THE WEEK THAT WAS Be a good child and have your vaccination - mummy will give you a sugar lump

[rooster59]

 

Things were so much simpler when I was a child. My parents’ generation suffered from so many ailments that are past history today. They were damn sure with modern medicines and vaccinations they were not going to let their own children suffer the same fate.

 

As the years have passed and that generation and even many of their children have died off, they have been replaced with a new breed who don’t know anything about history let alone the history of common diseases. And these ignorants are interspersed with an even deadlier strain that threatens us all, the vaccine denier or anti-vaxxer. They’ll be even worse than the pandemic denier as their misguided nonsense can affect us all. 

 

Before every poster screams civil liberties at Rooster, just relax. You’re within your rights not to take the vaccine against Covid. But you’ll have to suffer the consequences that in most cases will not be disease but problems with going anywhere, problems even visiting your local pub or cinema. 

 

Scream injustice behind your keyboards but we won’t care. We’ll be having a good time. 

 

The next few years at least will be marked by vaccine passports and documentation worldwide that’ll make yellow fever regulations look miniscule. 

 

If you wanna be the only denier in the village go for it. You’ll probably enjoy the ostracization if posts on Thaivisa are anything to go by.

 

When I was a kid in primary school I remember a poor boy that was different. He wore some things I would later know as calipers. Because he couldn’t walk properly due to polio. 

 

I’d taken by polio VAX on a lump of something. Had my vaccinations for whooping cough, diphtheria you name it. Though admittedly I developed enough of an anarchistic streak in teen years to avoid matron’s BCG jab, in my earlier years I was made to feel like a big boy. 

 

“It might not taste nice, might hurt a little,” mother would say. “But be a good boy and mummy’ll give you a sugar lump”. 

 

Yes, there have been some terrible scandals down the years regarding drugs that were supposed to be good for us. Any doubts about that check out the excellent documentary about Thalidomide on Netflix. Many women who had horribly deformed children after taking the drug in pregnancy fought for justice for years.

 

But comparing the 50s and 60s with today’s regulatory procedures for drugs is chalk and cheese. We’re overdue to return to a time when virtually no one would refuse a vaccination. Then it would have been seen as absurd, inviting death or horrendous illness. 

 

Yet, out they have crept from under their keyboard stones. Under the guise of their pseudo science quoting from like minded muppets who post unsubstantiated drivel on the internet. Regaling us with “facts” that are spurious, attention seeking lies. 

 

Many, too lazy or incompetent to search online accept their diatribes of nonsense and pass it off as new found wisdom to yet more of the gullible.

 

They are the sort that think a one in a million risk of death is serious enough to warrant risking serious disease instead. The probability challenged with a pass in maths but not a real clue about numbers and how they relate to life. 

 

Worse still there are those that, again despite all the evidence, spout their theories about the efficacy of vaccines. Sinovac, for example has come in for big criticism from these numpties. No coincidence that the next minute you’ll see them post more xenophobia against China on an unrelated subject. You can read them like a book - a book for the trash. 

 

Thailand’s vaccine rollout has been slow. Of that there is no denying. But this is because though they haven’t actually admitted it yet they are banking on producing all of their own - and far more - in the Siam BioScience labs that have now been given all the green lights to produce AstraZeneca. 

 

My prediction is that the local vaccine will not only prove to be highly effective and reliable but that the Thai authorities will be able to produce it by the bucketload and put it into everyone’s arms at a rate of hundreds of thousands per day very soon. 

 

Then or perhaps even during this phase they will sell vast quantities of the vaccine to ASEAN members to recoup money. And why not? While vaccination should have a humanitarian component, someone has got to pay for it. 

 

For now I would implore everyone to get vaccinated when it comes available to them for free or pay for it if and when that option emerges (Moderna was approved this week for that purpose at private hospitals).

 

Be good boys and girls and mummy - in this case the world at large -  will give you a treat.

 

Not a sugar lump but a life back. 

