hmmm, interesting.

if we look at figures from se asia vietnam laos thailand cambodia myanmar.
possibly malaysia also but remember malaysia brings in almost 2 million banglas/indians etc.

what if covid has always been around in these parts but it being warmer humid
the wais the masks 
and we know the asian variant is not as infectious as the new eu/usa variant 'spike' 

some crazy chinese come here or one of the others insist on some crazy bat sheet food 
and of they go back to wuhan or one of the other cities 
but it arrives in wuhan around about oct 
its getting colder the virus lasts longer
chinese are coughing and spitting everywhere never cover their mouths
the virus gets to spread

of course no tests have been done on the eu variant if it comes back to asia

i know you all want to blame the bat lady of wuhan

but the only thing china done wrong was cover it up it never released or started it
although maybe they did start it by ordering some crazy <deleted> in one of the se asia countries.

it was long known in langkawi that there was a certain cave that just became taboo everytime farmers went to collect guano 
respiratory disease was sure and folklore tale began

lets look at the rationale 
Thailand gets 10  million chinese every year
now a lot of them are tour groups 
so these tour groups are isolated 
they are in their huddle following the person with the flag at the front shuttled from one place to the next 
its the same all around the world with chinese tour groups they only go where they are taken.

so transmission rate of infection from such a group is relatively low

its the independent traveler that are the greatest risk 

they go to lots of places more likely to mix with locals.

So now the biggest worry would be an imported varaint from USA /EU/UK a variant that became because of the climate and also diet perhaps.

HEP C has five varaints all continent specific which make science speculate diet/race.

Back to the original varaint that may or may not have been here but the actual acute symotoms and resulting pnumenioa cases would be so low as to slip under the radar and mix with other seasonal outbreaks flu dengue etc.

All the more reason to have a SE Asia travel bubble though maybe exclude Malaysia and Singapore as they have an inordinate amount of Immigrant labour from Asian nations 

 

Boy this gov propaganda these days is not even creative ... wayyy too much of the same BS week after week. 

These are the lowest rates per million.  Two factors seem evident.  Some countries test almost no one so if you don't test you don't find.  All of them share the same characteristic.  They are hot climates with young median age populations. 

 

7 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

UK

294,792

+726

45,300

+27

N/A

N/A

142

4,341

667

13,293,523

195,771

67,903,554

Thailand

3,249

+3

58

3,096

95

1

47

0.8

603,657

8,647

69,808,827

Nope, they just don't test anyone - uk 13.3 million tests (20% of population), Thailand 603,00 (0.8% of population). Don't test, you don;t find them.

 

It's also probably the reason why Thailand is not thought of as a covid free country by the UK government

 

 

What a complete incompetent UK government thinks about the pandemic isn't really important. Don't test, don't find is nonsense, people get sick and go to the hospital.

Very low testing numbers, no tests on deceased, bery little test available throughout the country and in upcountry hospitals, people with not enough money to "risk" a test with a negative outcome...anything else?

Jesus!

The Thai government are great exponents of the Trump Method of virus control: don't test and the numbers don't rise much. Hey presto - voila!

 lol - the nyt's making it out to be rocket science and a great mystery is just a poor face saving exercise, required due to the humiliating self devastation the US has incurred upon itself in its inept handling of a health emergency - it's a good thing it has a fairly low mortality rate or they would of really fell apart.. 

The early response by the government was fantastic. I am afraid that they will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by opening too early and letting foreigners in. 

22 minutes ago, Saint Nick said:

Very low testing numbers, no tests on deceased, bery little test available throughout the country and in upcountry hospitals, people with not enough money to "risk" a test with a negative outcome...anything else?

Jesus!

No thinks like this happening in Thailand: 

 

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/hyde-park-protest-wearing-masks-a4502671.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1FnONsD3nSGGUIzNV23hJ6yY4ufWdfNrYVBlo0o2c0gcYAJJ_Hgcsyx08#Echobox=1595167508

 

52 minutes ago, Grumpy John said:

Let's get real with the numbers of dead.

This is how I look at the reality. From the NY Times 20 MAR 2020:

 

"Mr. Riley, the nurse at Jacobi, said when he looked at the emergency room recently, he realized he and his colleagues would never avoid being infected. Patients struggling to breathe with lungs that sounded like sandpaper had crowded the hospital. Masks and protective gowns were in short supply."

 

So when people here want to make the case that persons who ostensibly died from other causes really died from COVID-19. I just think of "lungs that sounded like sandpaper."

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/nyregion/ny-coronavirus-doctors-sick.html

 

2 minutes ago, Pedrogaz said:

The early response by the government was fantastic. I am afraid that they will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by opening too early and letting foreigners in. 

"...by opening too early...". LOL, do you think 30% unemployment is too early, or should they hold out until a round half the workforce is destitute before opening?

Lots of negative comments about the veracity of the data. While politicians are not know to have a close relationship with truthfulness or reality, nonetheless we have not seen hospitals with patients waiting round in corridors, ICUs full to brimming, morgues overflowing or mass burnings as in other countries.

Many bring up low testing rates, but people who have symptoms get a test, rather than just mass screening which is a vast waste of healthcare resources. 

In my opinion when the chips are all counted, we will see that Thailand did a decent job, but the particular virus causing the infection here was of low virulence and transmissibility compared to the virus in Western Europe and the US.

If they did mass testing and counted deaths like they do in the West, they'd be similar to all the rest of the countries in the world.

There are lies, da*m lies, and statistics.

so are you all saying there is a collective numbers fraud by ALL SE ASIAN  countries?

yes, totally agree dont test dont have the numbers

but IMO testing is a wasted resource perhaps if you have a cluster outbreak and do a track and trace like the UK's Boris's worldbeating tracking application ???? 

