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But at what rate does Germany do testing vs. Singapore Singapore's high rate is due to 2 things 1. mandates for many employers to test weekly for covid 2. the widespread distribution of home test kits to Singapore residents.

I am getting a refund for the 7 days of my hotel reservation that would have gone unused. Also a refund for the one PCR test that was made unnecessary by the reduction in stay.

"expensive renewable energy" You sure about that? https://www.lazard.com/perspective/levelized-cost-of-energy-levelized-cost-of-storage-and-levelized-cost-of-hydrogen/ And the cost of storage is collapsing. Collapsing battery costs point to ever-declining forecasts for oil demand https://www.icis.com/asian-chemical-connections/2021/01/collapsing-battery-costs-point-to-ever-declining-forecasts-for-oil-demand/ battery costs are fast approaching the $100 per kwh build cost that will make it just as cheap to buy an EV as it is to buy an Internal combustion engine vehicle. And fuel and maintenance costs are much lower for an EV. And for power plants much cheaper options are already available. Form Energy is now building a storage plant for a Minnesota power company with a battery that uses Iron/ IronOxide (rust) to store power for the grid. https://www.energy-storage.news/iron-air-long-duration-battery-startup-form-energy-closes-us240-million-funding-round/ And the rate of EV adoption kees on accelerating ahead of predictions. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-22/shift-to-electric-cars-coming-faster-than-expected-study-shows

Not necessarily such good news. From the article "This week, two Indian drugmakers independently testing generic molnupiravir in people with moderate illness due to COVID-19 sought to end their trials because they saw no “significant efficacy” for the experimental drug, although they plan to continue trials for people with mild illness. Merck’s findings, which were disclosed in a press release and have yet to be pored over by scientists and submitted to regulators for approval, applied to people with mild-to-moderate cases of COVID-19 who were not hospitalized. A spokesperson for Merck points out that moderate COVID-19 cases in India are defined as being more severe than in the United States and involve hospitalization." https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02783-1 Also, this is a generic drug. So why can't it be copied by some competitor for cheap? Also, as noted elsewhere, just taking a minimal dose of aspirin daily seems to work better than this medication is alleged to do. Yet the research about that has drawn much less attention.

Well, is there any evidence that this is actually a problem? And the page you linked to doesn't reference the "anti vector response" at all. It doesn't say that the response to the second inoculation is inadequate. Merely that it's even better if delayed. As it points out, this is actually good news for poorer nations that may face delays in inoculating its populace with a 2nd dose. AZ continues to perform excellently in reducing hospitalization and mortality. "Two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech or Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine are estimated to be 96% and 92% effective against hospitalisation with the Delta variant, respectively. Deaths involving COVID-19 are consistently lower for people who have received two vaccinations." https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/coronaviruscovid19latestinsights/vaccines

As a child, I was forced to read Victorian era novels. I'd like to sue my school system but I think the Statute of Limitations rules that out.

Not so. https://ophi.org.uk/multidimensional-poverty-index/

Well, if you think a short term fix that is overwhelmingly likely to fail, rather than waiting until a much larger proportion of the the population to be fully vaccinatd, particularly in tourist areas, is a good plan, then you're making a good point.

Well, the problem is if prospective tourists hear that Covid 19 is once again rampant in Thailand that might prove discouraging.

perspicacious question.

As noted above, I had a different experience when flying Vietjet out of phuket

There's lot's more to the COE than just proof of vaccination. Getting it entails running a gauntlet.

Transmission is important. Still, AZ is an excellent vaccine, unjustly traduced. I'm anti Brexit myself, but I strongly suspect that one of the reasons the EU jumped so hard on AZ was anti Brexit sentiment. But obviously, I can't prove that.

