Pattaya baht buses are obviously rolling dens of potential Covid-19 transmission

[time2093]

Sounds like the OP watches to much CNN. Why dont you tell all the hundreds of thousands of people who use the BTS and MRT in Bangkok everyday to close all services and shut down the country while your at it.

[Nyezhov]

46 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

same Hua Hin. it is all over social media that young people are jumping on planes to come to Thailand because of low costs now and they think they will not get sick.  many saying if i have to die, i want to die having fun. 

 

this photo i took is from a month ago but is typical of baht bus here now.

 

second photo is Tamarind Night market packed with people every thurs - sun.

 

three photo is Baan Khun Por Food Market. again every night so packed it is hard to find a seat and mostly with local Thais and some expats and tourist. all sitting together.

 

four nights ago i walked into a family mart outside of Hua Hin and it was full of Russians. a big family. that might sound normal in Pattaya but it is a indication of how many tourist are still here and new one arriving all the time.  

 

tourists are not taking this seriously in Thailand. i am reading many posts on other forums asking questions about their vacation plans. which island? bla bla.

Damn. You should see Siem Reap. Last night at 11pm it was dead.

 

Which is nice.

 

Personally I dont see how dinfecting anyhting in Pattaya is worth it. Wash your hands. I bet that more fat expats in Pattaya will die from their unhealthy lifestyle than the virus.

[sscc]

Yes It is pandemic now.   

Taking specific course of action such as avoiding Baht Bus journey ?  Thanks but no thanks.

 

I am surely in the camp believing South East Asia Region will fare better than Europe and USA in this matter.  Believe in only factual and data for me . 

 

// Chinese New Year was on Jan 25, 2020.    The most Favorite travel destinations for PRC in New Year are Japan,  S Korea and Thailand in particular order.  Very high number of PRC came and stayed in Thailand during Jan 20-31, 2020. 

 

// 6-7 weeks had gone by since Chinese New Year. 

 

//   Check out the stats of  Jakarta ( pop over 10 Mil )   and Indonesia and also elsewhere in South East Asia.   Singapore had high figures 3-4 week ago.  Now Singapore infection ratio/rate is dropping on the list. 

 

 

Thai officials is  of course  'Mai ban lai'   as usual,  cannot help much on the matter as an understatement.    

 

As noted few times already, the heat is the key factor.   There is not going to be science experiment or evidence about this till much later date,  so WHO would not address this factor either,  at least at this stage. 

 

Personally I am not concerned about this,  and so are many Thai in Pattaya-Jomtien.  

Frankly I am quite surprised of the long-stay foreigner view on this board. 

     

[Jingthing]

4 hours ago, time2093 said:

Sounds like the OP watches to much CNN. Why dont you tell all the hundreds of thousands of people who use the BTS and MRT in Bangkok everyday to close all services and shut down the country while your at it.

China appears to have made some good progress with extreme measures. Italy is trying that. What we do know for a fact is that travel bans do not stop the virus from entering countries and beginning the process of community transmission. The idea is to act strongly enough before the more extreme measures NEED to be taken. 

[Jingthing]

3 hours ago, sscc said:

Yes It is pandemic now.   

Taking specific course of action such as avoiding Baht Bus journey ?  Thanks but no thanks.

 

I am surely in the camp believing South East Asia Region will fare better than Europe and USA in this matter.  Believe in only factual and data for me . 

 

// Chinese New Year was on Jan 25, 2020.    The most Favorite travel destinations for PRC in New Year are Japan,  S Korea and Thailand in particular order.  Very high number of PRC came and stayed in Thailand during Jan 20-31, 2020. 

 

// 6-7 weeks had gone by since Chinese New Year. 

 

//   Check out the stats of  Jakarta ( pop over 10 Mil )   and Indonesia and also elsewhere in South East Asia.   Singapore had high figures 3-4 week ago.  Now Singapore infection ratio/rate is dropping on the list. 

 

 

Thai officials is  of course  'Mai ban lai'   as usual,  cannot help much on the matter as an understatement.    

