John Drake

Lickin' their chops over the prospect of foreign tourists going into expensive hospital quarantine.

Seems to me companies are trying to thread the needle. I hope they pull it off. Thailand cannot afford a return to the drastic measures in place a year ago or even six months ago. At a certain point, lockdowns will crash society. Let's face it, the vaccines do not work as initially advertised. They are relatively safe--with some severe risks with the mRNA shots for people with certain complications--and only partially effective. The "safe and effective" mantra has been shot through of holes.

From your link: "“I am furious.” That is how Danish Journalist and Chief Editor of Danish media “Ekstra Bladet”, Henrik Qvortrup, describes his mood after it has been decided that he and his girlfriend must be admitted to a Thai hospital after he tested positive on a covid-test upon arrival at the airport." The man is an idiot. A "reporter" who didn't bother to check and see what the consequences of testing positive were. Now, he throws a fit.

All in all, Thais are okay. Better than the surly people at call centers and who staff stores back in the US. And even Thai Immigration beats dealing with government agencies like the IRS. Thais always respond to your concerns and usually do so sympathetically. But they just don't do anything to help solve the problems.

The Pfizzle vaccine seems to be the least effective of the bunch.

Going to need that eligibility changed to every 10 weeks for Pfizzle, if this Israeli news report is accurate. About five "boosters" per year. Nice. https://www.timesofisrael.com/uk-agency-pfizer-boosters-ability-to-prevent-symptomatic-covid-wanes-within-weeks/

I am my wife's family's emergency fund.

Will be debriefed by the Chinese ambassador when he returns to Bangkok.

Year of the boosters. Plural. Probably 3 or 4 or them.

And a very Merry Christmas to you all, from all the wonderful people doing just as little as they can to stop burning and massive levels of deadly air pollutants.

So now, since I received my 3rd shot on 30 September, I'm supposed to get a 4th? When is a vaccine not very much of a vaccine? When it requires me to get 4 shots within 7 months.

Sometimes warnings and signs don't help. I remember after the 2011 flood, they raised Borom by almost 30 cm so it would act as a floodwall the next time there was one. But they forgot to adjust for it with new signs. Shortly thereafter a truck carrying a huge concrete pipe piece took out the sapanloi near my house. Late at night and nobody injured.

Then there will be a shut down.

This is what caused the problem. British Jack, bigger and taller, stood up and told the smaller Thai man to go home. Jack created a confrontation. But he got his wish. The Thai guy went home--and came back with his equalizer. It wasn't Jack's job to tell the guy to go home. And it wasn't smart. And now Jack cowers in his room, afraid to come outside. Might have been better to remain seated and then regretfully made a quiet exit.

Seems to me that chances are real high with Omicron that you will get infected within that 72 hour window and/or especially on a plane. Those two PCR tests upon arrival could really cause some misery for a lot of people who I suspect will test positive and then be on their way to hospitall quarantine.

Several have a 0.00 limit. And those are countries where people do not routinely drive down the wrong side of the street, pile entire families on one scooter, and pass inside the curb side of traffic.

Plenty of countries seem to think so. https://etsc.eu/issues/drink-driving/blood-alcohol-content-bac-drink-driving-limits-across-europe/

There is a crazy guy in my village. He comes from a wealthy family that tries to keep him safely away from others. But sometimes he breaks out. And when he does, he likes to sit in front of the gate to my house for hours and hours. He also drags plants from my neighbors' sidewalks and encloses himself with them. Then, he starts to chain smoke. I have never confronted this man. He's crazy and you never know what a crazy person will do. I call my housekeeper, and she calls the family, and they come by and pick him up and restore everyone's plants to the proper place. Doing anything else only risks escalating the situation into a confrontation that I would lose. Sometimes it takes a while to settle things and get my gate unblocked. That's better than a blood feud with the family or a trip to the police station 100 meters away.

Someone asking you for a beer twenty times is not normal, is it? At least I wouldn't think so. And I certainly wouldn't tell a Thai to go home in his own soi if I was unsure of his sobriety or mental state. I would just lift my haunches off the curb and go home myself. Look at the video, the other Thai sitting with Jack at the curb knew there was going to be trouble and he cleared off.

He did that, according to the OP, after "the Brit stood up and told the man to go home," which wasn't so smart, was it? Maybe the actual smart thing would have been for Jack to go home without challenging the guy after he was pestered for a free beer around the, oh, the sixth or seventh time??? One thing is for certain, life isn't going to be any easier around the soi for Jack now that he's blown this up into a national news story.

Well, I bet Jack wishes he hadn't been there, now.

What it pinpoints is that you got the basic facts wrong. I would think that anybody glancing at that video for five seconds could see the circumstances were conducive for trouble. The body language, the fact that the other person sitting on the curb with Jack had already skedaddled while Jack was still upending a bottle and then only belatedly tried to make a peace offering. Alcohol, a dark alley, and voila, now Jack has to cower inside his home because he fears Jason is out looking for him with his machete.

Did you look at the video? He's sitting on the curb.

Ah, the "it's common" excuse. The guy was sitting on a curb, drinking alcohol late at night, and, had things gone otherwise, would then have driven off on his motorcycle impaired. Yeah, it's common.

The common sense and intelligence part would have been for the <deleted> never to put himself in that situation in the first place.