Trip Hop

A crass unsupported statement if ever I heard one? How do you know that it wasn’t brought in by migrant workers or returning Thais? Remember at one point returning Thai nationals didn’t even require a PCR prior to flying? It could even have been brought in by one of them at the top returning from one of their overseas jollies? Nobody can say accurately as to how it was brought in!

The one that I stayed in the other week was SHA+Plus so most probably qualified for test and go too?

PCR tests have been known for a long time to be over sensitive, especially if used for screening if someone is infectious. It’s due to the fact that the PCR amplifies the sample and therefore can pick up minute traces of the virus possibly from an infection several weeks before. In Europe, they normally use a maximum CT (amplification) of 32. However in Thailand they use a minimum of 40 and upon checking my test and go paperwork, they actually ran one of my samples at a CT of 45. This possibly accounting for the number of people that have tested negative before departure but positive upon arrival in Thailand? it is generally accepted these days that if they have to increase the CT of the PCR to above 28 in order to get a positive result, whilst you still have traces of the virus in your body, you are no longer considered infectious.

Your understanding of Cq (or equivalent CT) values is somewhat incorrect. The Cq<25 is just as important if not actually more important than Cq>25<30, as it identifies higher viral load and therefore more infectious. I agree that there a lot of poor performing tests out there but there are also some very excellent ones. The UK made and CE marked Avacta AffiDX test has been independently verified to have a sensitivity of 100% at CT<27 and 98.3% at CT<28 with a specificity of 99%. The infectious range generally being acknowledged to be CT<27-28. There are also other UK made tests that whilst not as good as the AffiDX, are not that far behind? https://avacta.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Brochure-Type-00901-SC2-Product-Specification-Sheet-v3-ID-33989.pdf

I met an interesting bar owner in the states once. She paid her way through college and onto becoming a lawyer by stripping/dancing. She later bought the very same bar that she worked in but changed it into a more general roadhouse. She even got up on the tables once to give us a bit of a show before happily dropping us off at our condo at the end of the night.

I have a few friends who are over for 6 weeks. Through general chat the other day, it became apparent that their expected spending was to be in excess of 350,000 baht each. However, if Prayut and Anutin were to meet them, at face they would dismiss them as not being quality tourists? Makes you think though, as yourself, with all the continuing changes and forced hospital isolation risks, as to how many similar high spending tourists have either chosen to stay home or go elsewhere?

It depends on the airline and whether you are flying direct or have a transit in another country whereby you’ll have to comply with their rules too? I’m flying back to the UK via Singapore and whilst the UK no longer requires any sort of pre-flight test if you’re double vaccinated, Singapore requires an antigen test from a clinic or hospital along with the associated paperwork in English. If any readers can recommend a clinic in the Pattaya area that can do this, I’d be most appreciative? I don’t really want to go to a hospital for obvious reasons and if for some reason I was positive, I have the facilities to isolate at home.

On a lighter note

I totally agree

It appears that the UK has assessed the threat level of Omicron and how fast it spreads, acknowledged that it’s in and there’s very little that they can do unless they go into a full lockdown, which the government and a lot of the people don’t want because of all the financial implications to businesses and curbs to individuals freedom. Therefore they have made the call to get on with it with a few restrictions as long as it doesn’t overwhelm the country. Whether it is the right call is yet to be seen but even if Thailand was to close its borders, at some point it will get in as per the last outbreak via legal/illegal migrant workers and outbreaks will occur. Therefore whilst I appreciate the need to protect the people, I somewhat feel that all Thailand is doing is delaying the inevitable as this will not stop until everyone has been infected to a certain degree and some form of herd immunity is achieved. In the meantime a lot of the people are suffering due to the state of the tourist industry which I can’t see recovering for a long time due the continual rule changes and forced hospital quarantine if you are found to be positive? Therefore I feel this current cycle of bars opening/bars closing is going to be here for quite a while yet, until Thailand is ready to take that big step? I do feel though that they would most probably be in a far better position to possibly take that step if the current administration had acknowledged the seriousness of the virus 2 years ago, possibly joined Co-Vax and got their vaccination program underway far earlier with decent vaccines?

