Tourism chiefs call for foreigners vaccinated against COVID-19 to be allowed to enter Thailand

[skorp13]

With so many things closed even the tourists that do come here and spend money have no real reason to come

[RichardColeman]

49 minutes ago, rott said:

Yes I know a lot of people are suffering hardship and I don't wish to sound callous but as it is is fine by me. 

Yes, rather callous to us stuck away from our wives, children and family. Sort of an I'm all right Jack sort of attitude !

[Surelynot]

3 hours ago, Chelseafan said:

Whilst you may be vaccinated it's still unknown whether you could be a carrier...

Exactly......you would still need a negative test and to quarantine.

[crobe]

A vaccination, as people have said, protects against seriously ill but there is no evidence (to date) that it prevents infection and transmission.

But there is a middle way which would allow for some relaxation of the rules with a combination of vaccination and testing.

 - mandatory negative COVID test within 72 hours prior to travel

 - Vaccination certificate or card

 - Mandatory COVID test on arrival

 - 5 days quarantine

- Mandatory negative test after 5 days quarantine

 

This would probably be acceptable for people coming for business or long-stay, but not short-stay tourists

 

While this would not catch every case (where incubation from the flight takes longer than 5 days to symptomize), it would catch the vast majority of cases - similar to the effectiveness of the vaccine itself

 

The only time they will allow full entry with a vaccine and without quarantine is when enough Thais have been vaccinated to achieve community immunity, but that looks a long way off

 

[berrec]

Chinese Made Vaccines Questioned as Hundreds Get Infected

 

[Dialemco]

Forget about international tourism this cannot return before 2022 earliest and then on a much smaller eco friendly scale. Meanwhile the Government should invest in alternative industries 

[Spellforce]

They should open Phuket first and only open international flights to Phuket:

- vaccine all the population in Phuket

- allow only tourists with Pfizer or Moderna vaccins (because efficiency > 95% and also works with the new variant virus)

- do PCR tests to the tourists on arrival + after 10 or 14 days (because 5% of vaccined tourists may have the covid)

- tourists wont be allowed to move further than 2-3 km from their hotels

- after 10 or 14 days, tourists wlll be allowed to move only in tourists areas where the population has been vaccined (Pattaya, Kho Samui etc...)

 

It's time to reopen everything, vaccines are coming but everything can't be solved in only one day.

 

 

[rott]

Is vaccined an Americanism.? I am used to the word vaccinated that's all. 

[Card]

4 hours ago, PatOngo said:

What if they prefer badminton???

Or rugby!

[Mr Meeseeks]

27 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

though it's my team, I think I can think of a few more choice words for Lennon and Lawell but i'd get a lifetime ban ! 

Always cheated never defeated

 

[vandeventer]

Maybe they should pull their finger out and get the good vaccines first for Thailand before letting in millions of tourist who could be carriers.

[HuaHinHim]

4 hours ago, shdmn said:

You are not as efficient a spreader though, because you are not sick and therefore you are not coughing and sneezing.    They still don't know for sure if vaccinated people can be hosts and spreaders.  It's just a likely assumption at this point.

Presumably you would still need a negative COVID-19 test to enter. If it meant I could skip the quarantine then I’d be for it.

[ukrules]

5 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

While millions of people may have received their first vaccination, they are mostly elderly, at-risk or essential workers, first-responders, politicians, health professionals. Hardly into temples, beaches and cuisine right now.

 

In the UK they plan to have the entire adult population vaccinated by about September.

 

Not everyone wants it though but that's ok, people who want it will be vaccinated before the winter.

 

I'm sure all of the rest of Europe could easily do the same if they ever get all their paperwork and approvals in order ????

 

[ukrules]

4 hours ago, Captain Monday said:

The virus can thrive in the vaccinated aliens throat or nasopharangeal cavity.

 

I believe this is where the mucosal immune system destroys it on site. I wouldn't call that thriving.

[Rhys]

...hmm this came from the Brain trust of Mahidol University... PuBIC health team?

[ukrules]

1 hour ago, crobe said:

A vaccination, as people have said, protects against seriously ill but there is no evidence (to date) that it prevents infection and transmission.

But there is a middle way which would allow for some relaxation of the rules with a combination of vaccination and testing.

 - mandatory negative COVID test within 72 hours prior to travel

 - Vaccination certificate or card

 - Mandatory COVID test on arrival

 - 5 days quarantine

- Mandatory negative test after 5 days quarantine

 

This would probably be acceptable for people coming for business or long-stay, but not short-stay tourists

 

While this would not catch every case (where incubation from the flight takes longer than 5 days to symptomize), it would catch the vast majority of cases - similar to the effectiveness of the vaccine itself

 

The only time they will allow full entry with a vaccine and without quarantine is when enough Thais have been vaccinated to achieve community immunity, but that looks a long way off

 

 

You're missing something here.

 

If the vaccines don't work properly then there is nothing else that can be done. It will propagate through the whole world in time and there will be no stopping it, only slowing it down and waiting for the inevitable mutation that one day makes it relatively harmless like the other seasonal and widespread human coronaviruses.

