anrcaccount

Rubbish explanation. Yes the article does speak for itself. The Southeast Asian region , "our little corner of the world" - is on a downward trend overall. Do you get paid per kg of cherries you pick? "Elsewhere in Asia, Thailand reported a steady rise in cases. The country is part of the WHO's Southeast Asia region, which saw an overall decrease over the most recent reporting period"

The most important line in that WHO report you conveniently left out: "cases over the past 28 days were down 30% and deaths over the same period were down 39% " Alarmist fearmongering is not beneficial to public health, please consider this.

I stand corrected- it is a 7 day rolling average. My bad. So the 2633 is comparable to Thailand's numbers of 2970. Regardless, the point stands, Australia has a lot more covid hospitalisations per capita , yet no covid alarmism permeates the mainstream news and the publics behaviors, like it continues to do in Thailand.

Just alarmist language. That doesn't mean the public should be concerned in the slightest. These numbers are tiny in a population of over 70M , and mostly elderly and with co morbidities. There are always a lot of people on hospital due to respiratory infections. By way of comparison, Australia, which is less than 1/3 of the population of Thailand , is running at 2,633 hospitalizations per day ( rolling 7 day average). https://www.health.gov.au/health-alerts/covid-19/case-numbers-and-statistics?language=und Like almost every other country in the world, Covid is gone from the news there, nary a mask in sight and people go about their lives normally.

Where else in the world are healthy 19 olds (at infinitesimal risk of any serious harm from this virus) at their first job at 7-11 or Makro, forced to wear face coverings due to a company mandate? Ask yourself that...........? Don't even get me started on the school children. Vaccines and anti-virals are available for anyone, and particularly should be considered by the vulnerable. NPI's for the public are no longer justifiable or proportionate.

The time for the general public to be concerned, and take any special measures in relation to covid has passed. People can get vaccinated - if they choose. Apart from that, no measures are necessary. Look around the world, that's now the reality. Alarmist media reporting like this hardly makes the news elsewhere, why it still does in Thailand is a real curiosity.

The best line in this article: "The advice comes amid a general relaxation of COVID precautions such as mask-wearing, hand-washing, and avoidance of social gatherings as life returns to normal in Thailand."

Having read the same report - do you see how your posting on hospital beds overflowing can be considered alarmist? From that report: "He said there was no shortage of hospital beds for Covid-19 inpatients. The bed occupancy rate for Covid-19 patients nationwide was 22%. Any reported shortage may have been at hospitals that had reduced the number of beds reserved for Covid-19 cases, Dr Opas said. "

Have you had an antibody test? I think you'd be surprised, many of those who think they've never been infected have actually been. Some multiple times. One thing we can agree on is - this virus is wildly contagious.

Fair enough and you too. We will continue to agree to disagree on the definition of "common". Also on the usefulness of mass mask wearing- but that's OK. I see this "common" narrative often from people, that implies masks were everywhere in Asia pre covid, that grinds my gears, as it's just not true. Yes they were worn occasionally, for various reasons such as the ones you outlined - but (very) uncommon.

Please keep posting Xylophone. This will sound very strange, but I hope you’ll take it as a compliment….. Your language is relaxing, makes me feel like a child again sitting on a mat (think back a very long time ago when you were a small kid in NZ) waiting for story time from the teacher………. don’t stop!

You ever wear one pre 2020? Let me guess No? It wasn’t common. It was very rare, even all over Asia , to see anyone wearing a mask pre 2020. Calling it “common” isn’t factual. It seems to be a prop to justify those who believe you should be wearing them now - “Asians were always wearing masks”…… No they weren’t. It was rare. Uncommon. You want everyone to wear them now- fine . But just own your opinion - and don’t try to justify it by revisionist history….

Found a couple of outliers to support your confirmation bias? What about the 99% of other people where you are travelling, that aren’t wearing them?

The level of mask wearing in Thailand is now an absolute outlier compared to the rest of the world. It is at / past the point of absurdity and really needs to change. Time to “Move Forward” from face coverings Thailand.

Forget about democracy and the most important election result in decades folks, that’s not a big deal……..keep those masks on though!!

Credit to you for leaving the “safety” of Thailand, where masks are still worn commonly as a safety blanket. But seriously, you're exhibiting some confirmation bias here around the actual level of mask wearing in California. 1 in 100 if you're lucky, that's probably being generous now. "Not a majority or even more than 10%" - ah, lucky if it was 1% in reality. Same as pretty much everywhere in the world now, Thailand excepted. I am not saying you didn’t see others still wearing- but is is rare, and getting rarer by the day.

Vast majority of thai people had never worn a mask pre 2020. That's a fact.

This type of obscure variant reporting, is not news anywhere else in the world Why Thailand persists with covid media coverage like this is an absolute mystery. Time to "Move Forward" on this as well as the government. Both would massively benefit the people.

I follow Khun Pita down to Lumphini Park Listening to the wind of change.

Mandate and enforce helmet wearing. Through some inexplicable mix of fear, media, acceptance of authority and culture, Thais adopted mass masking in response to covid. Millions of them still today, make the effort to buy, carry and wear these things everywhere. Trying to get the same thing occurring, but for helmet wearing, would save many, many more lives than the masking ever has.

That is the ONLY "measure" needed. Nothing else should be imposed in schools now.

You have trawled deep into the internet to find 3/195 countries "considering" measures. I guess they know something the other 192 countries in the world don't?

Let hope that's all it is. Those measures are OK.

It's not about taking care of children. Children are in no danger. They are an extremely low risk group for covid. It's about using children to try to manage extreme anxiety in a small sector of vulnerable adults. Nowhere else in the world is even thinking about introducing public health safety measures for covid, focused on children, to prevent spread to adults. Just indefensible to even be considering this, at this stage in the pandemic.

Fair enough. But other measures, like compulsory ATKs or distancing- are equally as indefensible as mandated masking at this point.