 

Rooster will be waiting his turn. I’m in no rush being not particularly old, having a chronic health condition but not one that seems affected or worse due to Covid. I think I’ve probably already had it anyway and if not am very unlikely due to my lifestyle to contract it. When it’s easy and free I’ll have my jab and flash my certificate on Facebook like the millions of others who care more than me. 

 

But while my personal care and fears are low I believe it's time to be socially responsible and get vaxxed. 

 

The pandemic - particularly its third wave in Thailand - continued to be headline news wherever you turned on Thaivisa this week.

 

I was moaning about only translating Covid stories. I’m desperate for some good murders to relieve the boredom. Road carnage just doesn’t cut the mustard.

 

The midweek spike in infections to a daily high of nearly 5,000 was caused by infections in the prison system. The usual fools who don’t read a story and jump to erroneous conclusions thought Thailand had a spike. 

 

It was just another day you’d expect with infections around 2,000 and deaths about 30, par for the course recently and nothing worth getting in a lather about. It’ll go down soon. 

 

Rooster went out to visit friends in Ayutthaya where 50 people are allowed to gather. We were having a laugh about the overzealous authorities who seemed to have busted a few British expats in Phuket for daring to have lunch together, Monday’s story of the day on the forum. 

 

We took the first of two trips all masked up in a car. Absurd really as we’re all from the same household but it’s hardly onerous so why the hell shouldn't you forego a small personal liberty.

 

My children were enjoying great food, open air, rides on tubes behind boats, trampolining and motorcycle rides. No wonder they don’t want to go back to school.

 

(We heard of some people asking the local municipality nicely if they could be vaccinated early; they were accommodated). 

 

D-Day for the start of term is now June 1st and 600,000 teachers and school staff are supposed to be vaccinated before then. Administrators can easily accomplish that by having staff vaxxed en masse. Another 1-2% of the needy population, job done. 

 

Mayor Sontaya was pictured on Facebook getting his second jab. 

 

In Amnat Charoen an American man added to the litany of misdeeds of his compatriots recently by fleeing a Covid ward after the doctors told him he couldn’t share a room with his Thai wife, who was also infected.

 

Blimey! I’d look upon a bit of enforced separation as a good thing - Mrs R has been a tad “Covid Sensitive” in the last week since returning to Krung Thep - pandemic central in her eyes - from the “safety” of Loei. 

 

Pictures of deserted tourist resorts and shopping centers continued to get more clicks than they deserve. Examples were Siam Square One, Big C’s food park opposite Central World and just about everywhere in sleepy Hua Hin where the clusters from pubs and the pineapple factory have devastated tourism. 

 

My last trip there was in December 2019. Apart from a brief Scrabble jaunt to Isaan it’s my last trip anywhere outside Bangkok and its environs. Nothing unusual there!

 

In Bang Yai, Nonthaburi, local police chief Pol Col Pheeradech paid a poor mum’s 1,000 baht mask fine after she got involved in a fruity slanging match with a fruit vendor. 

 

Similarly humanitarian was a rescue foundation in Hua Hin that took a bedridden old lady to Krung Thai bank so she could get her disabled person’s benefits. These organisations do a grand job in Thailand (and could do without nasty posters on TV’s Facebook arm suggesting they do nothing but take backhanders).

 

BMA spokesman Pongsakorn said that all foreigners would get free vaccinations. Though the wording from Spring News was a tad disconcerting putting the order of importance as 1 Thais 2 Foreigners 3 Vagrants.

 

Jeez, Pongsakorn khrap,  where do us British residents fit in?? I’m only joking, the “rayron” (tramps) can go in ahead of me, mate.

 

In Chiang Mai one news org on Facebook said every foreigner would get a jab by June. Free too!

 

Meanwhile the tourism authorities, with PM’s office heartthrob Traisuree as spokeswoman, “revealed” their 4 “timelines” for the reopening of Thailand to foreign tourism.