Lateral flow test. More commonly known as an antigen or ATK in Thailand.

Shame them at the top wouldn’t apply the same to their greed?

Only just read this earlier on Google news just before I was about to book my day 2 PCR for my return? Luckily I didn’t bin the LFT that I had previously ordered for my return before they changed to PCR just before I left?

Meanwhile the UK has just announced that they no longer require a PCR on or before day 2 after arrival and have replaced it with a LFT? They have also scrapped the requirement to isolate until you get the result?

Generally yes. The ones that actually are, don’t brag about it but from snippets of general conversation with them over time, you can figure it out for yourself?

It depends on the test manufacturer? In the UK, the majority of the free ATKs are the Chinese made Innova or Flowflex, which I wouldn’t trust to detect anything? These have somehow been given emergency use authorisation despite the FDA in the states, stating that they are not fit for purpose? There are other British made LFTs that have been independently verified to detect Omicron, are recognised to be ‘best in class’ and have additional been awarded the CE mark. However, remarkably these seem to be held up in the UK’s government’s approval process? It’s all turning into a bit of a stink in the UK at the moment considering the above, the well publicised shortage of LFTs and the government’s apparent stance to support Chinese LFTs over their far superior home grown competitors?

Not really, I have exactly the same ethos including applying the same to Thai women/relationships? So far it’s done me alright? Why invest in a country where the rules are ever changing and stacked against you, when I can make more elsewhere with a greatly reduced risk profile?

Please explain the logic and ethics of the xenophobic rules and/or beliefs that it is ok for a Thai to self isolate at home whilst a falang should pay to go to a private hospital? I’d be interested in hearing both your and your friends reasoning?

Steven, you’re being a bit dramatic, somewhat paranoid and succumbing to the Thai government’s rhetoric on this? I have a very close friend whose teenage son caught Covid. He just isolated in his bedroom and his mother took him his meals. She didn’t catch it. The house was about 80m2 over 2 floors and they shared the sole bathroom? I know of plenty of similar cases and situations in my home locality? So in case you’re still wondering, it doesn’t pass through walls?

What no ‘fire and brimstone’? ????

Same here, took out the minimum $50000 including asymptotic cover for 30 days with Tune Protect but also renewed my annual travel policy with £15m of cover including Covid, with a UK insurer. The fact that they each cost the same at about £110, kind of highlights what’s going on here? However I wasn’t going to take the risk.

Nothing wrong with a degree in engineering, I have 2. It conditions a true engineer not to take anything at face value, to question everything and deal only in logic and science. So if you told me it was raining outside, I’d most probably have to go and check myself. Your average falang engineering degree also has a maths course content of about 90%, so statistics et al are a walk in the park. How do you think the experts model their predictions, with mathematical formulae of course? Not that I’m defending the guy at all, his actions and statements go against everything I would expect of a true engineer, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he got his degree from that university at Khaosan Road, if he has one at all?

But on the other hand, the UK’s reporting of deaths has been a bit over zealous to start with and so I don’t pay much attention to these either. During the early days they were counting anyone who died within a 12 month period of a positive PCR as a Covid death, regardless of whatever other causes there may have been? This has now changed to 30 days. I had a good mate who died and the official cause of death as recorded on his interim death certificate was Covid, as they found traces of it in his body when he was taken to hospital. Apparently it was nothing to do with the car that pulled into his path when he was travelling at about 60mph on his motorcycle? I must add though that this was changed upon completion of the inquest after being challenged by his wife. Sad but true!

I agree with you totally. However, if you read the thread a bit further, there are some that choose not to believe this?

I’ve got to get a Covid test before I fly home on the 10th. I’ll be testing myself a few times prior to this and if I show positive, I’ll be cancelling the clinic, changing the flight and self isolating for a week!