The week that was in Thailand news: Waiting, waiting on virus news.....many countries including Thailand are holding their breath!

[Andycoops]

Your point about there hardly being any deaths related to the CV19 In Thailand I find somewhat dubious.

As you can't even get a test in your local hospital, I feel quite sure that sadly elderly and maybe other, deaths here are being recorded under other causes.

 

[Mavideol]

3 hours ago, Jane Dough said:

Looking back at my column of February 1st I will concede to you that it contained several observations, and opinions that are now clearly erroneous. It was my feeling at the time and though mistaken I might point out that many people agreed with me though most didn't. In more recent columns I have satirized the panic while accepting that things were starting to look worse than expected. We arrive at a point however when even the so called experts are not sure how to proceed so what hope is there for us mortals? The UK government are reacting in stark contrast to some other nations, for example. I saw a mayoral candidate in London who has experience in fighting viruses criticizing Boris and praising the actions of China and Korea. He said that the UK govt is making a big mistake in their approaches. The WHO has also come in for criticism.

 

So while I accept that I indeed have got things wrong in the past - and will do so again in the future - I would contend that very few people have accurately foreseen all the current events and very few will be able to accurately predict how things will pan out from here. Which is why my approach is now caution albeit tinged with my usual skepticism. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and in a year like this, 20-20 vision would be great but unlikely to be something we are all blessed with. Least of all me.

 

Thanks for reading and thanks for your comments.

 

Rooster

will give you 5 ***** for being honest enough recognizing the mistake/misleading on the Feb 1st post, not a lot of people would have the guts to do so....

[jmccarty]

Thank you Rooster! I don't see an advantage to faking the numbers with this either way.  Like it or not, this is a threat to life as we know it.  Statistically, a low threat unless we don't take it seriously.  The hot spots doing what they are doing fits no other pandemic pattern. 

[Mick501]

5 hours ago, Jane Dough said:

I will look for a free 'E' or 'R' on the board and play either VOICED or CORVID, that is a member of the crow family as appropriately enough I will be crowing my victory.

 

Rooster

Lol, well played Sir!

[bluesofa]

2 hours ago, Jane Dough said:

2 hours ago, alex8912 said:

On the surface it seems stupid that you can’t spell the name of Bangkok airport as it should be. Suvarnabhumi. Can you elaborate on this?? 

I was a teacher of Thai language for 20 years and in so doing I was always determined to use transliteration that reflected the actual sound of the word. In many of my approximately 60 translations this week I have used the official spelling you suggest. On Sunday, in my column, I spell it properly.

Thanks for reading.

Rooster

At the risk of going off at a tangent:

I've always been confused about Suvarnabhumi and Chaiyaphum.

Both have the same endings in Thai (มิ) but the English transliterations aren't the same.

 

I've just looked it up and I see that Chaiyaphum originates from Sanskrit. I knew Suvarnabhumi was a Sanskrit word.

Suvarnabhumi is listed as using RTGS, but Chaiyaphum isn't mentioned.

source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suvarnabhumi_Airport

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaiyaphum_Province#Toponymy

 

[Justgrazing]

On 3/14/2020 at 12:02 PM, rooster59 said:

Relying on evidence that the virus hates hot weather or the health service is in control may prove to be clutching at straws

Indeed .. Initially it was thought that the virus could not survive long on surfaces in higher temperatures but the fact that it now has a major foothold in Spain and emerging outbreaks in East Africa suggest it may be more resilient to higher temps than first thought .. 

 

On 3/14/2020 at 12:02 PM, rooster59 said:

In Thailand there are about 80 cases but fears are legitimately growing that an explosion is about to begin to take the country to another level of community infection

Quite .. The way C V appears to spread once it has found entry into a country goes against the trend that has appeared in Thailand so far .. but that might be changing as the number of reported infections has risen considerably over the weekend ..

Edited March 15, 2020 by Justgrazing
Sp

[bluesofa]

43 minutes ago, Justgrazing said:

Indeed .. Initially it was thought that the virus could not survive long on surfaces in higher temperatures but the fact that it now has a major foothold in Spain and emerging outbreaks in East Africa suggest it may be more resilient to higher temps than first thought .. 

