Songkran and Covid-19: Water festival to go ahead, despite being terrible for spread of virus

[Isaanbiker]

31 minutes ago, JHolmesJr said:

How is songkran a commercial attraction?

Its just a bunch of drunks throwing water on each other.

for a week.

Others watch guys who're trying to kill a bull. 

 

How is that a commercial attraction? 

 

Different countries, different traditions. We'll celebrate Songkran like every year, most importantly the water ceremony for the elders. 

 

   Songkran was Thailand's start of the New Year until they had to change their calendar for obvious reasons.

 

 

[hotchilli]

27 minutes ago, CGW said:

& 150,000 people die everyday regardless, maybe we should show them more concern as well ????

From what?

[Jonathan Swift]

7 hours ago, Just1Voice said:

My feeling, and I hope I am wrong, is that Songkran will cause an explosion of Corona virus cases nation wide. It could turn out to be a medical disaster. 

I advice you to educate yourself on the topic. Pay a visit to a real doctor and ask any relevant questions. Pay particular attention to the topic of hand washing. So how do you figure people hosing each other down with water is going to spread viruses?  Wild speculation uninformed by facts simply makes matters worse. Please stop making remarks like this. Science isn't something you just make up as you go along. 

[CGW]

7 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

From what?

Don't know, never asked ????

 

Seriously, ~150,000 is the mortality rate or death rate for the human species, total combined from all causes.

[emptypockets]

2 minutes ago, Jonathan Swift said:

"most serious bio crisis in living memory". Hysteria like yours causes almost as much harm as the disease itself. In living memory? How about AIDS? Ebola? Sars? Mers? Polio? Multiple flu epidemics? Flu kills appx 60,000 every year in the US alone. 

40 years of HIV/ AIDS. 32 million dead.

Some people seem to have tunnel vision. The biggest killer is still starvation and the sharpened stick. Polio was and still is, in some places, a terrible disease. Not to mention measles.

Edited March 4, 2020 by emptypockets

[billd766]

1 hour ago, CGW said:

Obviously it depends on where you live! I choose an area that historically has plenty of water, you obviously didn't  ???? 

Yesterday was our first rain since September 15th, local reservoir around half full, rain will make little difference but keeps the garden watered, all the more water for Songkran fun, the water from which just drains to the land anyway ????

We decided to build up here in the early noughties and there was no problem back then. We were 500 metres from our nearest neighbours back then.

 

Now the area is built up and includes 3 resorts and a home stay. There isn't enough room to put a cigarette paper anywhere and the only positive improvement was the borehole and that has also run dry.

 

For the last 10 years at least there has been a plan to build a dam but that was turned down after a long drawn out campaign by one of the resorts who would have been underwater. Now they have gone and the chances are that it may start in my lifetime (I am 75) but I doubt I will ever see it full.

[Bangkok Barry]

7 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Both shocking and expected. 

Short sighted 

Business interests over basic common sense. 

Not really. We all know that Thais will always do whatever they want to do, no matter what the law says or what the consequences might be. They just don't care, and you can see that in their everyday behaviour, especially on the roads. The government is being realistic in knowing that the people are ungovernable and that the authorities are completely powerless in stopping the revelry.

[Jonathan Swift]

7 hours ago, spiekerjozef said:

The water will flush the virus away...

Gosh, common sense without drama and hysteria! You're ruining the fun for all the other commenters. Please don't add to this with science and medical expertise. Did you notice that not a single medical expert was cited in this story? So you're the closest thing!

[DrTuner]

Anything to get the tourists in - except no sane tourist would engage in that primordial soup. But hey at least they'll accelerate the spread of the virus among their native population. I'm somewhat surprised they aren't spraying areas with SARS-CoV-2 droplets to make it faster.

[CGW]

5 minutes ago, billd766 said:

We decided to build up here in the early noughties and there was no problem back then. We were 500 metres from our nearest neighbours back then.

I feel for you, its a pain being without water.

