will be leveraged to ram through oppressive climate change restrictions and taxation is part of the current conspiracy narrative, especially the suggestion that there is a specific, coordinated plan titled "The Great Reset".
 

Actually, Klaus Schwab, the WEF founder and CEO, wrote a book about the Great Reset, which is his brain child.

The very title of this year WEF (virtual) forum in Davos was "The Great Reset", and Schwab has made numerous comments on how the actual crisis should be used to advance the Great Reset agenda:

"The pandemic represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity to reflect, reimagine, and reset our world" - Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum.

The so-called fight against climate change also has a very real agenda, with massive reductions of emissions pledged by Western countries, many of those with a deadline in...2030!

Such reductions won't happen if the populations are travelling all over the world, unrestricted.

Where the Covid comes into play is that it has put the populations in the right place to implement unpopular reforms, now that the governments have seen how far they can push without soliciting any significant reaction from the populace.

As I wrote before, the Covid was only a catalyst.

If it hadn't happened, something else would have.

I am part of this (not so small) group of people who have thought for a long time (since the 2008 financial crisis) that the 2020s would be terrible, because everything was converging in that direction.

I even wrote it in 2012 when some people asked me is this was going to be a terrible year (the infamous Inca calendar), and I told them "don't worry, but get ready for the 2020s".

And here we are...

1 hour ago, Poet said:

 

Oh, I see. Okay. If Covid is a massive conspiracy, fair enough, that would certainly prevent the resumption of mass tourism. Of course, to believe that, you would also have to have fallen fairly far down the rabbithole ????
 

You comment before you read, which is never a good idea.

I didn't write that Covid is a conspiracy.

I wrote that, when you put together Covid + climate change + Great Reset restrictions and objectives, you get a bleak picture for mass tourism...and many other things.

Now, we have been living in the so-called "new normal" for over a year, and there are those who still cling to the idea that a return to the "old normal" is just a few shots away, and those who think that the "new normal" is here to stay, and evolve.

Because one is part of the first group doesn't allow one to state that others are wrong and delusional.

Only time will tell...

18 minutes ago, KhunMorris said:

 

Some fake news in this post.

 

Vaccine manufacturers have said AT LEAST 6 months efficacy. The truth is that they don't know as they have  only been testing for 6-7 months. It could well be 1 year, it could well be more. Boosters to combat new variants will be given annually.

 

Sincerely

 

MORRIS

For you, "could well be" is hard news, while "valid 6 months" is fake news because? you know better than Pfizer's CEO who said a couple of weeks ago that a booster shot will probably be required after 6 months?

22 minutes ago, Poet said:

Say we accept the premise that, as the vaccination schemes continue in most Western countries, they are heading towards what Israel has already achieved: 10 new infections per million per day

We also know that the vaccines also reduce transmissability by 66%, 

Israel is an outlier rather than a reference.

It is very unlikely that the vast majority of countries will repeat Israel's performance.

On top of that, remember that, according to the vaccine manufacturers themselves, the vaccines are efficient for only 6 months, meaning that the whole vaccination campaign will have to be repeated indefinitely.

Then, there are other issues beside the Covid pandemic, such as fighting climate change and the implementation of the infamous Great Reset, both of which are not in favour of mass tourism.

Instead of a return to the happy days of 2019, one should rather expect a lengthy march toward 1984 (not the year, if you see what I mean).

2 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

One wonders how a large company like Marriot or Aetas can afford to have these buildings shuttered and still pay staff to come in and clean them as well as paying the security guards who attend to the building as well as the one or two engineers who are needed to ensure everything continues to work.   

One wonders indeed.

Add to that the "back to normal" mirage which moves further in time with each passing month, and soon Thailand is going to find itself with hundreds of buildings/former hotels empty and decaying.

This will be like the 1997/8 crisis...squared!

At 5.45 AM today, as I was in my bed anxiously checking if the Thaivisa newsletter had landed in my mailbox (it hadn't!), came an announcement from the village chief, a.k.a. puu yai baan, on the local radio:

the vaccine is here, free of charge, and people have to get ready for the injection!

I could imagine all the farmers and their families rushing to the bathroom and putting their affairs in order, before scrambling outside barely awake.

My wife, always at the frontline when something happens in the village, was among them.

I could hear movement in the street, and a lot of talking.

Then it all went quite, and apparently smoothly, since at around 7.30 AM, 100% of the village cows had been vaccinated!

(This is a true story by the way)