Put safety before money - academic warns about opening country too quickly to "infected" foreigners

[kcpattaya]

Great idea! Let's bring the economy further on its knees and we all move to Philippines or Cambodia. 

[Percy P]

5 hours ago, Cali farong said:

Yeah keep it locked down until it’s total economic free fall.

Then guess who will be there to help,  the ones who started 

this pandemic.

I have no problem with the lockdown, the longer the better for me.

[5633572526]

4 hours ago, totally thaied up said:

Yet the million dollar question is why Thailand did not suffer like others. We had the Chinese in here by the bucket load, yet it seems it did take off. What stopped it? That's my question.

Lack of testing and under reporting stopped it. Why else would we still be under curfew.

[Anton9]

2 minutes ago, kcpattaya said:

Great idea! Let's bring the economy further on its knees and we all move to Philippines or Cambodia. 

Philippines is having probably the world longest lockdown and yet still logging in more cases than the beginning

 

[Percy P]

5 hours ago, Cali farong said:

Yeah keep it locked down until it’s total economic free fall.

Then guess who will be there to help,  the ones who started 

this pandemic.

They didn't start the pandemic , it originated from their. China.

[herwin1234]

4 hours ago, eeworldwide said:

It only takes ONE case to slip in between the cracks and we go back to square one. This is Thailand folks. Im willing to lay my money on the line in saying that we'll see a 2nd wave and this another lockdown before christmas.

"this is Thailand, folks." No loudmouth armed citizen protesting that wearing mask and stay at home orders are fascist, no leaders politisizing the crisis, no leaders sarcastically promoting bleach as a cure, only stability and untity and a profesional aproach to handle the crisis...Yeah, this is Thailand alright.

 

Yes, there will be a second wave, here, and everywhere, nobody denies that. And after the second wave another wave.

The big question is will it be contained or not.  

We cannot eredicate this, or any virus, nobody claims this. The question is we will control the virus, or will it control us.

[Percy P]

4 hours ago, Chivas said:

Its a tough choice. Make no mistake Thailand has done superbly over containing Covid unlike my own hapless government in the UK which have acted with catastrophic results.

I suspect the borders will open later this year but with really onerous restrictions in place first that will put off 95% of regular visitors.

 

I cant praise Thailand enough personally for the superb job they have done in controlling Covid overall

Without the people's co-operation nothing can be a success. Well done Thais. 

[PingRoundTheWorld]

Yet another "academic" babbling from his ivory tower. Meanwhile half the country has been thrown back into poverty, but as long as it doesn't hurt him, why should he care?

 

4 hours ago, totally thaied up said:

Yet the million dollar question is why Thailand did not suffer like others. We had the Chinese in here by the bucket load, yet it seems it did take off. What stopped it? That's my question.

70% the weather, 20% low obesity rate, 10% tracing and quarantine.

[Patts]

5 hours ago, Chivas said:

Its a tough choice. Make no mistake Thailand has done superbly over containing Covid unlike my own hapless government in the UK which have acted with catastrophic results.

I suspect the borders will open later this year but with really onerous restrictions in place first that will put off 95% of regular visitors.

 

I cant praise Thailand enough personally for the superb job they have done in controlling Covid overall

Stop talking nonsense. 

 

The only two things the UK have done wrong is:

 

1) Not banning international flights

2) Not making it a legal requirement to wear masks in public places

 

Neither of these explain why the mortality rate in Spain, Italy, Belguim, Netherlands and the UK is over 10% when in most of Asia and the Middle East it is under 3%

 

Sick of reading comments blaming the governments of these countries when on the whole they have been just as strict as anywhere else in the world!

Edited May 29, 2020 by Patts

[StevieAus]

1 hour ago, tribalfusion001 said:

Nearly every country in the world has had the virus and it hasn't wiped out their populations. It seems the fear in Thailand in making things worse economically. Just don't let in older obese people with multiple health conditions and people from certain ethnic backgrounds from certain western countries.

Must be the same fear in Australia as they are not letting anyone in or out as I understand  the situation.

[mberbae]

But...Chinese welcome right away. Bring family. BRING MONEY !!!