 

We’re in Level 1 and by January 1st the hordes will be arriving, fully vaccinated and eager to reacquaint themselves with a now cleaner and less cluttered Thailand. And no need to quarantine in Level 4!  

 

Ten tourism places will benefit from October to January with visitors not needing to quarantine. They include Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya, Hua Hin,  Chiang Mai, parts of Krabi and Surat Thani.

 

Three and a half million tourists were mentioned spending hundreds of billions of baht but they conveniently forgot to mention a timeframe for that. Tourism minister Pipat - knee high to a doctor - thinks that herd immunity will be achieved well before then. 

 

His boss Prayut and Anutin - Big Too and Big Nut - were guests of honor at Central Ladprao shopping mall where a vaccination center will operate - one of 25 in the capital and surrounding areas in business premises. Hospitals and clinics will be the mainstay but initiatives such as this can only bring vaccination closer to the people. 

 

Thailand’s porous borders were still big news. The IB admitted to thousands getting in each month and regaling journalists at their Suan Phlu press conferences with their sterling efforts to “keep Thailand safe”.

 

In Prachuap Khirikhan Naew Na reported on a ten year immigrant workers trafficking scandal allowed to continue after a Myanmar agent received help from a whole host of bent officials, past and present. 

 

Keeping Thailand locked down is hard - but crooked officials don’t help matters; a statement that could be said about so many aspects of Thai life.

 

In lighter news - though by the look of this woman not her weight - a Thai lady was apprehended by immigration for taking 5,000 baht to marry an Indian in Bangkok so he could extend his visa. 

 

And also more humorous than anything else were the irate netizens banging on about a group of people who drove up to the top of a scenic viewpoint in Phu Thap Buek rather than walk. 

 

For many Thais in the heat of the day that seemed to me like par for the course!

 

In crime news a particularly nasty piece of work who has been preying on “pretties” was arrested just a stone’s thrown from my Ratchayothin Roost. “Denphoom” has been raping women he enticed online at knifepoint. This dangerous miscreant needs to be sealed off as much as Bangkok Remand prison was this week. 

 

Finally, a few words about Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder who has been in the news a lot recently, often because he is at the center of conspiracy theories from the anti-vaccine loonies. 

 

Now he has announced his divorce after trying and failing to reconcile irreconcilable differences with Melinda, we were told.

 

A wag of mine said it best when it comes to resolving marital differences especially among the computer elite. His advice to Bill: 

 

Have you tried turning it on and off?

 

Rooster 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2021-05-16

 

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[Swiss1960]

I don't <deleted> care whether someone gets vaccinated or not... but I will equally not care if their personal freedom and what they think to be their "constitutional right" is massively restricted for the good of the whole because of their decision.

[cjinchiangrai]

THANK YOU!!!!!!     Well thought out and well written.

 

The mother of my best friend in middle school walked with leg braces her entire life. She was one of the lucky ones that lived after long spells in an iron lung. We ate a piece of sugar and never had to worry about it.

 

The anti-vax, science deniers are a real threat to the general health of their communities. 

[coxo]

Yes, I opted after 3 paragraphs to turn it off, an untested vaccine that neither prevents you catching or spreading the disease is not a vaccine in my book, a vaccine prevents the disease. Lets see what side effects develop after 5, 7 or 10 years.

 

I have faith in tested vaccines but not this one.

[Rimmer]

An abusive personal attack post has been removed

[rumak]

i am very tempted to offer some personal attacks of my own.    i have studied the TV bestseller "  how to hold your tongue while being blasted with nonsense"  and it has held me in good stead recently.

rooster as usual gets to throw his personal insults around.....

 

rumak ?   just chillin,   waiting for another great lunch with me lady

[StevieAus]

40 minutes ago, coxo said:

Yes, I opted after 3 paragraphs to turn it off, an untested vaccine that neither prevents you catching or spreading the disease is not a vaccine in my book, a vaccine prevents the disease. Lets see what side effects develop after 5, 7 or 10 years.

