James105

I won’t test positive as I will not be enabling this madness and getting tested when I am not ill. You must be living in a different place if you think police here will be enforcing this. The bars that are not allowed to be open are open in plain sight of the police already so this is just something else that won’t be enforced, probably as it is difficult to get bars to pay protection money if they are closed. 200,000 was a guess/exaggeration or whatever but it is not free. Perhaps you can take one of the free government tests and let us know how it goes and the exact costs if you test positive.

South Africa was 25% vaccinated and didn’t have a problem with this variant so why would 70% vaccinated Thailand have a problem? People with no vaccines didn’t have an issue there so unless the Chinese vaccines amplify the severity of this variant why on earth would it be an issue here? Why do so many people ignore the science and data from South Africa so they can work themselves into a fear frenzy with this?

How many have died from Omicron specifically vs how many have had it and can you back it up with a link? Note the word in bold is "from" and not "with". I don't think there is a single example of anyone in the world who has died "from" this variant but happy to be corrected if you can supply the evidence for your claim that people are dying from Omicron.

It's great that Thailand is doing its best to keep Omicron (AKA sniffles) from entering Thailand. Rational thinkers would probably suggest that it's a bit pointless as it is already here but as we all know by now, it is not really about preventing or controlling the virus (as this is impossible), it is to look like something is being done no matter how little benefit it has compared to how much it costs. Well done to all involved in this momentously pointless bit of decision making. I personally am looking forward to seeing what comes out of the covid decision making hat next. We haven't had walking backwards around supermarkets yet so hopefully this will be picked soon as I feel it is long overdue.

They can all happily claim ignorance at the moment until the police tell them otherwise. Technically the bars are not even allowed to be open but due to the advice from BiB they went ahead and did so anyway even though the rules did not technically allow it. It's all a bit confusing since these new rules only apply to "restaurants" as these are the only places officially allowed to open and sell alcohol so the bars will just be flouting another rule on top of the rules they are already flouting. If the police have the power to not enforce the rules, then does it really matter what the rules actually are?

Now I normally love a freebie, but this is a hard pass from me. I have better things to do than get carted off to a 200,000 baht 2 week sentence from a dodgy test. This should make the smaller bars that do not enforce this busier, which should increase the spread of the virus in Pattaya and hopefully within a few weeks Pattaya will have herd immunity! Quite a good plan really from the governor who clearly just wants to get this over and done with as fast as possible.

Anyone who is not obese or over 60 has nothing to fear from this milder strain of Covid, especially not if they have received the vaccines. What they do have to fear is poverty. You say it is a difficult choice for them but where is their choice in this? You have a choice not to frequent the bar etc if you are scared, but where is their choice if it is closed down?

Ask any bar girl, service staff or waitress if she wants to be out of work and unable to pay her rent or buy food due to the fears of the biggest bedwetters in society. It's only the overweight, old white men who generally speaking are financially unaffected by lockdowns who want lockdowns again. Mild symptoms do not cause havoc, its the over reaction to them that causes the most harm.

I wonder if the doctor saying this has a mask business like this doctor in the UK? You can buy these useless pieces of cloth from her online shop at £12.50 a pop, but just make sure to swap it for something slightly less useless when encountering other people.

Sigh. My point remains that Wales had a mask mandate and England did not. If masks were effective then Wales would have a lower case rate than England would it not? Anyway, I get it. You have bought into the mask narrative. It is pointless arguing as no matter how clear the data is that shows they are ineffective, you will never, ever believe the numbers and will always believe the narrative so I am not going to continue arguing. All the best.

If masks made a difference it would be easy to point at countries that implemented mask mandates and infer a clear distinction from these countries vs countries that did not. I simply used Wales / England as a case in point since they have similar climate / demographic, and in this case the country with higher infections per 100,000 people is the one implementing mask mandates. You don't seriously believe China sell directly to consumers and health organisations in countries such as the UK do you? This is the kind of thing I was referring to and I expect this type of story is repeated in most governments the world over: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/nov/16/michael-gove-backer-won-164m-in-ppe-contracts-after-vip-lane-referral There is profit to be made by forcing people to wear a piece of cloth/plastic over their faces.

Germany mandated medical grade masks in Jan 2021. It didn't make any difference there. Why would it make any difference here? These things are so ineffective it is impossible to tell the difference between covid transmission rates where countries have mandated masks vs countries that have not. Since July 2021 England did not mandate masks but Wales did. No prizes for guessing who had the higher transmission rates? Hint: It wasn't England! The only logical reason I can see for mask mandates is that the people imposing them have financial interest in the companies that make them.

So the goalposts are shifting on masks for the new variant. Has the size of the pathogen changed? Has the mode of transmission changed? Or is this an implicit admission that anything that cannot block omicron also cannot block any other variant? Pseudo science.