How soon they forget those $1. tours, the poop at the Temples.

[natway09]

All you lot talking about racism must be very insecure.

He talked about "infected foreigners" & he is absolutely right.

Their experience bringing back the Thais from offshore proved he is right & lucky that they insisted (after some prodding) that all returnees go into quarantine as 12 more infected found yesterday.

What would you do ? ,      Open up for tourism with a temperature check at Immigration only (which you have been harping on for months is useless.)

If the doors are opened now you can bet just about all countries except maybe NZ or Australia will reinfect the population of Thailand.

Accurate testing before departure from country of origin,,,,,not gonna happen yet.

!4 days self quarantine on arrival,,,,,,no use coming.

It is probably an unsolvable quandry at this time & his comments are very good advice,

Stop bashing for bashing's sake & put the brain in gear first

[GAZZPA]

Why do we need a University Doctor to tell us the blo**y obvious... So letting im people with the virus won't be ood for the economy,,,,, welll duhhh! so when is he suggesting to do it exactly? When half of the country is out of work and starving to death?

 

I am very sceptical of thai universities and their ability to learn since they adorned the wall of the University with a giant mural entitled "super heroes" with Hitler slap in the middle.... Not 1 "Professor /Dr" in the whole university understood why that was not appropriate... ????

[hotchilli]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand could regret it and the country could be back to square one rather than in "phase three".

Square one being that's exactly what they did in early February.. chasing the Chinese Yuan !

[mrfill]

41 minutes ago, PingRoundTheWorld said:

Yet another "academic" babbling from his ivory tower. Meanwhile half the country has been thrown back into poverty, but as long as it doesn't hurt him, why should he care?

 

70% the weather, 20% low obesity rate, 10% tracing and quarantine.

And yet Norway, Finland and Iceland have very low figures. That rules out weather and obesity. They do have rather more sensible and aware governments who didn't go overboard with crowd control.

[tribalfusion001]

30 minutes ago, Patts said:

Stop talking nonsense. 

 

The only two things the UK have done wrong is:

 

1) Not banning international flights

2) Not making it a legal requirement to wear masks in public places

 

Neither of these explain why the mortality rate in Spain, Italy, Belguim, Netherlands and the UK is over 10% when in most of Asia and the Middle East it is under 3%

 

Sick of reading comments blaming the governments of these countries when on the whole they have been just as strict as anywhere else in the world!

Those death rates are only for tested positive, once you include the one's not tested with mild symptoms it drops to around 0.2 to 0.5. We will only know the true mortality rate if everyone is tested for antibodies.

[tifino]

6 hours ago, pmarlin said:

The guy has a point to a degree but some how the headline cane across as racist in my opinion.

I put on some rose coloured glasses, and the image magically reformed to:

Put safety before money - academic warns about opening country too quickly to "infect" foreigners

[Bender Rodriguez]

xenophobia as usual ...

 

57 dead... there was no corona pandemic in thailand, not a first, nor a second wave

 

 

[peterb17]

 

Here is the elephant in the room - what exactly did the Thai nationals actually do - in perhaps counties like Bahrain- the Sodom & Gomorrah of the Arab world . 
 

Perhaps not too much social distancing?

 

So keep up the quarantining for a while .

 

 

[swerve]

Thailand will lose all it gains if it let's the foreign covid mob in.

[terryofcrete]

3 hours ago, brucegoniners said:

I can't agree more. Do it very slowly. And limit what countries you allow people from. Also require a 14 day quarantine, either in their home country (verifiable) or in Thailand. You've gotta do that.

Verifiable? How can you manage that .. Take their word ? Have a paper signed by the Police/Doctor/ who would refuse unless you were isolating in a police cell ... not doable in reality .. on paper ... no problem . But hey... what does the truth matter any more ? How many tests were done with a population of 69 million ... truthfully? No one has any idea how many “cases” are walking around out there .. asymptomatic cases.. never mind letting foreigners in. 

[DjChris28]

5 hours ago, totally thaied up said:

Yet the million dollar question is why Thailand did not suffer like others. We had the Chinese in here by the bucket load, yet it seems it did take off. What stopped it? That's my question.