 

I have faith in tested vaccines but not this one.

What do you mean an untested vaccine ?

The vaccines available in the West have been fully tested it’s just that the process has been speeded up.

Decline the vaccine if you wish, myself and several expat friends here in the North are booked in to receive the AstraZeneca jab in early June.

I hope you don’t contract Covid as I suspect the effects will be worse than anything you experience from the vaccine.

Like Rooster I remember a couple of kids at school and a teacher who contracted Polio and it wasn’t nice.

All my life I have kept all my vaccines up to date and still do.

My young daughter receives every vaccine available and recommended.

[johnnybangkok]

51 minutes ago, coxo said:

Yes, I opted after 3 paragraphs to turn it off, an untested vaccine that neither prevents you catching or spreading the disease is not a vaccine in my book, a vaccine prevents the disease. Lets see what side effects develop after 5, 7 or 10 years.

 

I have faith in tested vaccines but not this one.

The whole piece is aimed at people like you (and those that have agreed with your post) to try and educate you into the facts, but as usual, confirmation bias wins the day and nonsense like 'an untested vaccine' shows your true colours. 

The consequences of your igniorance will hopefully only have consequences for yourself soon when your employer tells you 'no vacine-no job' or you aren't allowed to travel or even be allowed into a setting like a bar where there are multiple people without a vacine certificate.

Do what you want with your own life but you will not be allowed to put others at risk and I for one will cheer that all the way. 

[clivebaxter]

'My prediction is that the local vaccine will not only prove to be highly effective and reliable but that the Thai authorities will be able to produce it by the bucketload and put it into everyone’s arms at a rate of hundreds of thousands per day very soon. '

 

Why would it not be effective and reliable? AZ has already proved itself. All we need now is for BioSceinece to prove they can produce this FOREIGN vaccine in the quantities promised and on time, but having revised the numbers already that seems doubtful.

[Rhacsyn]

1 hour ago, coxo said:

Yes, I opted after 3 paragraphs to turn it off, an untested vaccine that neither prevents you catching or spreading the disease is not a vaccine in my book, a vaccine prevents the disease. Lets see what side effects develop after 5, 7 or 10 years.

 

I have faith in tested vaccines but not this one.

 

Understood but out of interest, can you please enlighten me, in this day and age, as to when you would deem a vaccine to have been "tested"?

[BritManToo]

14 minutes ago, Rhacsyn said:

please enlighten me, in this day and age, as to when you would deem a vaccine to have been "tested"?

When the manufacturers and hospitals don't ask you to sign a form waiving any and all responsibility on them for sickness, damage or death resulting from the vaccine.

[BritManToo]

25 minutes ago, StevieAus said:

I hope you don’t contract Covid as I suspect the effects will be worse than anything you experience from the vaccine.

Had it already, it wasn't a big deal, and I personally didn't feel the effects of the illness worthy of a vaccine to prevent it.

[BritManToo]

2 hours ago, rooster59 said:

But you’ll have to suffer the consequences that in most cases will not be disease but problems with going anywhere, problems even visiting your local pub or cinema. 

 

My prediction is that the local vaccine will not only prove to be highly effective and reliable but that the Thai authorities will be able to produce it by the bucketload and put it into everyone’s arms at a rate of hundreds of thousands per day very soon. 

Thanks, but I'll wait to see if there is such a restriction before I think of signing up.

I personally think there will be no restrictions of any kind between vaccinated and unvaccinated.

Not to mention I can't see how the bouncer in my local Thai bar could view my medical records (or care about them).

So far both vaccinated and unvaccinated still need to do 14 days quarantine to enter Thailand.

 

My prediction is the Thai produced vaccine won't appear for years, if ever.

Interesting to see you feel free to travel around the country, even without the vaccine.

[BritManToo]

2 hours ago, rooster59 said:

But comparing the 50s and 60s with today’s regulatory procedures for drugs is chalk and cheese. We’re overdue to return to a time when virtually no one would refuse a vaccination. Then it would have been seen as absurd, inviting death or horrendous illness. 

