anrcaccount

Only country in the world where schools still implement covid based health restrictions.

Cherry picking at it's finest again. Did you read the report? Clearly not. Africa had 20 reported deaths only!!! So the 43% is off a very small base. "The number of new deaths over the 28-day period in the Region increased by 43% as compared to the previous 28-day period, with 20 new deaths reported. " Every region of the world apart from Africa reporting big drops in deaths. That's good news.

As usual - you cherry pick the worst statistics, while failing to acknowledge the very good news, which show a huge decrease in cases and deaths globally. From the source: "At the regional level, the number of newly reported cases within a 28-day period has decreased across all six WHO regions: the Eastern Mediterranean Region (-77%), the South-East Asia Region (-67%), the European Region (-65%), the Region of the Americas (-45%), the Western Pacific Region (-36%), and the African Region (-31%). The number of newly reported deaths within a 28-day period has decreased across five regions: the European Region (-67%), the Eastern Mediterranean Region (-60%), the South-East Asia Region (-57%), the Western Pacific Region (-23%), and the Region of the Americas (-19%); while deaths increased in the African Region (+43%).

Again, you consistently and deliberately ignore information that shows covid becoming less and less of a concern,, and cherry pick anything to keep the 'fear mongering' alive and well. "The African region has reported a slight increase in deaths but a decrease in cases, while the other five WHO regions have reported decreases in both cases and deaths." So the entire world is reporting decreases in cases, and everywhere bar Africa a decrease in deaths. On your comment above, why do you think many countries in the world have stopped actively testing for and publicly reporting cases? It's because it's no longer enough of a public health concern to warrant that effort. What does that tell you?

You consistently and deliberately leave out any positive quote from these sources. Here's what you left out, from this weekly WHO update. "The African region has reported a slight increase in deaths but a decrease in cases, while the other five WHO regions have reported decreases in both cases and deaths." "During this 28-day period, only 56% (133 of 234) of countries and territories reported at least one case – a proportion that has been consistently declining since mid-2022."

Well said. Time to move on. That includes, stop being basically the only country in the world left, where these things still occur: Big employers like 7-11 & Makro mandate their young, healthy employees to wear a face covering at work Many school age children still wear masks at school Probably 2/3 of the population in the capital city, still wear face coverings in most settings Signs are still up around social distancing in lifts! and other relics of 2020 The extreme fear of covid is still far too prevalent in Thailand.

Correct. Not that urgent. It's just another respiratory illness now. "Infection prevention at all costs" is no longer a key public health strategy in most countries, and it appears Thailand is finally joining the rest of the world in following this.

I'm pro vaccination generally. But seven (7) covid jabs for a healthy 41 year old is excessive, and would not be recommended by the vast majority of medical professionals around the world.

Few things here. 1 - Thailand lacks a primary care system, so any minor ailment often ends up in a hospital rather than a GP. This is an ineffective/ inefficient healthcare provisioning system. 2- The overwhelming focus on covid infection prevention, negatively impacts care. "All covid, no care". It's time now for Thailand to treat covid like any other respiratory condition which many countries now already do, this will help the overall health system improve. 3- Pay the staff more.

Spot on Peter. N down the hill (save fuel, save $) , last minute downshift on the way up- only needed once the vehicle almost stops. Engine braking education would save many lives in Thailand.

Anyone who has spent any time in Thailand knows that they put it in N when going downhill, to save fuel, save money!

Build a Casino?

How does this activist get so much airtime? Who is running the country, or is this just now some indefinite legal tit for tat? Time to get on with it!

Spot on. If you saw these 69 unfortunate souls in a room, I think you'd quickly ascertain most of them are very near deaths door already. In many places, average covid death age is at or around life expectancy, well into the 80s. Do we have the ages of the dengue deaths? I bet anything they'd be much younger overall.

Yes. It does and very significant downward trends. Very good news. You now seem to need to dig very deep, to find the nuggets of bad news to justify your advocacy of covid hyper vigilance right? From the latest WHO update ( bolding mine) "Globally, over 1.7 million new cases and over 10 000 deaths were reported in the last 28 days (8 May to 4 June 2023), a decrease of 38% and 47%, respectively, compared to the previous 28 days (10 April to 7 May 2023). During this 28-day reporting period, 144 of 243 (59%) countries and territories reported at least one case. The situation at the regional level shows decreases in cases and deaths in all six WHO regions. https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/weekly-epidemiological-update-on-covid-19---8-june-2023 Also your sourced comments on Australia are out of date, the latest week shows a 18% decline in reported cases. Source per covidlive.com.au

Pretty much the only country into he world where healthy 19 year olds working their first job at Makro or 7-11 or outside at PTT... are forced to wear a face covering. We'll know the masking is really coming to an end when these employer mandates are dropped.