{snipped}

I saw a science article last week saying that Covid can't survive very well at temperatures of 30C+ and humidity of 80%.

Could be why it's got a foothold into Spain?

I think it mentioned it dislikes high amounts of sunlight too.

Sorry, I can't find the original article right now.

 

edit: I see the highest temperature in Spain today is 20C.

 

Edited March 15, 2020 by bluesofa
addendum

[CM Dad]

5 hours ago, alex8912 said:

Just the V has a more W sound and it’s the name of the airport anyways. A lot of airports in the world are often the name of a local famous person and many people not from that country can’t really pronounce it properly but still spell it correctly. I never have a problem when getting a taxi there and pronounce it almost the same as real spelling just a little more W sound in the V and a very light I at the end. So I guess myself ( and many others) may disagree with you. I mean let’s face it, Do a lot of non French simply spell it  “CHarles do Gaul”???

The word "anyway" does not end in the letter s.    Charles begins with one capital letter, not two.

[Stargeezr]

Another great post Rooster. I just finished 2 months vacation and got back to Canada late

last night. In Savarnabhumi I seen lots of travellers with masks, as I had mine on as well.

In Tai Pei, I had another temperature check, and seen many travellers and all staff with masks.

In Vanvouver I seen some travellers still wearing their masks, but not a lot of airport staff, and no Canadian domestic travellers with masks. It just show me that Asia is taking the virus

pandemic more seriously than Canada at least. Good luck to you and all in Thailand. stay

as safe and healthy as you can. I am glad that I got back to my home, before Canada, gets put

on Thailands dangerous country list.

Geezer

Edited March 15, 2020 by Stargrazer9889
errors

[alex8912]

1 hour ago, CM Dad said:

The word "anyway" does not end in the letter s.    Charles begins with one capital letter, not two.

Anyways is vernacular English now. It’s totally acceptable. The H in CHarles was a typo and even a stupid person would know that????. You must hate emojis. 
Anyways is a real word and has seen use meaning "in any manner or respect" for over 800 years. ... Others, however, have no doubts about the existence of a specific word. An example of this second group may be found in the people who comment on our entry for anyways. Yes, 'anyways' is in the dictionary.

 

Oh anyways has been around 800 years. 

Edited March 15, 2020 by alex8912

[smudger1951]

Rooster, That was a great posting and I thank you for writing it. The issues which you addressed will be pivotal to the future. Right now, I'm due to arrive back on the next week.

[Golden Triangle]

Rooster, we haven't always seen eye to eye on some matters in the past, your post this weekend was I have to say spot on, I believe that those who poo pooed this virus in the early days have maybe changed their tune, but as far as I can see there is no need to panic, take all the necessary hygiene precautions and go about your daily business, just be aware and don't make yourself a target.

 

I'm sure we'll all see this through and come out the other side ????  

 

Thanks.

[unblocktheplanet]

The actual figures by country are live here: https://ncov2019.live/data?fbclid=IwAR2cph0Pd4FeJ87DmYpoKqnMfiYXWSQXoUtnUad-jpVLVvbyCcKRCVvOPVA.

[burgdawg]

..another fine podcast here by Dr. Chris Martenson. Sobering. Delves into the business aspect of this Covid19 crisis. As in too many American big companies do not want a crisis to go to waste. Globalists concerns wish to privatise their profit and socialist their losses.

 

 

[Aatsi]

63 years man from Finland arrived to Thailand 26 September 2019 with one year multi entry retirement visa expired in September end 2020. He been in Vietnam since 19 December 2019 until this day and wanna arrival to Thailand Pattaya back in 21-23 March 2020.

The question is to check in at Ho Chi Minh airport to AirAsia or Vietnam airline flight so he have already retirement visa and good sickness and accident insurance and already in last year paid return flight from Bkk to Helsinki in May so are there some special matter what this covid-19 situation demanding to get for check in to flight from Vietnam SGN to Thailand BKK and gonna landing to Suvarnaphumi or Dong Muang airport and get out from Bkk airport.
Do he get to quarantine isolation or can go to Pattaya where he have rented room?

