Capella

Good in theory, but they're really expensive. I'm also wondering how good is the aircon, and its effect on range.

Well of course that's true, but it is an advanced society of 8 million people, with excellent scientific and medical knowledge. It's taking a similar approach to Omicron (we have no choice other than to live with this) as places like the UK (a place where 67 million people live), and elsewhere.

The statistics, infection rates, advice, etc, that I've quoted in this thread are from the NSW Australian government and are published on their websites. Up to you whether you believe them. Personally, I do.

I'm a survivor. Still living and breathing.

Good luck with that.

Whatever matey - all you'll do is complain to the forum cops to get opposing views censored if I try to engage you in a discussion on this, so bye ????

Zebra crossings in Thailand may as well not exist.

I've always liked Nong Khai. Nice vibe, by the river and easy travel to Laos.

Oh don't be so serious. People here are only comparing notes. Of course it's your personal choice where you choose to live.

It's all for the breast.

This is a good decision that will help to prevent profiteering.

I hate that feature.

A more sensible system would be to issue these visas to people whose nationality prevents them from travelling home.

Changing your name might cause you problems down the line. Use your preferred name in your everyday life, but leave your legal name as it is.

I really don't have time to debate it with you, and it's a bit off topic anyway, sorry.

Let's not go there ????. Enjoy your day and take care of yourself.

There's a dividing line between sensible planning with a margin of error, and outright panic, I do agree.

Right, there were various prophesies of doom. They got around the shortage of nurses by exempting them from self isolation as close contacts. Isolation periods for everyone, even those who had the disease, were also halved to 7 days. https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/business/nsw-rules/exemption-guidance

Right. Out of those 195,000 active cases, there are 2,174 hospitalisations. Total hospital bed capacity in public hospitals only is 21,000.

Compared to the number of people catching it, hospitalisations are indeed rare. ICU cases are extremely rare 175 out of 195,000 cases. Of course, your chance of ending up there depends on your general health and age. I'm late fifties, asthmatic but physically fit.

I was booked in for the booster but had the disease instead, so giving my body a bit of time to recover. The CDC recently announced that a double vaccine plus having the disease gives a very good immune response.

In NSW, Australia. Hospitalisations have certainly gone up, but the system is not being overwhelmed and we're in the worst of it. There were 100,000+ cases per day for a while statewide, 195,000 active cases now. ICU cases are 175 (capacity 1,000), 25 ventilated. Now, we're past the worst of it, with infection rates falling.

Try not to worry about Omicron, and enjoy your life. You've got very little chance of falling seriously ill with it.

Take sensible precautions like getting vaccinated and practicing good hygiene, but try not to worry too much even if you do catch it. Where I am, a quarter of the population has had it in the past few weeks, but hospitalisations are very rare indeed, and are quite manageable. All the people I know who have had it, including me, needed nothing more than paracetamol and throat lozenges. Omicron is mild, and thanks to its extreme transmissibiliy it's displaced the nastier variants that preceded it.

Right, supply chain disruption is a problem everywhere. Omicron is over quite quickly though - its incubation period and the illness itself are much shorter than prior variants, just three days each in my case. Things will improve very soon. I know it sounds counterintuitive that people would want to perpetuate covid, but some do. It's an easy story for journalists to write about, and a certain type of politician enjoys the power of controlling people's lives. Easy to understand, I think. Anyway, the narrative seems to be changing from one of fear to one of getting on with life, which is encouraging after two very difficult years.