 

As noted few times already, the heat is the key factor.   There is not going to be science experiment or evidence about this till much later date,  so WHO would not address this factor either,  at least at this stage. 

 

Personally I am not concerned about this,  and so are many Thai in Pattaya-Jomtien.  

Frankly I am quite surprised of the long-stay foreigner view on this board. 

     

You have zero evidence concerning heat and this particular virus. So I see the above as wishful magical thinking. Singapore has taken specific MEASURES and they have been successful. Is Thailand doing what Singapore has done? It seems not. But we all know about how "organized" Singapore is. 

[alex8912]

Rent a car or a bike you fool!  Thank God he’s on mine and many’s ignore list. 

[Destiny1990]

You straighten these songteaw drivers out and tell them to clean their vehicles !! Surely they going to appreciate ur contribution ????

[Benmart]

18 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Suddenly everyone is a headline critic. 

 

 

But you read it yeah so it's an effective and actually accurate headline so no apologies. 

Critics are free to criticize the critics and back and forth...with certain restrictions. Otherwise, tap away.

[1FinickyOne]

18 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Do people agree with me that the city should start a formal program of disinfecting the baht buses? 

sure, but then the price would go up to 11 baht and the whiners will never stop going on about that... or lord help us 12 baht!!!

Edited March 13, 2020 by kenk24

[Henryford]

You will never know the true number infected in Thailand because a) they don't test many and b) they would never publish any "large" figure. Hard to believe with millions of Chinese here it is only 70.

Edited March 13, 2020 by Henryford

[SiSePuede419]

It's weird how only some people on buses get infected.  Nothing to do with proximity to infected carrier.

 

 

[CH1961]

20 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Do people agree with me that the city should start a formal program of disinfecting the baht buses? 

No ????

[Jingthing]

1 hour ago, SiSePuede419 said:

It's weird how only some people on buses get infected.  Nothing to do with proximity to infected carrier.

 

 

We're screwed.

[Max69xl]

20 hours ago, Jingthing said:

They are open air true but that won't help you if you are crammed right next to an infected person and he sprays and/or you touch a rail surface that she touched. 

 

You seem like a worrier. Try to calm down instead. No one forces you to use a baht bus. 

[Jingthing]

45 minutes ago, CH1961 said:

No ????

Sure thing.

 

 

[Jingthing]

1 hour ago, Henryford said:

You will never know the true number infected in Thailand because a) they don't test many and b) they would never publish any "large" figure. Hard to believe with millions of Chinese here it is only 70.

There is no rational reason to believe those low numbers whatsoever. 

[Max69xl]

1 hour ago, Henryford said:

You will never know the true number infected in Thailand because a) they don't test many and b) they would never publish any "large" figure. Hard to believe with millions of Chinese here it is only 70.

There are almost no Chinese tourists in Pattaya/Jomtien at the moment. No tourist buses parked anywhere. The Chinese I see in Jomtien have condos. 

[from the home of CC]

21 hours ago, Jingthing said:

No. 

It is officially a pandemic now. 

That's about the global situation and potential situation. 

Look up the definition if you're confused. 

Meaning nations as well as individuals must take actions or worse case scenarios are likely. 

 

As far as the current official numbers for Thailand does anyone actually believe them? 

 

As we see in some other countries already when the cases increase exponentially and that can start with one case, then things get really serious really fast. 

 

I believe about as much as I believe other countries numbers..

[from the home of CC]

21 hours ago, fforest1 said:

The baht buses are open air.....nothing to worry about......I would be much more worried about 7-11s,  restaurants, bars, grocery stores, buses, airplanes....

exactly..

[DannyCarlton]

21 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Suddenly everyone is a headline critic. 

 

 

But you read it yeah so it's an effective and actually accurate headline so no apologies. 

No just clickbait. Who uses songtaews anyway? Fat tourists with mobility issues and poor Thais.

[Jingthing]

2 minutes ago, Max69xl said:

There are almost no Chinese tourists in Pattaya/Jomtien at the moment. No tourist buses parked anywhere. The Chinese I see in Jomtien have condos. 