Good description. It's inexplicable, I don't think people appreciate just how much Thailand is now an outlier when it comes to masking. It's actually a problem for the country, so sad to witness what the " land of Smiles" turned into. However it is coming back, finally! Thankfully this is changing, albeit far too slowly , yes this time should occur this year where it's no longer the default. At that point the social pressure is all but gone, and they're then only worn by a few for genuine reasons such as pollution or being unwell.

Most people aren't as smart as you Brian. Most people don't read any of the studies and papers. Most people think a vaccine will stop them being infected with a virus.

People thought "effective" meant they wouldn't catch the virus. So 90% effective or 100% effective meant most people wouldn't get it. Communication of this and public policy was made to strongly encourage vaccination, in many countries by way of mandates restricting peoples freedom to work, travel, and go about their day to day lives. Words like "the vaccinated economy" were used by political leaders and yes, many said if you are vaccinated you wouldn't get the virus. Trying to argue otherwise is highly revisionist. Then as the virus rapidly mutated, most of the population "got it" anyway, to its credit vaccination having prevented a lot of serious illness and death. This outcome however, does not change the fact most people got vaccinated ( many under duress) with the belief this would prevent them being infected. The anti vaccination movement this had spawned, will be looked back on as a public health policy failure. Vaccination rates for many illnesses have plunged as a result of this being linked to people's freedoms and politicised in such a way. Vaccination itself has been tarred by the covid response. In my view it's unlikely any future pandemics will have any mandates or significant public health restrictions imposed. Vaccination, as it always should have been outside a few exceptional settings, will revert to a personal health decision- encouraged by your doctor or other health professionals.

Fair enough, that's definitely worth it. It sounded like a lot more from the initial description. Thanks for sharing the detail.

I'm not disagreeing with a single word you have written there. I would say though he needed to make an investment in Thai bonds he would not have made otherwise. But consider the effort required to satisfy the paperwork BOI needs. You could apply for Elite in 15 minutes. I'm betting oldcpu spent hundreds of hours of time on this. Granted, that's fine and good on him. Just making that point.

Great write up. Thank you for a good description. You have to question though, whether the effort you went to, plus the tying up of funds into bonds, plus a trip to BKK - stacks up vs the Elite Visa. You could have paid 1M baht, no effort otherwise, and had 20 years hassle free stay. I can only guess at how many hours of your time was spent on this, hundreds and hundreds judging from the description. But it is done now, it will be hassle free for you for 10 years, and it sounded like you enjoyed the challenge!

You're missing the point. They may have the highest infection rate ( could just be due to paranoid parents testing more too) but are at extremely low risk of any harm. Almost all recent hospitalisations and deaths are in over 60s per your posted stats. The vaccine does very little to prevent transmission with how infectious Omicron is. Therefore encouraging infant vaccination is a poor public health strategy, hence why nowhere else is the world is actively encouraging it, and has these type of articles on the mainstream front page news. I'll say it again, 100 extra over 60s vaccinated will provide more benefit than 100,000 infants.

I'm not saying it's unsafe. I'm saying it provides a minimal benefit to infants and is poor use of public health funds. That's why the vast majority of the world isn't actively promoting covid vaccines for infants. They'd be better to focus on driving the rate of normal childhood vaccinations. In regards to covid, they'd save more lives vaccinating 100 extra over 70 adults, than 100000 extra infants. Thailand has a hyper fixation on covid that is now unlike anywhere else in the world, that's your "specific context", it has no basis in reality. Do you really think infant covid rates are any different here to the rest of the world? Of course they aren't. Real world experience has shown vaccination has little impact on transmission overall(since Omicron) , so it's all about serious disease and death. From the WHO: "The public health impact of vaccinating healthy children and adolescents is comparatively much lower than the established benefits of traditional essential vaccines for children – such as the rotavirus, measles, and pneumococcal conjugate vaccines – and of COVID-19 vaccines for high and medium priority groups."

On one hand we have - Almost every country in the world not recommending or actively promoting infant covid vaccination as being a priority, due to minimal public health benefit. This view is shared by by he WHO. https://www.who.int/news/item/28-03-2023-sage-updates-covid-19-vaccination-guidance Not "a good and needed thing", your words are misleading. Safe -sure , but not a priority. On the other hand we have - Thailand, where the top news item on mainstream media sites is the public health ministry strongly encouraging infant vaccination. Not hard to decide..........