An antibody test is the only good test and there isnt really a good one yet.

the developed nations have done enough testing now to give us approx rates of infection mortality etc no need to overstretch finances in third world countries.

can thailand actually be classed as third world?
third world politics for sure
but in many aspects no.

its pointless laughing at the inadequacies of western nations such as uk and usa's response its a different climate and yes useless
remember both countries kept air traffic open
even thailand with its low numbers didnt close air traffic till late March.

the infection rate and viral loads in these SEA countries  is going to be so low anyway testing is pointless let the hospital admission figures speak for them selves as well as mortality rates.

11 minutes ago, SkyFax said:

This is how I look at the reality. From the NY Times 20 MAR 2020:

 

"Mr. Riley, the nurse at Jacobi, said when he looked at the emergency room recently, he realized he and his colleagues would never avoid being infected. Patients struggling to breathe with lungs that sounded like sandpaper had crowded the hospital. Masks and protective gowns were in short supply."

 

So when people here want to make the case that persons who ostensibly died from other causes really died from COVID-19. I just think of "lungs that sounded like sandpaper."

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/nyregion/ny-coronavirus-doctors-sick.html

 

Few people, apart from certain politicians, deny that the virus CAN have serious consequences, but to single out an awful case and present it as the norm is simply not supported by statistics. For every case like the one you cite, there are more than another nine in ten that are experienced asymptomatically or mildly. This is true also of many other diseases, with which society has long since learned to deal without trashing the whole economy. 

4 hours ago, dinsdale said:

The only thing in this article that is correct is mask wearing.

But thats  LIP SERVICE, those  masks are mauled perpetually by any Thai wearing  one.

1 hour ago, Grumpy John said:

the government would not lie

All governments tell nothing but the truth and should be trusted 100% as the authoritative source of all information.  The government is completely altruistic and only have the best interests of its citizens in mind.  And if you don't believe that you're probably a nut-job, conspiracy theorist, and bad person, and not a team player. 

Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar etc ... Vietnam being the star of this group with zero deaths.  Meanwhile the buffoons i. Singapore and Hong Kong can’t seem to get things under control.  No doubt countries like Thailand are just smarter, better prepared with superior public health systems.  I how the public health authorities in Singapore and Hong Kong are on the ground in Thailand to understand how to do things properly.

Tiger balm

8 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

UK

294,792

+726

45,300

+27

N/A

N/A

142

4,341

667

13,293,523

195,771

67,903,554

Thailand

3,249

+3

58

3,096

95

1

47

0.8

603,657

8,647

69,808,827

Nope, they just don't test anyone - uk 13.3 million tests (20% of population), Thailand 603,00 (0.8% of population). Don't test, you don;t find them.

 

It's also probably the reason why Thailand is not thought of as a covid free country by the UK government

Yes, this is sort of like the Obama administration suddenly telling states to shut down their testing during the 2009 swine flu pandemic.

33 minutes ago, Pottinger said:

For every case like the one you cite, there are more than another nine in ten that are experienced asymptomatically or mildly.

Thank you -- as I noted, I was referring to people who are said to have died from other causes but actually died from COVID. The ones that you mention do not die.

I would bet on Pad Thai and Som Tam 555

They do nothing but they do it right

1 hour ago, Pedrogaz said:

The early response by the government was fantastic. I am afraid that they will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by opening too early and letting foreigners in. 

Steven...is that you?

1 hour ago, Pedrogaz said:

Lots of negative comments about the veracity of the data. While politicians are not know to have a close relationship with truthfulness or reality, nonetheless we have not seen hospitals with patients waiting round in corridors, ICUs full to brimming, morgues overflowing or mass burnings as in other countries.

Many bring up low testing rates, but people who have symptoms get a test, rather than just mass screening which is a vast waste of healthcare resources. 

In my opinion when the chips are all counted, we will see that Thailand did a decent job, but the particular virus causing the infection here was of low virulence and transmissibility compared to the virus in Western Europe and the US.

People who have symptoms CAN get a test - if they are in an area where test are availabe and if they are willing to cough up money, if the test comes back negative!

You are welcome to put down your rose tinted glasses now!

No testing = NO PROBLEM... pretty simple, I mean, you dont need to be a rocket scientist or a brain surgeon do you?

Thailand has done well as evidenced by low hospital admissions for covid 19.  The figures however can't be believed.

 

Just when it looked like covid was becoming significant the country went in to an effective and timely lockdown, and has since not opened its borders.

 

But I think there may have been widespread immunity caused by a number of competing viruses obvious in Bangkok in particular.

 

 

6 hours ago, chrisinth said:

Again, testing does not increase the death numbers.

Course not, if you don't check all the people that die every die.

 

Thailand has between 500-600,000 deaths every year. So with only 600,000 tests done so far, the dead are just not being tested

2 hours ago, FritsSikkink said:

Don't test, don't find is nonsense, people get sick and go to the hospital.

Yeah, right, in Thailand they just deport them. Where you think the infected returning workers from thailand got sick ? Clearly Thailand,  and clearly a huge problem not being tested

7 hours ago, sweatalot said:

This would mean the virus is far from being as deadly as reported everywhere - otherwise the death rate in Thailand would increase strikingly 

 

 

Hit the nail on the head. Figures are starting to come out that the true figures in the UK  could be as low as 1500 died FROM C19 and over a month ago a investigative journalist looked at death rates in the UK and causes of death and concluded lockdown was murdering over 8,000 people a day and these deaths will keep rising.  The story was buried.