Yes the numbers are down but you're ignoring the obvious. They were here in very large numbers for weeks and months BEFORE China stopped the coverup and it is verified by now that the virus was widely spreading in China before that opening up. 

Personally I was in a lot of spaces with Chinese people from China during that period and did have some suspicious symptoms even before I knew to suspect Covid 19. Yes if and I understand it's unlikely I did already have it I would have been one of the spreaders on baht buses, restaurants, etc. Yes a large percentage of people have very mild cases and don't even realize they're infected but that's one of the most insidious things about this new virus as they're still infectious. As far as I know if you had it in the past there is no test to know if you did. That would be useful to know because there are theories that if you get it with mild symptoms you have some level of immunity, where everyone on the planet that hasn't been exposed to it yet has no immunity.

[Jingthing]

4 minutes ago, from the home of CC said:

I believe about as much as I believe other countries numbers..

That's very true. The USA is in a similar boat as Thailand on this matter. Due to very low testing numbers for various reasons the reported numbers are without any doubt just the tip of the iceberg.

[fred110]

Another option is to not let the media scare you.

[Jingthing]

6 minutes ago, from the home of CC said:

exactly..

I never said riding baht buses was the ONLY risk here. Obviously not. It's just that this topic is the risks in riding baht buses. and they are obvious to anyone with basic common sense.

 

Why?

 

When you're packed in there, you could be sitting very close to an infected person.

 

As has been discussed here, people generally touch common public rail surfaces when getting on and off, standing on the back, and also (which is at least avoidable) when sitting. 

[from the home of CC]

1 minute ago, Jingthing said:

That's very true. The USA is in a similar boat as Thailand on this matter. Due to very low testing numbers for various reasons the reported numbers are without any doubt just the tip of the iceberg.

don't want to point fingers at any country, lets just say worldwide many deaths didn't have to happen if greed would of taken a back seat in this - too many too concerned over 'economies' over humanities. Well, the economies has been trashed anyways and now here we are looking into the abyss..

[Jingthing]

5 minutes ago, fred110 said:

Another option is to not let the media scare you.

People shouldn't panic, that's for sure. But acting like there is no problem when there is obviously a big problem is simply IDIOTIC. 

[from the home of CC]

Just now, Jingthing said:

I never said riding baht buses was the ONLY risk here. Obviously not. It's just that this topic is the risks in riding baht buses. and they are obvious to anyone with basic common sense.

 

Why?

 

When you're packed in there, you could be sitting very close to an infected person.

 

As has been discussed here, people generally touch common public rail surfaces when getting on and off, standing on the back, and also (which is at least avoidable) when sitting. 

yes those surfaces can contain virus, if you can find hand sanitizer you can lower your risk, they're cleaning subway systems in NY twice a day - same issue..

[Jingthing]

Just now, from the home of CC said:

yes those surfaces can contain virus, if you can find hand sanitizer you can lower your risk, they're cleaning subway systems in NY twice a day - same issue..

Yes, and I think it would be prudent for the authorities to order periodic disinfecting of shared surfaces on baht buses. I think by now all the malls are (voluntarily) disinfecting elevator buttons and perhaps escalator rails. 

[from the home of CC]

1 minute ago, Jingthing said:

People shouldn't panic, that's for sure. But acting like there is no problem when there is obviously a big problem is simply IDIOTIC. 

you have to understand that this is some folks way of coping with a potentially devastating situation, I have friends visiting now that are living the same fantasy - they'll soon wake up when travelling back to the west so I'm trying to not to be realistic about it all..

[from the home of CC]

1 minute ago, Jingthing said:

Yes, and I think it would be prudent for the authorities to order periodic disinfecting of shared surfaces on baht buses. I think by now all the malls are (voluntarily) disinfecting elevator buttons and perhaps escalator rails. 

I don't believe you can count that here, there are too many other issues screaming for attention that IMO peoples best bet in Thailand is to be as personally proactive about health safety as possible..