ABCbangkok

21 minutes ago, placeholder said:

The Sinovac vaccine is not crappy. There are plenty of studies to show that it's very powerful in keeping the infected from hospitalization and death. Just not very good at stopping transmission. If that's all that's on offer, take it. It's not like we currently have much of a choice in Thailand.

 

The point of my post is that the govt had a choice and I believe for ulterior motives chose wrongly. Sinovac has been “all that’s on offer” because the Thai govt refused to let the private sector import other vaccines. 

As for Sinovac not being crappy, ask Indonesia how it’s doing with their Sinovac program. “Indonesia defends use of China’s Sinovac amid surge in Delta variant. The country posted record highs of more than 25,000 infections and 539 deaths on Friday.”

This could be Thailand soon unless the Thai govt acts more responsibly asap.

IMHO, they are making a big mistake by leaving out Mongolia. 

Coming soon:

10,000 infections / day.

Pandemic Mortality rate: 2.5%
 

fatalities 250 /day.

And why? Because Thailand needed to celebrate ???? Songkran 2021. Well I hope those who had their sanook feel it was worth it.

I tried this system last time I needed a new multi-entry visa. I got the appointment BUT (in the land of smiles there’s always a ‘but’), when I got there, they informed me that those with a Certificate of Residence (white booklet) have to go to another section. This wasn’t explained at the appointment website and the Immigration officials suggested that I should have somehow known this.

The short of it was that again I spent another half day at immigration waiting for the multi entry stamp.

The website is a step in the right direction. But it’s not quite there, lacking following-through and commitment. (In the same vein as they scan your fingerprints one minute with state of the art technology and in the next minute they are smearing ink over your thumbs and pressing them into a large ledger book from the 1940s. Go figure.)

2 hours ago, bdenner said:

W T F is this all about?

My licence expired end of May but as I am required to watch the BS video had an amnesty to 30 Jun.

To these f#%k wits please explain!

Here is how it works. If your license has expired, they require you to sit through an hour long video of mind-numbing car crashes.
 

There will be many others in the hot windowless airless room with you. But rest assured, every safety COVID precaution will be taken to ensure your protection from infection:
 

- Expect at least two free-standing 20-year old Daikon fans set to high and swivel.

- Every other plastic chair will have a red ‘X’ on it prohibiting someone who possibly could be COVID positive sitting right next to you.

- Masks ???? may be required, (but as Thailand is a tolerant country and Thais avoid any kind of direct confrontations, those not wearing them may be left alone. This is in line with the unspoken ‘see no evil’ policy of Thai culture).

In the event that you get your license renewed and not a COVID infection, consider yourself a lucky person. If you do happen to get the dreaded Delta variant, well you had bad karma to begin with. RIP.

I wonder how that went down.

Every month the rent was due and every month it wasn’t paid. You’d think the owner, obviously an astute fellow, would have caught on after the 3rd or 4th month.

Sounds like just a bogus foreigner bashing story. 

On 6/11/2021 at 8:45 PM, petedk said:

So, which ministry does the Social Security come under? Do they even know themselves?

In Thailand everyone knows the Social Security Office is under the Ministry of Secrets and Unknown Affairs.

This ministry is so secret the people who work there don’t even know where it is.

However those in ‘the know’ know it’s beside the Office of Launching Studies When Something Goes Wrong. The busiest department in the entire Thai government!

By yr-end it’s going to be 100% registration. Well done Thailand!

Vaccinations? That’s another matter.

14 minutes ago, Moti24 said:

However, I turned 70 recently, and although I don't have any unexpected symptoms of old age, knowing that I'm back at the bottom of the pile, underneath Soi Dogs, and not having much hope of vaccination this side of Christmas, it does depress me a little.  But, what's really wearing me down is reading the constant daily TAT drivel about how many tourists are coming this year and how much they are going to spend.  So, I think my time in the paradise that once was is getting very close; in The UK, it's called, "Constructive Dismissal".

No doubt about it. For some, Thailand has become depressive and oppressive due to COVID. I felt the daily grind of the latest screwup by the leaders. Just got out and feel much better for it.

Life for me though was mainly downtown Bangkok. Life in the provinces perhaps far better. Closer to nature. 

They will eventually get it right. My guess another 6 months and you’ll be well into 30-40% including expats. By then local AZ will be producing and the foreign suppliers will have loads of it available.

What bothers me most is the lying. Come clean. People have Internet they know there are 1) global shortages and 2) the rich countries got the lion share of available product.

Thailand will never advance unless it moves beyond arrogant populist politicians who talk down to the people and try to keep them dumb.

7 hours ago, webfact said:

The hotel concerned advertises itself as a 5 star facility in a "relaxed seaside building" that is "6 km from Tanote beach and 7 km from Mango Bay"

“Sherlock, a very important fact!”

”You’re absolutely right Watson!! Given the long distances to the beaches, the victims were all but trapped into using the HOTEL pool. What choice did they have?!, the poor devils.”

Just had required COIVD test in order to fly.  The attending Thai doctor (at major Thai hospital) told us that many hospitals only have vaccines for 1 week. That there will be no choice to delay appointments made for vaccines. She was quite frustrated by the situation.
 

She didn’t think foreigners would see vaccines any time soon.

6 hours ago, BestB said:

I am confused, how do you begin mass vaccination without the vaccine on hand?

Answer: You don’t. 

The TAT is also proposing that long-term resident foreigners be allowed to run for office. 
 

Now wouldn’t that me something. ????

You need to read the small print:

“While supplies last.”

9 hours ago, anchadian said:

 

It’s pretty clear that Thailand needs to try much harder if it’s to move up the leader board.
 

I’m not an expert in bungling and ineptness, but here are my suggestions just the same:

Immediately remove all restrictions, especially in the large urban centers. Offer big discounts for crowded bus travel and at poorly ventilated food courts. Hand out free tickets to popular movies. Incentivize throwing parties, especially in the Thonglor area (seems to have been an effective strategy not so long ago). Replay the Songkran holiday, and this time make it longer.

For 2019, Wikipedia says pop. for Phuket Province was 416k. 70% would be 291k.

The entire pop. of Thailand is 70m. The 1/2 vaccinated Phuket Thais, the 70%, represent 0.004% of the country.

So anyone with half a brain can clearly see the rollout has not been slow. It’s been glacial. 

Phuket’s leaders will soon accept that their plan for ‘opening’ was wishful thinking at best. Egg smattered all over their pudgy sweaty faces. Rather than accept responsibility for the situation they will point fingers.

The Expats on this forum should see beyond this. Expats will always be used and abused here. They are tolerated for one reason only. The genuine and sincere Thais who we are in love with and who return our love are not to blame. It’s the culture at large.

The society is not maliciously racist in my opinion. But rather so utterly embarrassed by their own stupidity, ineptness, and other inadequacies, they default to blaming the world.

The younger generation of Thais understand this. Seems they want the culture to smarten up. 

6 hours ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

Chulabhorn Institute has been given sweeping powers late last night.

 

https://www.thaienquirer.com/27937/chulabhorn-institute-given-sweeping-healthcare-powers-in-late-night-announcement/

Question is, can 1 hospital vaccinate 70% of the population by year-end?

Inquiring minds would like to know.

Great strides being made in Thailand international relations.