JonnyF

It was always going to arrive, despite Anutin's asinine chest thumping about it being no match for Thailand. Now, Thailand will have to decide how it reacts. Does it panic, lock down and destroy what is left of the economy, ruining people's businesses, livelihoods, mental health and education? Or does it ramp up the vaccination/booster program and allow it's citizens to decide what level of risk they deem is appropriate for them?

Offloading the responsibility so that he can later offload the blame. What a great leader. The one and only Khun Prayut Chan-o-Cha.

Exactly. And it's not only the expense. Who wants to spend 50% of a 2 week holiday locked in their hotel room?

No they don't. No Thai would ever refer to a black African as a farang. Nor would they refer to someone from another Asian country as a farang. It refers to Caucasians and you know it.

You didn't say foreigners, you said farangs which is a nickname for a race of people (Caucasians). Just own it and try to improve yourself. Racism is ugly in all it's forms (yes, even when it is against Caucasians).

Yes, claiming that Caucasians (you even used a nickname to refer to this racial group) shower less frequently than another group is a racist comment. It's like using a nickname for black people (I won't give you an example but I am sure you know a few) to say that they smell worse than another group. It's a stupid generalization and just because the insult is against Caucasians does not mean it is not racist. PS I am fairly sure my educational qualifications would compare favourably to yours.

I am saying that if you wish to make silly generalizations with racist undertones you should have data to back them up.

Please provide a link with empirical data. Or are you just assuming all farang share your showering habits?

Yeah about 4 of us typed the same thing at the same time ????.

I was struggling to comtemplate how Thai politics could get any worse. Now I know.

Given how transmissable Omicron is, it sounds like other passengers on the plane would have caught it from these arrivals. Which means it's already here (unless they quarantined the whole plane including the crew). Either way, it seems inevitable that Test & Go will be scrapped within the next few days. I'm glad I didn't go home for Christmas now...

I'm not sure of the wisdom of this. Omicron is going to get here sooner or later. They are already testing people on arrival and isolating them if they test positive so isolating people who test negative on arrival seems a bit OTT to me. I guess what they are really saying is that the Covid tests are not accurate and there will be false negatives but given the inevitability of this variant getting a hold here it seems that they are really "whistling" in the wind. On the other hand, it's not like millions of people are coming anyway so maybe they could argue they are only destroying the battered remants of the tourist industry anyway. Either way, it's only a matter of time. Omicron is coming. It's a good job the symptoms are generally so mild.

It seems certain people are just begging for it to take a turn for the worse. I dont get the clamouring for bad news. Is that because they don't really have a social life and enjoy lockdown? Is that because they don't really like Thailand very much and want to see it fail? Is that because their relative wealth increases when those around them get poorer? Is that because they enjoy playing the virtuous great white knight saving the grateful peasants? I dont know the reason but let's hope the positive trend continues and we can all get back to normal ASAP. Personally I believe omicron will be the final chapter when covid turns into something akin to the common cold but I'm sure those with vested interests will try to drag it out another year or two.

Great to see the numbers continue to drop despite the merchants of doom and general fear mongering. Let's hope the downward trend continues.

Everyone is poorer. Except the Elites that sponsored the coup. That was the whole point.

Captain hindsight has arrived. Tourism was a fantastic earner for decades. Nobody saw this coming. Thailand needs to fix it’s tourist industry not abandon it.

Thailand has always been a bit of a mess but it was fun and cheap. When it’s not fun and cheap anymore it’s just a mess. If they want high end tourists they will have to up their game but I suspect this article is about face saving because in reality Thailand isn’t moving away from the mass market. The mass market is moving away from Thailand.

All my claims have been backed up with links to either statistics or expert opinions. If you click on the links they will open and then you can read the content and try to understand it (bar charts aren't really that complicated so you should be OK with most of it).

Such a sad state of affairs when we need permisson from someone like Anutin to go out and celebrate New Year as we see fit. Hopefully this misguided paternalism doesn't become the norm but I fear they're enjoying these powers too much to return them even when Covid is under control.

So some anonymous caller to a radio station says the guy who died was an unvaccinated conspiracy theorist. Not exactly solid evidence is it? However, assuming that the story is true (and that's a massive assumption) then the guy was 70 years old and unvaccinated. Either way, I think I'll wait for a confirmed story before I dust off my Hazmat suit and hide behind my sofa based on someone calling a Radio phone in. Most of the callers are kooks anyway.

Well they'll certainly be rushing in following this story.

The key word being "IF" Omicron is like Delta. All early indications are that is NOT like Delta.

That is true. But given how long Omicron has been in South Africa (well over a month) and the incredible rise in cases, the number of deaths remaining low suggests that it is far less deadly, as has also been seen in the UK with only one death "with" Omicron and none (as of yesterday) "from" Omicron.

I highly doubt she was singled out because she was Asian. Much more likely is because she was an easy target and probably quite attractive. Which for some perv looking to rob and molest someone is just about as good as it gets. I don't know why race has to be brought into absolutely everything these days. Identity politics rearing it's ugly head again. This is a case of man attacks woman. Not black man attacks Asian woman. I bet if there was a young, attractive white girl, or Latino girl alone on the subway then the result would have been the same. I highly doubt he was thinking "yeah this is revenge for Covid" when he did this.

Much as it pains me to say it, United look like they've finally made a good decision replacing Ole with Rangnick. I guess even a broken clock is correct twice a day. Should be a decent battle for fourth between Utd, Arsenal, Spurs and maybe even West Ham. The top 3 look like they're in a different league so it's still a long way before titles can be considered but if they get rid of the dead wood (Mata, Matic etc.) and the dancing Twitterati (Pogba, Lingard etc.) and sign some good young players with the right attitude they could maybe have a run at it in the 23-24 season.