Fex Bluse

Flat numbers for like 2 weeks. If anyone doubts that this is highly unlikely, I have an investment deal you might be interested in.

They are either at testing capacity or incompetent or covering up the extent of the outbreak. Likely a little of all three.

There is NO WAY an outbreak is flat like this. The math makes no sense at all.

5 hours ago, MikeyIdea said:

the Thai contact tracing has been first class

Really? Do they have a mandatory electronic tracking for all residents in the country?

How can their contact tracing be effective when they have already admittedly they they can only rely on what the people tell them AND that many Thais have been caught lying?

Their efforts are underwhelming and we will soon see the reality. Give it a couple weeks and they will not be able to hide the truth any longer.

3 minutes ago, rasmus5150 said:

Although there will be a big difference.

In 1997 the Thb went crashing down - for some reason it seems like the opposite is happening at the moment.....

They are in bed deep with China. China is helping any country that helps it subvert the anti-China block. 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

The chief of the Thai Hoteliers' Association painted a grim picture of the current situation in Thailand in an interview with Channel 3. 

To anyone with the ability to think ahead and to think critically, this was all fairly easily predictable. Serious countries had been preparing their workforce for SUBSTANTIAL changes in the world economy that will unfold during the next 5 to 10 years.

• Countries like Vietnam aggressively looked to woo investment leaving and avoiding China.
• Countries like Singapore have a massive upskilling program.
• Countries like Malaysia have also started investing in infrastructure.
• Likewise the US that is investing in a once-in-a-century national infrastructure upgrading campaign.

There are many examples of countries that have taken this serious. Hell, even China, as much as I dislike the place, have been exploiting this pandemic they created at every opportunity.

Then there are the cartoon countries that think everything will always just be ok. We have sunny weather, pretty girls and good food, so surely we don't have to really worry about anything else...

1 minute ago, pseudorabies said:

The Moderna vaccine is in use in many countries with extremely competent and strict regulator agencies.  I doubt that Thailand's FDA is going to uncover something that these countries' agencies haven't noticed.  In light of Thailand's situation this should be a rubber stamp at this point.  But that's IF the government truly wanted to import this vaccine.  So far I haven't seen anything from them indicating any interest in importing western vaccines.

 

We're going to see this daily drip of press releases from the government in place of action from now until Siam Bioscience finally releases vaccine for public distribution.  And this daily drip includes starting appointment registration for vaccines that don't yet exist.

Exactly. It's laughable.

Knowing Thailand, I wonder if in a few years we'll learn that there was a big corruption scandal around this and agreements with China that all non-Chinese vaccines would be delayed (in exchange for some Baht, of course). It's exactly the kind of thing that would happen in Thailand.

3 hours ago, realfunster said:

 

Hi Fex- this is what is known as binary or polarized thinking. Very common these days but life is more complex than that.

In your post, something is either world class or immediately jumps to bumbling along at the bottom of world rankings. Anyone issuing a modicum of praise is pigeon-holed as a ‘cheerleader.’

 

I try my best to look at things objectively. I feel we have been very lucky to have been in Thailand for the past 15 months, compared to a majority of countries. Certainly, my home country has had a massively more miserable time of it with COVID in terms of illness, death and lockdowns.

 

Now, as to why we have done reasonably well in Thailand, difficult to say. It will probably take a while for the world to fully understand the virus and why some countries have fared better than others. 

 

The latest developments in Thailand are concerning, and the authorities have taken action with further restrictions. We all know vaccines could/should have been ordered earlier, a lack of exit strategy from this pandemic was clear. Anyhow, they should be coming on-line in June, so hopefully some light at the end of the tunnel.

 

 

Hi there. Actually, my thinking is nearly never binary. My post was intended for the many guys on this forum who cannot distinguish propaganda from reality and who cannot in any capacity think critically, even after living in Thailand for years and seeing how haphazardly virtually every facet of Thai society is run. 

I'm saying that Thailand's covid response is likely to have been underperforming from the beginning but that they simply covered it up and perhaps had some luck as well. And, I'm saying that now that we see all the structural, fundamental failings -- among the lowest vaccine distribution in the world -- on par with sub-saharan Africa -- we see their true capacity for managing national agendas.

Whether I want them to do better (and I often do) is irrelevant -- they virtually always let the country down. 

What's astonishing to me is that so many people seem surprised everytime someone like me shares an opinion like mine. What? With all the incredible number of daily examples of their nationally characteristic failings... How is it a surprise to anyone?? You can review ALMOST ANY national agenda of the last 50 years and see how routinely Thailand fails miserably.

These bloopers and incompetence are so very unusual in Thailand. It's seems they somehow went from best-in-world covid response to bumbling along near the bottom. 

Such a dramatic drop in a short period. 

Can any of the Thailand cheerleaders here help us understand what happened???

16 minutes ago, Poet said:

If a solid announcement, including dropping the quarantine requirement for the second half of the year (July 1st onwards), is not ready by June, they can kiss goodbye to this year's high season

Good Morning 

Agree with the narrative. 

If the officials think tourism will be back soon, they are mistaken. There is no possibility of Thailand having anything looking like a high season this year. Zero chance. 

The globe is in crisis. People are broke. The pandemic rages on with mutating strains that can easily infect again and again. We are possibly on the brink of major military conflicts in 3 separate parts of the world. 

A return to heavy tourism in Thailand is YEARS away, not months. 

7 minutes ago, webfact said:

Thailand’s government, through the Thai Chamber of Commerce, said late Wednesday that the private sector and hospital groups have no need to order vaccines on their own as the government would be able to provide for all vaccine needs.

More perfect examples of Thailand's unique incompetence. And, some people here STILL believe the country somehow actually expertly managed the earlier waves. Get real. They've been the same incompents as always. There was no magic before. There was only cover-up, propaganda and maybe some luck.

On 4/27/2021 at 7:06 PM, colinneil said:

So Anutin vows to work with doctors, but are the doctors prepared to work  with a man who has absolutely no idea what he is doing.

This is where Thai culture falls down.

In Asian societies where there is more merit based leadership, observing a strict hierarchy and chain of command works well most of the time.

In Thailand, the system breaks because there is so little merit based leadership. 

Once again, this pandemic is exposing Thailand's unique inability to handle a national crisis like this.

5 minutes ago, BenDeCosta said:

 

Look at every pandemic in human history. No lockdowns, no economic devastation, people didn't lose their jobs and their life savings. Life continued, as it always does. Disease is part of nature, we cannot control it.

 

Does this now mean that every time a novel illness is discovered that anyone without a huge chunk of cash in the bank will become bankrupted?

 

I would suggest that the measures that have been used in a futile attempt to control this virus have just allowed it to go on for much longer than it would have naturally. If we had done nothing, we would have been back to normal by now. Would more people have died? I highly doubt it. Now there are deaths coming from people who cannot access medical care and people who are committing suicide.

 

On the grand scheme of things, the virus is really not that dangerous. Destroying people's livelihoods is almost certainly going to cause more damage.

I can understand your position, but I still think the logic is faulty. Not every infectious disease is the same. Nor is every phase of human history. There were times, for example, that the world was not very much connected, far less densely populated, people relied on income more heavily from jobs that were less susceptible to a pandemic (like farming). 

What came before is not necessarily the same as what will come in future.