Will you change your behavior in anticipation of Coronavirus in Pattaya?

[Jingthing]

Well there are some discovered cases in Thailand already but surely there are other cases that aren't known yet.

 

Hopefully things don't get out of hand here, and of course if they do, we already have a preview in China of what that could mean for any area. Pattaya specifically is definitely and obviously at risk. 

 

As it's now "Golden Week" China even more than usual has come to us. Viruses don't respect borders. 

 

I see the city officials here have NOT cancelled Chinese new years public events. Hmmm. 

 

 

But even now, even with only the threat under us by now, I am wondering if people are planning to change their behavior now?

For examples:

 

Large public events

Avoid or not?

Shopping malls

Avoid or not?

 

Baht buses.

 

If you're on a baht bus and someone coughs or sneezes, it's too late if they're infected, you're potentially exposed.

 

What if a baht bus approaches and it's full of Chinese people. Would you still board? Is it racist to not board?

 

What if you're already on a bus and a bunch of Chinese people board? Will you get off?

 

Chinese people seen on the street, small numbers and large groups

Will you gingerly avoid or not?

Obviously if you see anyone coughing or sneezing it's a good to avoid regardless, but I'm talking about random Chinese people.

 

Masks

Do you plan on buying one of those higher end masks proactively?

The cheap cloth masks don't protect from infection. 

Even the higher ones only have an 80 percent effectiveness if used properly and at least half the people wearing them don't use them properly. 

 

Hand washing

Do you plan to up your hand washing game now or not?

 

Eating out in Chinese restaurants

This is an expansion of whether to avoid Chinese people or not. If you go to Chinese restaurants, your exposure to Chinese people is guaranteed. So why not just avoid those restaurants?

 

Edited January 26, 2020 by Jingthing

[bert bloggs]

We are not going to do our weekly shop in the Malls ,off to Sri Racha ,hopefully to keep away from the Chinese tour groups ,but lets face it ,if they have it and pass it on ,its not just Chinese will be the problem .

luckily we have a car so no Baht buses ,

could this be the "one" nature has a way of culling a species when there are to many.

[Jingthing]

I am wondering if government/business here is doing even basic preparation. For example if things start to get bad, there will be a run on the higher end surgical masks that actually work. So there needs to be a massive supply available for people to buy. I can't imagine that there will be. 

[Ventenio]

What if this is all a conspiracy?

 

3 billion in face mask sales, going to only two companies.  1 billion in construction costs......  

 

Then it turns out the vaccine is 3000 baht and a few people get rich

 

and then in reality only a few cases were really this same virus.

 

how dumb are we, in this simulated world we live in??

 

or what if the person playing the game Earth is playing some Virus game?

 

OR Iran and North Korea planted a virus to get news off them....

[CGW]

8 minutes ago, Ventenio said:

how dumb are we, in this simulated world we live in??

Appears many revel in so called impending doom!

150,000 people die everyday, 56 deaths have been attributed to this virus, 56 people that were"VULNERABLE" meaning they were not healthy in the first place.

No changes for me, I will rely on my immune system, same as I do everyday to keep me virus free!

[CanuckThai]

Any licking of coughing, sneezing or wheezing Chinese tour group cuties, will be temporarily frowned upon, until further notice.

[FarFlungFalang]

Have not heard of any fatalities from this virus in Thailand as yet and hope not to but 40,000 deaths each year on the roads with not much effort put into reducing the numbers has more concern for me.

[Jingthing]

An issue with this new virus is that many people only get mildly ill from it or really don't notice any illness at all. Great for them but such people are often not even counted and it's now estimated each infected person infects about three others. So the public health need is to slow down that rate of new infections. 

[White Christmas13]

3 hours ago, CGW said:

Appears many revel in so called impending doom!

150,000 people die everyday, 56 deaths have been attributed to this virus, 56 people that were"VULNERABLE" meaning they were not healthy in the first place.

No changes for me, I will rely on my immune system, same as I do everyday to keep me virus free!

Yes i will go and have a nice meal at a Chinese restaurant  and I will

most properly die of alcohol poisoning I am not worried at all.