Since you accuse others of not supplying evidence - where exactly is your evidence that the majority of these people will take it? In the UK the people who worked in the health service were the highest priority to be vaxxed so have had ample opportunity to take it. Since they work in the health service there is a very high chance they have already had covid and probably do not see the point in taking a pointless risk of taking the vaccine on top of already having natural immunity. You sound a bit unhinged with your anti vax name calling. I have had 2 jabs but I had them voluntarily - I see no medical or scientific reasoning behind vaccine coercion and as per usual with the likes of the covid nutjobs, you provide no evidence of how many lives will be saved by losing (potentially) 100,000 health workers in the UK.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/covid-vaccines-compulsory-nhs-staff-b965120.html try a quick google search next time so you don’t look silly… and try a better argument than name calling as most people have been vaxxed, its just that rational minded people don’t like to see coercion related to this sort of thing.

Everyone in the UK who wanted a vaccine has had a vaccine. Those who wanted a booster have had a booster. They now have to deal with a variant of a virus that is 50-70% less deadly than the previous one with just 5% of hospital beds being taken up with covid patients. Other than for tyrannical reasons, why exactly would they need to prevent people from going to watch the football? They are so unconcerned about staffing levels in the NHS in the UK that on 1st April 100,000 unvaccinated staff will be fired if they do not get the jab. Any employer who can afford to lose that many employees is clearly overstaffed. The UK sees the most numbers as they test the most, especially in the lead up to Christmas as no-one wants to unwittingly infect granny at Christmas dinner even if she had 5 or 6 hits of the vaccine. You can expect the "cases" to drop drastically by mid January as everyone stays in to recover from the post Christmas/new year hangover and just won't bother testing at all unless they actually feel ill.

Ok so you don't know. Maybe when posting on here you would be better off saying that you don't know rather than making up random numbers to suit the narrative you have bought into? Or if you insist on posting numbers, maybe take a look at a country with less than half the vaccination rate of Thailand, that did not implement any additional restrictions, whose scientists shouted from the rooftops that Omnicrom was mild and countries should not panic, and has the actual data to back it up. That country being South Africa of course. First case discovered 8 Nov and peaked 28 Nov so there is no need to wait and see as we already know, hence the reason England is not going into any kind of lockdown for new year.

Instead of spreading misinformation why don't you post some actual data about how many have died from this in countries that have had it and are going through it? There is no need to make up fantasy numbers when there is actual data available.

Sausage allergy?

Me too! I have a lovely big house and covid has been very easy for me. Sadly I have a condition called "empathy", and this makes me feel sad when I think about all the businesses that are being destroyed and the lives lost as a direct result of lockdown measures. Can I get a vaccine to cure me of empathy to make this easier on me? Happy to take a booster shot if the first 2 do not work.

“People catching Omicron are 50% to 70% less likely to need hospital care compared with previous variants, a major analysis says.” This is terrible news for the fear mongers but comes as no surprise to rational people based on the fact South African doctors/scientists have been shouting this from the rooftops for many weeks now.

The escape is what has been reported but in order to believe the Israeli was the one completely at fault here we need to: 1. Believe the hotel (not known for their good behaviour due to previous covid tourist scams) 2. Believe the police (lol) 3. Trust the tests - negative is winning 3-2 at the last count. If it wasn’t a covid related story then I presume I would not be one of the only skeptics in the room here. Because it is a covid story people switch their brains off whilst they believe everything they are being told in relation to the story, especially so if there is a covid boogey monster involved to give a good lynching to. I doubt this story will be around much longer. If he manages to get embassy assistance and a lawyer I expect they will want another covid test independantly tested which will probably put the negatives up 4 to 2 and that will be difficult for the home team to come back from.

So he tested negative in Isreal, positive on his first test here, negative TWICE on subsequent tests, and now positive again. How are the tests carried out in this country? Take a swab and then toss a coin to see what the result is? Why do people only believe the positive tests and not the negative ones?

"But during cold and flu season, how can you be sure it’s a cold and not Covid-19? The bottom line is – without a test, you can’t. Because while the typical symptoms of a cold are a headache, sore throat and runny nose, those are now some of the primary indicators of Covid too." https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/covid-cold-symptoms-difference-b1980044.html People are actually getting a runny nose with this variant! Run for the hills!!

Maybe the "omicron is milder" posters took their data from 25% jabbed South Africa who didn't see the need to panic. If you want to put people off getting the jabs, then locking down the country after getting 70% jabbed when there is evidence that lockdowns are not required from a country with only 25% jabbed, then that would be one way to go about it. Lockdowns should not be based on amateur hour modelling with such nonsense as cases doubling every 2-3 days when in every single circumstance the cases plateau and sharply drop regardless of whatever stupid one way system, curfew, alcohol ban or other daft restrictions are introduced to appease the most fearful members of society.