placeholder

8 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Normally having a disease and surviving is more effective in providing future protection than vaccination. If I were to get infected again, it'd probably be trivial, I might not even show any symptoms.

 

False.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/06/21/fact-check-vaccines-offer-safe-consistent-protection-covid-19/7609402002/

2 hours ago, Autonuaq said:

if Thailand want to be a good destination as well able to compete this can only when it focus on internal economy and internal market 80/20 rule makes strong and get sponsored by tourist and external industry.

 

if want to have the same as South Korea which was actually worse the Thailand  then Thailand needs to reform dramatically.

 

the Thai bath exchange rate of 50 THB for an euro would help Thailand.

 when you focus on the internal market the essential internal market is not an issue and also you get the aid program

And how would you suggest Thailand go about lowering the baht to 50?

13 hours ago, BritManToo said:

More likely Darwin will take care of people allowing experimental substances into their bodies.

If they aren't dangerous, why are all the manufacturers indemnified against any and all problems arising?

All vaccines were once experimental substances. Darwin seems to have been very negligent in taking care of people who have been vaccinated with those.

25 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

Well it aint all there is.  If it is it's down to pressure from the CCP and corruption i.e. We are not joining COVAX and will only buy the Chinese juice. As for what the numerous health experts say I've heard this come out of the WHO. Remember the WHO who listened to the CCP at the very beginning. The WHO who said global travel is ok because we believe the CCP and this is not human to human transmissable. The WHO who said you don't have to wear masks. The WHO who sent in an investigative team to Wuhan led by a person directlty linked to the Wuhan lab and gain of function resrearch on bat viruses in said lab. The WHO which gave Coronavac a 52% pass rate. Maybe I am being a tad too cynical. 

If it was only the WHO that was saying this, your point would still be bad. But it's irrelevant.

https://www.voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/sinovac-vaccine-falls-short-expectations-options-limited

3 hours ago, kwonitoy said:

With the cold chain of -70 degrees required for Pfizer, doses received outside of a hospital setting would most likely be useless and quite possibly hazardous to your health

29 minutes ago, Paradise Pete said:

They've relaxed the cold chain requirements a bit, but still your main point stands. Any smuggled doses will quickly degrade to the point of uselessness.

Some people worry about long-term side effects, but the actual problem was the opposite. Pfizer and Moderna had to solve getting it to last long enough for the body to react to it. 

This claim about -70 degrees  is the zombie fact that will not die. And it's been dead for months. The fact is that the requirements for the mRNA vaccines are now these: 

They can be stored in a freezer with temperatures ranging from -25c to -15c for up to 6 months. (Home freezers can attain these temperatures)

They can be stored in a refrigerator at 2c to 8c for up to 1 month.

7 hours ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

I'd imagine most currencies in SE Asia, which are being hard hit with covid right now, are similarly impacted...so it makes imported Danish butter more expensive than it already is, which has little affect on ordinary Thais. You might have heard about the 1997 "Tum Yum Kung" crisis, where the baht lost half its value...within a decade, expats were whining about how strong the baht had become.

Actually, compared to a year ago, the dollar is about the same vs the Malaysian ringgit and actually lower vs the Cambodian Riel,the Singapore Dollar, and the Indonesian Rupiah. It is strongly up vs. the Laos kip.

I don't check how  the Euro is doing vs these currencies.

10 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

Sinovac will be disregarded by all countries using it except those who are being pressured by the CCP or there is a finacial arrangement to fill pockets. mRNA is too far away for mass vaccination in Thailand. I said a week ago or so that if I could get 2 AZ this yr and mRNA booster nxt yr that's not too bad. 1 AZ down. 2^nd in October and who knows about the booster nxt yr. Someone on here said "You're dreaming." You know who you are. You were wrong. It is happening it's just that it should have happened a long time ago and it didn't because of.........corruption. No COVAX just SinoVac.

Most likely Coronavac will be superseded in the not so distant future. But as numerous health experts say, if that's all there is, then take it.

5 minutes ago, anchadian said:

#PhuketSandbox update on Tuesday: Today saw 38 local cases, which is a new high, and two more sandbox cases. 229 patients are now in hospital. So far, the majority of patients are locals as only 28 people in the sandbox tested positive in the last 27 days #Thailand

https://twitter.com/ThaiNewsReports/status/1419995036658257924

 

Any source to find out if ICU and/or critical care beds are maxed out?

24 minutes ago, worrab said:

But Sinovac is still under review. Not supported by WHO. 

You sure about that?

WHO validates Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use and issues interim policy recommendations

WHO today validated the Sinovac-CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, giving countries, funders, procuring agencies and communities the assurance that it meets international standards for safety, efficacy and manufacturing. The vaccine is produced by the Beijing-based pharmaceutical company Sinovac.

https://www.who.int/news/item/01-06-2021-who-validates-sinovac-covid-19-vaccine-for-emergency-use-and-issues-interim-policy-recommendations

3 minutes ago, nauseus said:

Really. 

 

Now, if the US unemployment rate went up. how does that tally with your supposed labour shortage? 

Didn't you claim this?

 There are no shortages of labour, there are shortages of people willing to work, as long as these free handouts are flying about.

Well, those "free handouts" disappeared. What happened?

Lots of people still aren't willing to risk infection to go back to work. There's lots of loons out there who refuse to be vaccinated. And lots of people have children whom they can't get alternate care for.   And employers aren't offering enough to tempt them.