[mike787]

No.  Why. Because I already have a long time ago. Must adhere to health precautions/prevention.  Must take a "Protective" role in your health if quality of life is important.  THat means, protection, wear a mask for the pollution and airborne viruses. 

[Jingthing]

2 hours ago, FarFlungFalang said:

Have not heard of any fatalities from this virus in Thailand as yet and hope not to but 40,000 deaths each year on the roads with not much effort put into reducing the numbers has more concern for me.

I think all the reported cases so far here are people that have traveled here from China. But surely some travelers from China were presymtomatic and not noticed in any travel screening. So logically the actual number of currently infected here must be higher than any known number. So that's the potential problem here and elsewhere. Accelerated infections of new populations. 

 

Of course people should resist hysteria but unfortunately this is a very easily airborne transmitted virus. 

Edited January 26, 2020 by Jingthing

[Swiss1960]

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

 

Of course people should resist hysteria but unfortunately this is a very easily airborne transmitted virus. 

One: Hysteria is caused by asking people about their "fears" the way you do it with your op

Two: so far, the people who died were mostly people already weak from other illnesses

Three: Far more people ( 10s of Thousands) die every year from normal flues

Four: The chances to be killed on the streets of Thailand are much much higher than from the new virus

Edit to add Five: the bad air quality keeps me much more worried

 

I rest my case

Edited January 26, 2020 by Swiss1960

[ukrules]

2 hours ago, Jingthing said:

I think all the reported cases so far here are people that have traveled here from China.

This is the important part, every case in Thailand so far has been confirmed to be imported, including the Thai national from Nakhon Pathom, the rest were all Chinese.

 

I'm watching out for local transmission of the virus. With a supposed 2 week incubation period we should start to see new cases from next week if they're going to happen.

 

[baansgr]

No more bat soup for me 

[jacko45k]

11 hours ago, Jingthing said:

I see the city officials here have NOT cancelled Chinese new years public events. Hmmm.

A few deaths is not usually a deterrent.   

[Henryford]

I am FAR more worried crossing the street in Thailand than any possible virus. The odds of me catching corona and dying are probably one in 100 million. The odds of being run over are probably 50/50.

Edited January 27, 2020 by Henryford

[Kinnock]

I'm taking the same precautions as I do for the annual flu epidemic (which often has a higher fatality rate than this new virus) - wash hands often, don't touch mouth when travelling.  

 

But these new viruses will keep coming from China so long as they keep eating all the wildlife.  Let's see if the ban introduced from yesterday is enforced.

[Jingthing]

Here is where I'm at with these issues.

 

It is true that normal seasonal flus kill lots of people but based on information already released I suspect this new coronavirus probably has a higher fatality rate than most seasonal flus. 

I needed to do some business yesterday in Jomtien and noticed something quite interesting. As people know when the air is bad here (currently it's OK) many people wear masks for that. 

But yesterday and kind of disturbingly the only people I noticed wearing masks were some smaller groups of obviously CHINESE people.

Do they know something we don't?

Not only that although I admit I encountered only a limited number of such groups, most of those groups I did encounter were wearing masks.

They were generally the cheap cloth type masks.

In my understanding the cloth type masks are totally useless in preventing infections but have some utility in preventing already infected people from infecting others. Maybe that doesn't make sense, but that's what I heard.

Is it possible that those Chinese people wearing masks are aware that people might be afraid of contact with them and are wearing the masks (rather admirably) to ease people's minds?

My personal assumption is that just based on probabilities there almost definitely must be at least one traveler from China that made his way to Pattaya and infected. The numbers of Chinese tourists here are just so large and we already know the screening won't catch people earlier in the infection stage.

Whether a small number of infected travelers begins a significant spread here seems unknowable to me, but certainly possible. 

My initial response probably will seem paranoid to many.

I have stopped going to Chinese restaurants.

I am cutting down on baht bus trips.

I am avoiding close contact with Chinese tourists. 

I don't know yet what I will do if I encounter Chinese tourists on a confined baht bus, or boarding after I'm already on.

That's one reason I'm cutting down on my baht bus trips. 

It seems like you're a sitting duck on those buses, similar in a way to riding them during Songkran. 