Since it's obvious that any test can be faulty, why bother to mention it at all? I certainly never claimed that either that the machines or the tests taken from them were infallible. Who would ever claim infallibility for any device apart from some guy in a science fiction movie setting himself up for a big fall? Both Reuters and Factcheck.org contacted the WHO to seek out clarification of what it meant by "Careful interpretation of weak positive NAAT results is needed, as some of the assays have shown to produce false signals at high Ct values.". Both offer direct quotes from WHO in explanation. Fact check: WHO released guidance on proper use of tests; it did not admit PCR tests showed inflated infection numbers When contacted by email, the WHO told Reuters that it did not say the PCR tests for COVID-19 were faulty and that their guidance had been taken out of context. “Since the beginning of 2020, WHO has received 10 reports of problems related to PCR tests for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus which causes COVID-19), including some products listed for emergency use by WHO,” the organization said... The WHO confirmed after investigating that the tests were not being used in compliance with instructions provided by the manufacturers. https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-who-instructions-pcr-guidan-idUSKBN2A429W Viral Posts Distort WHO Guidance on COVID-19 Tests In a statement to FactCheck.org, the WHO said it had received 10 reports since early 2020 about some PCR tests providing both false positive and false negative results and that “[a]fter thorough investigation, WHO confirmed that the tests were not always being used appropriately and in accordance with the instructions provided by the manufacturer.” “In particular, users in laboratories encountered problems with these tests when they did not apply the recommended positivity threshold — this can result in either false negative results (if the threshold applied is lower) or false positives (if threshold is higher),” the WHO said. MacKay said that problem “is not a test issue; it’s a human training and experience issue.” https://www.factcheck.org/2021/01/scicheck-viral-posts-distort-who-guidance-on-covid-19-tests/ In short, WHO was not claiming that the machines were inherently faulty. Rather the responsibility for errors lay with technicians not following instructions.

But according to a huge study done in the UK that is admittedly not yet peer reviewed,, AZ was less effective at stopping transmission than the Pfizer Biontech vaccine. Vaccines cut Covid transmission risk but only 90-day protection against Delta: Oxford study Study, yet to be peer-reviewed, says vaccinated individuals infected with Delta have lower odds of spreading virus if they got Pfizer shot than if they received AstraZeneca-Oxford. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02261-8

Maybe because there's never been a case where a vaccine demonstrated such latency. On the other hand, we know that some viruses can cause latent and unfortunate effects including death. So, what would a rational person choose in light of this discrepancy?

What comments like yours don't take account of is frequency and severity. It's best to look at meteorological evidence since infrastructure also plays a big role in flooding. paving landscape over will also tend to increase the likelihood of floods.

So you're claiming that "flu, cold, or whatever "case numbers" rival those of Covid? I'm sure you wouldn't make that claim without having solid evidence to back that claim. Care to share it with us? "They are over estimating mortality by bundling all sorts of deaths, some respiratory, some totally unrelated, into the Covid figures." So, you have access to the excess mortality figures for Thailand? Or, rather, the lack of them? Can you share a link to that with us?

Trump refused to join the trade agreement among pacific nations (to be fair, Clinton spoke out against it too) the name of which I've forgotten. Good news for China.

They have gone back on their promises before. And given the low level of vaccinations in most of the country, it doesn't seem unlikely that they will do so again.

Actually, the most likely explanation by far is that a lot higher percentage of Thais ride motorbikes than do residents of the UK.

But the topic here is about the economic consequences of Evergrande's collapse. Not the effect of the andemic on Evergrande. And even before the pandemic Evergrande was wildly overextended.

Do you think it might just be possible that they're underreporting mortality as well? And given the low vaccination rate in most of the country, why would the outcome of opening up fully be different from what it's been in other countries?. It's not like we don't have examples of the consequences of that in other countries.

Funny. I just flew on a domestic Vietjet flight from phuket and they demanded to see my COE before giving me my boarding pass board. One requisite for getting a COE is to have been fully vaccinated at least 2 weeks before entering Thailand. And there's this Domestic airlines allowed full flights "Dr Chawetsan Namwat, director for emergency health hazards and diseases, said that while airlines are allowed to book to full capacity he stressed other Covid-19 prevention measures remain intact. Dr Chawetsan said that passengers are required to be fully vaccinated or have negative Covid-19 test results 72 hours before boarding while urging those who are ill to avoid travelling. He said passengers will be required to undergo Covid-19 screening." https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2194919/domestic-airlines-allowed-full-flights So if you're not vaccinated, that means you have to provide proof via a PCR test take within 72 hours of the flight.

Well, since Thailand's main source of tourists is China, Europe including Russia, Australia, and North America, that 53% number is irrelevant. And given the possible consequences to the Thai economy if unvaccinated tourists are allowed entry, your prediction is a dubious one. It's the poorer nations of the world that are mostly unvaccinated. Not because they want to be but because they can't afford to buy vaccines. These are hardly an important potential source of tourists.