[Ukiisinbkk]

Hi guys all this is making me worried my fam is here but my visa will expired begin May...my mom is alone in europe netherlands and according to the numbers highrisk...im in good health question is stay put or go back to netherlands..any advice is much appreciated hope everyone is healthy and safe 

Edited March 18, 2020 by Ukiisinbkk

[3NUMBAS]

On Wednesday European Commission’s president Ursula von der Leyen said a vaccine could be on the market by autumn.

Speaking as the EU offered biotech company CureVac €80m (£72.8m) in financial backing, she said: “I hope that with this support, we can have a vaccine on the market, perhaps before autumn.”

Von der Leyen also said that medical trials could be fast-tracked to bring the vaccine on to the market as soon as possible.

 

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/coronavirus-cases-uk-latest-140216056.html

[rosst]

Thank you sir, one of your best for ages, please look after yourself and your family. 

I am in the Philippines and our province of Negros Occidental is in lockdown and we have 8PM to 4AM Curfew and no confirmed cases. 

All resorts and hotels are not allowed to accept any guest. 

Tough rules and I am hoping we will be OK. 

Fingers crossed 

[wotsdermatter]

On 3/15/2020 at 1:56 AM, Mick501 said:

Pop quiz, Rooster:.  You're down to your last 5 tiles in scrabble.  Scores are tied, and your opponent also has 5 tiles.   Your letters are C,O,V,I,D.  What's your move?

The answer to that question is that there are only 14 words that can be made without any being of just a single character and are not made by adding to another existing word on the board.

5 characters = 0

4 characters = diva, void

3 characters = cid, cod, div, doc, vid

2 characters = di, do, id, od, io, oi

 

Rooster might win but it depends on placement of his tiles and the characters on the tiles of the opponent and where they are placed.

'nuf sed

Edited March 19, 2020 by wotsdermatter

[lamyai3]

On 3/15/2020 at 1:39 PM, Jane Dough said:

I will look for a free 'E' or 'R' on the board and play either VOICED or CORVID, that is a member of the crow family as appropriately enough I will be crowing my victory.

 

Rooster

I've seen a few people write corvid-19 as the name of the current virus. It'd actually be a good name for the next bird flu pandemic... 

[Jane Dough]

12 hours ago, wotsdermatter said:

The answer to that question is that there are only 14 words that can be made without any being of just a single character and are not made by adding to another existing word on the board.

5 characters = 0

4 characters = diva, void

3 characters = cid, cod, div, doc, vid

2 characters = di, do, id, od, io, oi

 

Rooster might win but it depends on placement of his tiles and the characters on the tiles of the opponent and where they are placed.

'nuf sed

Not bad....you missed DIVO, an update to the Collins dictionary in one of the recent revisions.

 

Rooster

[PatOngo]

21 hours ago, lamyai3 said:

I've seen a few people write corvid-19 as the name of the current virus. It'd actually be a good name for the next bird flu pandemic... 

Or a punk or heavy metal band!

[lamyai3]

6 hours ago, PatOngo said:

Or a punk or heavy metal band!

Most previous pandemics have resulted in bands names. There's a Canadian death metal band called H5N1, a Serbian indie band called SARS, and even a Thai band from the 90's called Ebola - so it's only a matter of time. 

[nausea]

I think you called that one wrong, you don't react to the event, you react to how people are gonna react to the event. At the end of the day, it's nothing much. The world isn't gonna end cos 3% of the older population, or those who are already sick, die. We can't accept death nowadays. In my youth people were regularly dying in their 50s, we thought nothing of it, they'd had a good life, or not, as the case might be. To die with a clear conscience, that is the thing. My father, who was a mortician, said how older rich people, were always trying to redeem themselves. Can you do that after a lifetime of selfishness, I don't know, I suppose it's good to try.

[Daveyh]

Yes, humanity is all we really have left in this state of confusion. I personally think it is us that will resolve matters by helping each other. Governments worldwide make a mess of most things leading to a crisis which eventually must be & are resolved by us, the general public ...... fact. Be it war, famine, drought & epidemics etc etc etc it's us that make a difference. Now is the time to show compassion & concern for every human being on this planet .......... only we can do this.