Having been born in the 50s, I actually refused every vaccine when I was old enough to say no (at around age 13). The vaccines they did manage to stick me with before 1970 were probably more rigorously tested than any of the COVID injections.

 

And I'm not dead yet, nor have I ever suffered any serious disease. Had all the normal kid diseases with no serious effects.

[dlclark97]

How about if they don't receive the vaccine and get a 'sugar lump' the anti-vaxers just get a BIG LUMP instead.   I for one have registered twice with a private hospital but both times the rules changed in a day or so and I have no idea if I am still registered or not.  Just hard to believe anything/everything you read because the next day it is altogether different.

[Dukeleto]

1 hour ago, coxo said:

Yes, I opted after 3 paragraphs to turn it off, an untested vaccine that neither prevents you catching or spreading the disease is not a vaccine in my book, a vaccine prevents the disease. Lets see what side effects develop after 5, 7 or 10 years.

 

I have faith in tested vaccines but not this one.

I agree with you fully. I, like you, have full faith in the standard fair of vaccines which have been tried and tested and have had years of development and trial before being deployed worldwide. This one has not even come close to that sort of scrutiny and everyone and his dog has developed their own version in a get rich scheme which as we know usually ends badly for the guy on the receiving end. I’ll sit back for now and watch thanks which is what most people with half a brain would do. If the mortality rate was 1 in 3 I would have little choice but to accept the risk and get jabbed. In the current situation it isn’t quite there yet for me personally.

[coxo]

It's funny how some people think this vaccine has been tested in a time frame of twelve months, vaccines undergo seven to eleven years of testing, it takes time to see what side effects develop, how they react with animals, then tumours and finally testing on humans, they seem to have skipped quite a few steps, there is plenty of information out there to consider, they are still learning about the cells the disease attacks, with a 99.3% survival rate I will take my chances until I'm satisfied, do I trust these big pharma companies, no way, have a look at all the court cases filed against them, there interest is purely money, not the well being of humanity.

 

Most importantly if the vaccine prevented you catching or spreading the disease it would have merit, at best it eases the symptoms, my immune system is up to the challenge.

[pikao]

 

 

41 minutes ago, coxo said:

It's funny how some people think this vaccine has been tested in a time frame of twelve months, vaccines undergo seven to eleven years of testing, it takes time to see what side effects develop, how they react with animals, then tumours and finally testing on humans, they seem to have skipped quite a few steps, there is plenty of information out there to consider,

 

US Senate Committee asking questions

 

[from the home of CC]

not an anti vaxer but they're not all the same...

 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/langley-man-intestine-vaccine-effect-1.6027830

[Andrew Dwyer]

I remember the good old days when this weekly topic was all about things that had happened in the past week interspersed with a reasonable amount of British humour and tales of scrabble and teaching at International schools.

 

Lately it seems to be a platform for one man’s opinions , those opinions can be aired on any of the numerous vaccine threads clogging up this forum. No need to turn what was a good Sunday read with a cuppa into a thread to raise the blood pressure, even more , of the TVF populate.

 

In these troublesome times we need your humour Rooster not your stance on current affairs . !!

[StevieAus]

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

Had it already, it wasn't a big deal, and I personally didn't feel the effects of the illness worthy of a vaccine to prevent it.

Obviously one of the lucky people with no underlying problems.

I have none either and don’t particularly feel vulnerable but try to hedge all bets.

Suspect there are many relatives of those who were not so lucky wishing there had been a vaccine available.

[clivebaxter]

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

Had it already, it wasn't a big deal, and I personally didn't feel the effects of the illness worthy of a vaccine to prevent it.

Did you have a test to verify you had it or did you just guess?

[StevieAus]

9 minutes ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

I remember the good old days when this weekly topic was all about things that had happened in the past week interspersed with a reasonable amount of British humour and tales of scrabble and teaching at International schools.