4 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

If you do your research, you will see that despite what the authorities have been saying, the economy here has been shrinking for the past five years, or more. So, these problems started long before Covid. However, they now have a very convenient scapegoat! And I am not headed to Burundi, but Burundi like conditions seem to be headed here.

Maybe you should do your homework before suggesting that others do theirs:

https://tradingeconomics.com/thailand/gdp

Just now, nauseus said:

If you have heard that before multiple times, then you might wonder why that is? There are no shortages of labour, there are shortages of people willing to work, as long as these free handouts are flying about. Supply bottlenecks may ease but inflation won't.

 

 

 

Really? Is that way unemployment went up in June even after many states cancelled enhanced benefits during that month?

2 hours ago, hanuman2543 said:

And why Thailand does not allow people who are double vaxed with 2 different vaczines entry without 14 days of quarantine?

Thailand requires requires 14 days for everyone, no matter how they've been vaccinated.

11 minutes ago, rabas said:

What?

 

Dr. Yong has 21 scientific publications in just the first few months of 2021 listed in Google Scholar.  848 lifetime google scholar publications and an astounding h-index, which measures importance.  Dr. Yong's index of 66 is beyond 'truly exceptional'.

 

"An h-index (Hirsch index) of 20 is considered good, 40 is outstanding, and 60 is truly exceptional" [1].

 

Thailand's funding and efforts in medicine, genetics, and genomics are also well known.

You know, for a lot of expats here, for amusement, mocking Thailand is all they've got.

1 hour ago, jerrymahoney said:

From the above linked ASEAN report 

 

The very poor performer countries are the Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines. Malaysia and Thailand are taking off due to the government program in scientific and technological innovation coupled with government program in economic development. In fact, Thailand is establishing reputable science and technology universities. 

 

Page 6 -- Note report is dated 2013.
 

Maybe spidermike007 thinks news is like fine win: it gets better as it gets older.

4 minutes ago, Tropposurfer said:

I’m far to dumb to pretend to understand economics other than to say I would much prefer to be getting 27+ baht to the dollar when I transfer money into-country than the terrible rates I’ve been getting for some years now. I for one would spend a lot more in-country if I was seeing rates like that again.

You mean you were getting less than 27 baht to the dollar before this?

3 hours ago, internationalism said:

no, they have underestimated their need - in the original contract with AZ they wanted only 3mln per month. Even the AZ offered more and suggested anutin to join COVAX to get more AZ and any other (which he did, just the last saturday, with 9 months delay).

Anutin have also thought that he can bully the AZ for 10mln, with a threat of forbidding export from Siam Bioscience.

That plan did't work. The AZ will give max 6mln (that's 2x more than in contract).

 

Temperature and storage is not an issue. Those sensitive vax can be brought at small quantities at time. The first batch of AZ came only 117k, the first batch of sinovax only 200k.

All those mRNA vax come in small containers with dry ice, can be kept for 1 week without need to top up. 

 

Story with side effects is for every single vax - the AZ was withdrawn from 2 european countries. Many countries are not giving it as a second dose. 

 

Storage requirements for mRNA vaccines have been eased. No need for dry ice. Pfizer and Moderna can be stored at -25C to -15C for up to 6 months. A home freezer can do that. Then they can be stored in a refrigerator at 2C to 8C for up to a month.

7 minutes ago, sitti said:

LOL year after year, every time there is an article about Baht weakness (temporary), there are always doomsayers stating this is it, this is the end of Thailand. Thailand is a failed state????

 

Weak Baht is what Thailand actually wants. They have been wanting it for years. In the past when Thailand tried to artificially decrease the Baht value, US labeled Thailand as currency manipulator. However look at what US has been doing ????

 

I do hope Baht becomes even weaker and stay there. That would be really good for country's economy in a long term. But I seriously doubt that would be the case.

The thing is, as a country's economy does better, its currency tends to rise.

2 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Nobody knows, as they are some of the least relevant scientific bodies, outside Africa. 

Again with the attitude and insults directed at Thai research, but absolutely no knowledge of the actual situation. Your comments are just the antithesis of cheerleading and with no more use for the facts.

Just now, friendofthai said:

To be completely correct, so called "delta variant" is the common name of at least 3 different viruses B.1.617.1, B.1.617.2, and B.1.617.3. But you will not see any separate statistics for B.1.617.1 or B.1.617.3 in most newspapers. Why? Because it does not worth efforts. That is why most news sources in the world did not show separate statistics for delta before June. They did show only general "COVID new cases". But since June it became clear to everyone that delta was much more dangerous and worth detecting.
Therefore the date of detection (Thursday, 06/24/2021) more likely reflects the date they start to perform tests for the delta variant rather than the date the delta variant first appeared in the country. It is hard to guess the real share of delta variant in most countries simply because they do not have science developed enough for it or ready-to-use test systems bought from abroad.
So I think additional time is needed for the Chinese Vaccines to demonstrate its superior effectiveness against delta.

Chile has a very sophisticated public health system. And as was noted, they first detected the Delta in a foreign arrival on June 24. As for Sinovac needing time to demonstrate its superior performance against the Delta variant. it's already had time in population studies to demonstrate its inferior, but by no means ineffective, performance against other variants. What possible grounds beyond that of cheerleading do you have to believe that Sinovac will prove its superiority to other vaccines

Even the Chinese are now purchasing large quantities of mRNA vaccines and are working hard to create their own.

6 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Likely never. Thai scientific research is not exactly at the pinnacle of the world stage. 

In other words, you don't know.