I was living in Pattaya in ~2005 when the last bad drought was, month after month buying in poor quality water, after that I have made sure that wherever i live has a good source and supply of water, we have a reservoir at the bottom of the garden and a "deep" well on the property, I refused to buy the land until they could prove that their was good water available via the well, once bitten................. Learnt my lesson back in time, waiting up at night  in hope that the city gave us water was no fun!

Anybody moving up country, I would advise to do due diligence - lesson learnt!

[Georgie65]

Its time to teach this corrupt, incompetent Thai government a lesson they will will never forget! Oh and by the way, Thailand has been manipulating there currency and lying to the rest of the world for years! Boycott Songkran!! I don't appreciate the the pop up video advertisement shoved down my throat...

[jwbrit]

Ongoing drought and virus. Let me see, aha let's have a water festival! Send in the clowns.

[shy coconut]

I think the biggest concern regarding the spread of the virus over Songkran is the hoards

of workers going home to issan for the holiday. They are largely young and healthy, but many

in the rural areas are old and vulnerable.

 

There is probably more chance of picking up the virus in a big city or tourist resort, than

up in the boonies, and most people who carry the virus don't feel any serious effects, so

going home to see the old folks could lead to a lot of serios health issues.

 

[thesetat2013]

Songkran is one of the largest tourist dollar activities in Thailand. People all over Thailand participate and spend billions... Foreigners arrive and play and spend billions.. They could never permit this loss of income even if it caused every Thai to contract the covid. 

[Bkk Brian]

Well if the full Songkran celebrations go ahead that include all the extremely close contact with strangers, rubbing talc on everyones faces, talking/shouting within inches of anothers open mouth and the the inevitable constant rubbing of your eyes from the filthy water and talc then yes this potentially is a disaster in the making for a rapid spread of any virus and certainly that includes COVID which is highly contagious. While Songkran will I think now still go ahead I just hope that some sort of limitations will be put in place to reduce the risk such as not allowing public celebrations in large crowds.

 

I've seen a few posters on here claiming that the water will wash off any virus, thats just not true. We're not talking here about 1000's of people all washing thr hands with hot water and soap are we. Water alone does not kill or wash off virus's, even when washed properly with water and soap this does not kill bacteria or virus, it dislodges it from your hands and fingernails. 

 

At 3.4% COVID is now estimated to have a far higher death rate than normal seasonal flu which tends to be around less than 1%. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/03/who-says-coronavirus-death-rate-is-3point4percent-globally-higher-than-previously-thought.html?

[Buba Ho Tep]

What could possibly go wrong? 

[kralledr]

Songkran is not thd same as 10 years agp, now just drunken idiots, and this ice water..

[RICO86]

Hospitals during the wet fest will be laughing ????

[Mac98]

Get the water supply blessed so celebrants are only using Holy Water. 

[herwin1234]

1 hour ago, Georgie65 said:

Its time to teach this corrupt, incompetent Thai government a lesson they will will never forget! Oh and by the way, Thailand has been manipulating there currency and lying to the rest of the world for years! Boycott Songkran!! I don't appreciate the the pop up video advertisement shoved down my throat...

Incompetent? I live here for more than a decade in  Bangkok and Isan.  Economy is doing great, provincial cities have grown and prospered year after year. Society is stable EXCEPT when billionaires stir up people and cause unrest and burn down Central.

Syrong currency bc good economy, bad for your pension but good for Thais, they can travel andtheir Baht  gets them much euro or dollars. good for them!

 

[aspenbkk]

8 hours ago, Ian Nagle said:

I absolutly detest Songram. I hate the farangs who come here and ruin it. Chiang Mai is a nightmare at this time.  

What 3 days in Chang mai songkran 7 stupid days in pattaya haha no comparison. 

[joecoolfrog]

7 hours ago, zyphodb said:

Of course they won't ban Songkran. They are hugely unpopular as it is, if they tried to ban it they'd be ignored, what could they do? Send the tanks into every town and village in the country? Guaranteed nationwide rebellion...

 

I think this nails it pretty much .

In addition the government has been playing down the crisis from the start , cancelling Songkran would be a huge u turn and loss of face for them.