 

As the vaccine should stop most of the deaths from the virus it will, in time become a non issue - people die from cold like viruses all the time and we accept that. Millions world wide every year, not a problem usually, certainly not a problem which attracts funding to fix it.

 

Personally I would rather they work to eradicate all viral based illnesses through something like the DRACO type antiviral drug which received so little funding it doesn't exist - and this is recent.

 

Had someone funded this (DRACO) when it was being actively worked on COVID may have been prevented, nobody funded it so nothing happened - see here for a little summary, there's much more information on this subject - just google 'DRACO antiviral'  : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRACO

 

They couldn't even raise $100k at one point - that's how little anyone cared about viruses as recently as 5 years ago.

 

[joecoolfrog]

Its pretty clear that if large scale tourism is to resume then vaccination rather than quarantine will be the benchmark.

The question is ; Does Thailand want to completely erradicate potential carriers or is it willing to accept a certain level of risk ?

If the answer is the former then international tourism will not recover for a very long time.

[Janner1]

4 hours ago, beau thai said:

pretty sure vaccinated people can be carriers/spreaders.

You obviously know more than the worlds top scientists, maybe you should work for the WHO ! It was that organisation who told the world that there was no epidemic and certainly no pandemic, and that was after several thousand people had died from Covid in Whuhan and the Chinese were frantically building special hospitals.

Your words remain unproven by ANY scientific analysis so why do you spout them?

Agreed there is potential for logical conclusion but there is NO absolute proof as yet and until there is, don’t you think it would be better to keep your conclusions to yourself.

[jaiyen]

5 hours ago, 1fortheroad said:

if they are vaccinated they should be allowed in!

Why ?? Have you got proof that all the vaccines being used will stop a person carrying the virus and passing it on ?  Of course not !!   You are talking <deleted> !  No company has proven that yet.  Cos that is the problem every country is facing.

[FarFlungFalang]

4 hours ago, AmySeeker said:

When vaccines give efficiency figure - what does that mean ? Is it the rate of those catching it ?

What does it mean?I'll give you one guess.Nah can't wait,it means "it's all over".

[Timwin]

Average hotel stay for tourists in Thailand in 2019 was only 9,26 days. Unless the quarantine period is removed, mass tourism in Thailand will not come back. Simple as that. 

[Jeffr2]

12 minutes ago, Janner1 said:

You obviously know more than the worlds top scientists, maybe you should work for the WHO ! It was that organisation who told the world that there was no epidemic and certainly no pandemic, and that was after several thousand people had died from Covid in Whuhan and the Chinese were frantically building special hospitals.

Your words remain unproven by ANY scientific analysis so why do you spout them?

Agreed there is potential for logical conclusion but there is NO absolute proof as yet and until there is, don’t you think it would be better to keep your conclusions to yourself.

Even if vaccinated, you can still have the virus and shed. Asymptomatic.

[KannikaP]

5 hours ago, beau thai said:

pretty sure vaccinated people can be carriers/spreaders.

the vaccination hits the symptoms but cant prevent it hitting and sitting in upper respiratory to be coughed sneezed or spoken to others.

If wrong I would love to be corrected as vaccination pasports would be great for those of us itching to travel. And those in tourism wanting to rebuild their businesses

The vaccination is to stop a person from reacting to and getting ill from the virus, and consequently preventing the symptoms. It is not a cure.

[findlay13]

3 hours ago, law ling said:

Another issue: how do you prove vacinaton? - a piece of paper? ... a tattooed mark on your ear? ... in any case it's open to corruption?

What's NOT open to corruption? 

 

[barney42bb]

If You have had The Vaccine.... Do you need to be a single figure handicap at Golf.??

 

In any event... Who the hell is going to come when you can't get a Beer, with the local entertainment shutdown??

[PGSan]

6 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

Hardly into temples, beaches and cuisine right now.

 

??? Why should they not be? 

[PGSan]

31 minutes ago, Janner1 said:

there is NO absolute proof as yet

Such proofs never exist, outside maths.

[thailand49]

6 hours ago, realfunster said:

Should depend on the vaccine...I recall most have 80%+ success but phase 3 trials in Brazil indicate only 50.4% efficacy for Sinovac. That will be of concern as I assume this proposal will be aimed at their largest market, China.

I agree!  They are responsible for the problem and from talking to family in China since September of last year there was a problem again being hidden by the government I sense based on the timeline might also be responsible for the second wave around the world as many Chinese were squabbling not to be quarantine or force to take the vaccine.

As I noted since the second wave here in Thailand they have blame it on the migrants at the same time I don't see them catering to the Chinese for the last few months?

 

 

[rott]

36 minutes ago, jaiyen said:

Why ?? Have you got proof that all the vaccines being used will stop a person carrying the virus and passing it on ?  Of course not !!   You are talking <deleted> !  No company has proven that yet.  Cos that is the problem every country is facing.

Janner1 does not like that kind of talk (see the post before yours) you're lucky you didn't get a severe ticking off. 

[thailand49]

Of all the crazy suggestion of ideas each day this news although just an suggestion has to be the best so far!  Just don't certify the Chinese or Russian until they are upfront with their data I wouldn't trust the testing here either by Thais the results would surely be stamped with a nice thick brown envelope?

Edited January 13, 2021 by thailand49