Under reporting. Just look at the amount of serious cases versus the amount of active cases. There is 59 serious and 63 active. When you compare that to other countries, there is massive discrepancy. Other countries that show 59 serious cases show 5k - 10k active.

 Thailand is likely in line with about phillipinnes infection rate. Likely to be 5000- 10k active cases.

[tribalfusion001]

9 minutes ago, peterb17 said:

 

Here is the elephant in the room - what exactly did the Thai nationals actually do - in perhaps counties like Bahrain- the Sodom & Gomorrah of the Arab world . 
 

Perhaps not too much social distancing?

 

So keep up the quarantining for a while .

 

 

Full body oil massage and some extras 555.

[GAZZPA]

4 minutes ago, mrfill said:

And yet Norway, Finland and Iceland have very low figures. That rules out weather and obesity. They do have rather more sensible and aware governments who didn't go overboard with crowd control.

It seems you don't really have any grasp of how a virus spreads and behaves and how different countries have different challenges. Iceland, Norway and Finland are countries with very small populations and minimal congestion at the best of times. I spent quite some time in Oslo with work and even during "rush hour" it was a very spread out city centre. In contrast London in the UK is jam packed almost every where. The tube trains every single day are (at busy hours and beyond) absolutely rammed with millions of people. Also, people in different countries behave differently,, for example people in the UK are happy to travel to work for an hour each day, sometimes more because the cost difference of living in a nice house in the suburbs. However this is not the same in other countries,,, so people travel more each day and therefore spreading the virus very very quickly...

 

There are almost countless things to consider but from the scientific data I have read it is more prevalant in cooler climates, adding the congestion it would explain why the virus has spread so terribly in major western cities and countries.

[paulikens]

6 hours ago, Brunolem said:

A more adapted word than "racist" would be "xenophobic"...

 

Anyway, with its extreme reliance on tourism, Thailand is caught between a rock and a hard place...open the gates to the tourists and the virus, or keep the gates closed and millions unemployed.

no more reliant on tourism than most countries

[GAZZPA]

6 minutes ago, DjChris28 said:

Under reporting. Just look at the amount of serious cases versus the amount of active cases. There is 59 serious and 63 active. When you compare that to other countries, there is massive discrepancy. Other countries that show 59 serious cases show 5k - 10k active.

 Thailand is likely in line with about phillipinnes infection rate. Likely to be 5000- 10k active cases.

Under reporting for sure, however climate is an issue for the virus. It is very widely accpeted it does not spread as easily in high heat and humidity. I think if you are in Thailand you should thank your lucky stars this is the case because Bangkok rush hour is rammed and a terrible breeding ground for a virus. stay safe,,

[mrfill]

13 minutes ago, tribalfusion001 said:

Those death rates are only for tested positive, once you include the one's not tested with mild symptoms it drops to around 0.2 to 0.5. We will only know the true mortality rate if everyone is tested for antibodies.

Now the UK are doing lots of tests (antigen and antibody) they are finding that around 70% of positive tests are from people who go on to develop no symptoms at all.

[Berti]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

The world map showing week over week increases in confirmed CV cases by country paints a different picture -- the surge of new infections at present is occurring in South America and Africa, as highlighted by the red-type shadings on the map.

 

 

From Johns Hopkins:
 

 

https://myemail.constantcontact.com/COVID-19-Updates---May-27.html?soid=1107826135286&aid=1q5A9yFTkaA

 

 

The weekly growth rate is 100% when you have one person infected and one more person infects. This says nothing when there are small infection numbers.

 

[GAZZPA]

Just now, paulikens said:

no more reliant on tourism than most countries

what!!! Thailand is in the yop 10 tourist destinations in the world... around 15% to 20% of the countries entire GDP is tourism,,, check you facts fella..

[Cake Monster]

6 hours ago, totally thaied up said:

Yet the million dollar question is why Thailand did not suffer like others. We had the Chinese in here by the bucket load, yet it seems it did take off. What stopped it? That's my question.

The 64 K question ... why ?