 

I want to be clear now that my intention here is certainly not to promote irrational Sinophobia. This is all about this real thing, this new coronavirus. Not about China or Chinese people per se.

Edited January 28, 2020 by Jingthing

[jacko45k]

I have stopped drinking green tea, tastes 'orrible anyhow!

[cornishcarlos]

On 1/26/2020 at 9:47 PM, Jingthing said:

Chinese people seen on the street, small numbers and large groups

Will you gingerly avoid or not?

 

 

Not seen many ginger Chinese !!

[cornishcarlos]

2 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Here is where I'm at with these issues.

 

It is true that normal seasonal flus kill lots of people but based on information already released I suspect this new coronavirus probably has a higher fatality rate than most seasonal flus. 

I needed to do some business yesterday in Jomtien and noticed something quite interesting. As people know when the air is bad here (currently it's OK) many people wear masks for that. 

But yesterday and kind of disturbingly the only people I noticed wearing masks were some smaller groups of obviously CHINESE people.

Do they know something we don't?

Not only that although I admit I encountered only a limited number of such groups, most of those groups I did encounter were wearing masks.

They were generally the cheap cloth type masks.

In my understanding the cloth type masks are totally useless in preventing infections but have some utility in preventing already infected people from infecting others. Maybe that doesn't make sense, but that's what I heard.

Is it possible that those Chinese people wearing masks are aware that people might be afraid of contact with them and are wearing the masks (rather admirably) to ease people's minds?

My personal assumption is that just based on probabilities there almost definitely must be at least one traveler from China that made his way to Pattaya and infected. The numbers of Chinese tourists here are just so large and we already know the screening won't catch people earlier in the infection stage.

Whether a small number of infected travelers begins a significant spread here seems unknowable to me, but certainly possible. 

My initial response probably will seem paranoid to many.

I have stopped going to Chinese restaurants.

I am cutting down on baht bus trips.

I am avoiding close contact with Chinese tourists. 

I don't know yet what I will do if I encounter Chinese tourists on a confined baht bus, or boarding after I'm already on.

That's one reason I'm cutting down on my baht bus trips. 

It seems like you're a sitting duck on those buses, similar in a way to riding them during Songkran. 

 

I want to be clear now that my intention here is certainly not to promote irrational Sinophobia. This is all about this real thing, this new coronavirus. Not about China or Chinese people per se.

 

Didn't you read the news ?? Prayut has it 100% under control...

Now hop on a baht bus and go get a Kung Po chicken and fried rice take away ????

[Jingthing]

13 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

I have stopped drinking green tea, tastes 'orrible anyhow!

That's silly. 

[steven100]

' Will you change your behavior in anticipation of Coronavirus in Pattaya? '

 

yes ....  from now on i'm only going outside in my new suit :

[tlandtday]

11 minutes ago, cornishcarlos said:

 

Didn't you read the news ?? Prayut has it 100% under control...

Now hop on a baht bus and go get a Kung Po chicken and fried rice take away ????

Yeah just like he has the pollution under control.

Edited January 28, 2020 by tlandtday

[NCC1701A]

i have cancelled all my travel plans in Thailand until the virus thing dies down.

 

[bkk6060]

I will change nothing as I do all the things you listed everyday.

[toofarnorth]

On 1/27/2020 at 4:26 AM, baansgr said:

No more bat soup for me 

Nor me , I won't be getting a slice of Armadillo from the cart that comes round our soi either , don't know where he gets it from.

[Jingthing]

Just now, bkk6060 said:

I will change nothing as I do all the things you listed everyday.

I seriously doubt that. You've been leaving buses when groups of Chinese board before this? I find that very hard to believe. 

[bkk6060]

12 minutes ago, steven100 said:

' Will you change your behavior in anticipation of Coronavirus in Pattaya? '

 

yes ....  from now on i'm only going outside in my new suit :

I really would like to see someone wearing this. Maybe I will.

I wonder if the cops would detain you. Would have a good excuse.

[toofarnorth]

7 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

i have cancelled all my travel plans in Thailand until the virus thing dies down.

 

Inspect the Hairy Clams before consuming too NCC.