Having said that , it is a huge gamble , if people die in large numbers as a result then there will be a huge price to pay.

[Stargeezr]

Bkk Brian, sorry but your entry makes too much sense.  We should believe the long

rant that China is trying to get more powerful.  yup, yup  that sure  sounds ehhhh

better... 555.  Sorry  forgot to turn off my  sarcasm.

Geezer

[manhood]

My Feeling nie is, that Songkran Festival will be used from the government to come up ant to public the thousands of cases of already infected people in the country. Mostly thai due to their contacts with Chinese due to theirr work! Have a list of countries with the most infections. I miss Thailand on it! Or wait Africa as a continent where thousands of Chinese are working.......

[elliss]

9 hours ago, Ian Nagle said:

I absolutly detest Songram. I hate the farangs who come here and ruin it. Chiang Mai is a nightmare at this time.  

 

 Are you a farlang ?,  or a long term Alien/visitor..

 

 

Edited March 4, 2020 by elliss
spelling

[josephbloggs]

9 hours ago, kingstonkid said:

This is probably the most sane thing the government has done.

 

You can not cancel Songkran it is an important holiday for families and religion.

 

You can not tell people THOU SHALL NOT SPRAY WATER

 

How can they stop people from doing it?

 

This is just like telling kids that they can not throw snowballs.

People are going to do it anyway.

Imagine when the MLB starts in April the government telling Yankees fans not to go to the games/

 

The only thing they can do is restrict where they can and ask the businesses to be smart.  

 

Central could not have anything at their locations to celebrate it.

Do NOT close streets like Silom leave it all open.

 

The average Thai person is aware of what is happening.  Yes there are those that will want to be stupid and party their ass off.  Most of the youth understand this is serious.  Most tourists we know are staying away from Thailand.

 

Very sensible post.  Songkran is several weeks away, no need to make any rash decisions now.  Cancelling it would be like cancelling Christmas.  Only the most culturally ignorant people (ie. 90% of posters on here) would not understand that.

Scale back or cancel the organised mass gatherings if necessary at the time, but you can't cancel something that is so deeply ingrained in the national culture.

 

All the miserable old gits who hate Songkran anyway are running riot in this thread. You stay home and type away here how much you hate it for three days anyway - don't worry you will still get that opportunity regardless.

[josephbloggs]

8 hours ago, madmen said:

Glad I'm going to oz for a year in a few weeks. real health ministers around the world that actually have degrees in their fields will ban flights from Thailand. 

Ah, good old Oz with their real health minister, Greg Hunt, who has trawled round various ministries (minster for Sport, minister for Industry) and has absolutely no medical qualifications whatsoever.  No background in medicine or healthcare at all.  But do carry on believing what you want to believe - you'll be safe there with your magical politicians.

Or maybe you mean the UK where Matt Hancock is the Secretary of State for Health.  His degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics is in no way medically related by the way.  Before that he was Secretary of State for Media, Culture and Sport and he has no degrees in those fields either.

Or maybe you mean Alex Azar, the US Health and Human Services Secretary with his degree in, erm, law.  Of course he had a great career as a pharmaceutical lobbyist and anti abortionist campaigning for pharmaceutical companies.

So, tell me again about these great Western health ministers with their degrees in their fields.  And enjoy your utopian Australian holiday with all the magical politicians with imaginary qualifications.

[josephbloggs]

5 hours ago, Caine said:

Over grown children at play festival more like. They're absolutely brain dead good luck with it I'm out of here. And on my way to civilised country. 

Byeeeeeeeeeee

[josephbloggs]

3 hours ago, Georgie65 said:

Its time to teach this corrupt, incompetent Thai government a lesson they will will never forget! Oh and by the way, Thailand has been manipulating there currency and lying to the rest of the world for years! Boycott Songkran!! I don't appreciate the the pop up video advertisement shoved down my throat...

What?

[P100]

10 hours ago, Ian Nagle said:

I absolutly detest Songram. I hate the farangs who come here and ruin it. Chiang Mai is a nightmare at this time.  

are you one of them?