 

Lately it seems to be a platform for one man’s opinions , those opinions can be aired on any of the numerous vaccine threads clogging up this forum. No need to turn what was a good Sunday read with a cuppa into a thread to raise the blood pressure, even more , of the TVF populate.

 

In these troublesome times we need your humour Rooster not your stance on current affairs . !!

Not interested in scrabble or what’s happening in international schools, but certainly welcome the English  humour.

If posting on this site gives some people relief from their mundane lives, why not, misguided as their comments may be.

 

[Samui Bodoh]

32 minutes ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

I remember the good old days when this weekly topic was all about things that had happened in the past week interspersed with a reasonable amount of British humour and tales of scrabble and teaching at International schools.

 

Lately it seems to be a platform for one man’s opinions , those opinions can be aired on any of the numerous vaccine threads clogging up this forum. No need to turn what was a good Sunday read with a cuppa into a thread to raise the blood pressure, even more , of the TVF populate.

 

In these troublesome times we need your humour Rooster not your stance on current affairs . !!

 

+1; I fully agree with @Andrew Dwyer above.

 

Simply put, today's column, while well-written and interesting, could have been authored by 20-30+ different members. And, if the column could have been authored by 20-30+ different posters, why does this TWTW column still exist? What precisely differentiates it from the 50,000+ other Covid-19 posts?

 

I used to enjoy TWTW as the author could and did draw on his long experience in-country to try to bring different aspects of Thailand to members. Did he always succeed? Well, no, but it usually was interesting to read a Bangkok middle-class perspective on issues, even if they were terribly misguided ????. And, to be fair, some of the columns were quite interesting and offered new perspectives and insights to me. I miss that.

 

Respectfully, I come back to my question above; 

 

If the TWTW column is not really different from an average post, why does it still exist?

 

 

 

[solent01]

Thalidomide springs to mind.......... On a side note I have a Thai nurse friend who is still in a Coma after receiving her second "Gene Theropy" shot.....

[Nojohndoe]

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Having been born in the 50s, I actually refused every vaccine when I was old enough to say no (at around age 13). The vaccines they did manage to stick me with before 1970 were probably more rigorously tested than any of the COVID injections.

 

And I'm not dead yet, nor have I ever suffered any serious disease. Had all the normal kid diseases with no serious effects.

It is likely you had all the critical vaccines mainstream of the era and at an age before you  got to choose to say no.

 

 

[BritManToo]

Just now, Nojohndoe said:

It is likely you had all the critical vaccines mainstream of the era and at an age before you  got to choose to say no

Polio and tetanus I believe.

And polio was no longer a threat at that time in the UK, as our drinking water wasn't contaminated with human feces. 

[Nojohndoe]

2 minutes ago, solent01 said:

Thalidomide springs to mind.......... On a side note I have a Thai nurse friend who is still in a Coma after recieving her second "Gene Theropy" shot.....

Thalidomide and the devastation it caused was responsible for the enforced conventions on testing new pharmaceuticals. It is still in use to this day and is very useful.

[solent01]

9 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Polio and tetanus I believe.

And polio was no longer a threat at that time in the UK, as our drinking water wasn't contaminated with human feces. 

If you look at the timeline of Polio you will find it was already in decline before the Vaccine was introduced...... What is usual with Polio Data is it starts from when the Vaccine first became available, not showing the Data leading up to the Vaccine..... Another case of controlling the way information is presented.

[Andrew Dwyer]

3 minutes ago, StevieAus said:

Not interested in scrabble or what’s happening in international schools, but certainly welcome the English  humour.

If posting on this site gives some people relief from their mundane lives, why not, misguided as their comments may be.

 

The scrabble and international school comment was meant as tongue in cheek as was only of any interest to the author .

 

But my other comment stands :

The author of this thread uses another alias often when he wishes to comment as a typical poster ( not a TVF employee ), he should use that alias for his political comments and keep his weekly column as it used to be , fun and light !!