Thailand must calm down over Omicron, senior doctor says

[webfact]

 

By Cod Satrusayang

 

The Thai government and international allies must “calm down” over the Omicron variant of Covid-19 and not let it threaten economic recovery and international travel, a senior doctor told Thai Enquirer on Tuesday.

 

Thailand has, following the example of the European Union and the United States banned flights from several African countries, following the spread of the Omicron variant first identified in South Africa.

 

The government said it has also put in travel contingency plans in case the variant spreads quickly in the other parts of the world.

 

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Full story: https://www.thaienquirer.com/35569/thailand-must-calm-down-over-omicron-senior-doctor-says/

 

-- © Copyright Thai Enquirer 2021-12-07

 

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[darksidedog]

Governments, especially this one like things not calm. It gives them an opportunity to limit personal freedoms.

As for banning flights from Africa, given it is already present all over the world, not sure how that will help.

[richard_smith237]

Not just Thailand, but the whole world needs to calm down, that should be rephrased - the Media needs to calm down, a lot of the fear and misinformation has been spread by the media simply placing precedence over being first rather than most accurate. 

 

The severity of Omicron is not yet known - I have read that it is more transmissible than the Delta variant, I have read that the differences of this variant are that it is a slightly different evolution / lineage than other known variants which is the only reason it is a variant of concern at the moment. 

 

It is not yet known whether or not Omicron causes a presents a greater risk of severe illness or whether vaccines are any less effective against Omicron. 

 

 

It is inevitable that the following point (#1) will surface, but this is readily contradicted by bigger picture thinking (point #2)

 

1) IF the spread transmission of Omicron is so prevalent (I read somewhere, 4x Delta ? - I’m not sure if thats accurate) - then it doesn’t matter who is or who isn’t vaccinated, everyone will be exposed, thus vaccination doesn’t limit spread. BUT.. if so this MUST be held in context with my next comment. 

 

2) Omicron highlights the importance of widespread vaccination of ‘effective’ vaccines (key word - effective).

Vaccines which prevent infection or limit the severity and duration of infection also play a significant roll in limiting the potential for antigenic drift - simply put, the less people who have Covid-19 the less potential there is for drift. In a vaccinated community the potential for the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 into another variant is reduced. 

 

This was the  issue in with the UK Alpha B.1.1.7 - where it is suspected that reduced ‘controls’ earlier on in the pandemic led to widespread infections in the UK with an increases probability of existing variants drifting into a variant of concern, the result was B.1.1.7.

 

While Western nations have been able to achieve (relatively) successful vaccination programs, poorer nations, particularly in Africa have been left by the wayside. For whatever reasons (economic, political, corruption etc - this has been widely discussed and argued in another thread on this forum) many nations in Africa have not been vaccinated, this has lead to continued outbreaks and the inevitable antigenic drift of SARS-CoV-2 within the continent into this new Omicron variant. 

 

Last year many people were ringing alarm bells, pointing out that this global issue needs a global response as any area which falls behind with vaccination presents continued risk of new variants which present risk to all nations unless 'lock-out’ is continued, but we can see that ‘lock-out’ does not work, the virus always ‘seeps’ through, borders are porous. 

 

The greatest concern for us all is taking our (as an international community) foot off the throttle and allowing areas to fall by the wayside, allowing further variants to develop, the next variants could be the ones which evade detection, evade vaccines and impact us more severely - so far, we have been very lucky that SARS-CoV-2 is not the major killer it could have been. 

 

A lot of people have and still are arguing that Covid-19 kills such a small minority of those who contract it. But, that is not the issue at all and those people have failed to recognise the big picture potential, which is, IF a virus such as this is permitted an uncontrolled foothold it could drift and evolve into something far more frightening, even to those currently downplaying the issues. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kadilo]

“What we know now is that Omicron likely spreads more easily, but early data suggests it’s less fatal as well – especially among the vaccinated.”

 

Good he is confirming other early data. Hopefully some of the hysteria seen will calm down. 

[khunPer]

If those experts that are talking now are right, then Omicron might be the relief of Covid-19 when being the major variant with less symptoms and almost no severe illness, replacing the dangerous disease to something more like a common cold. There might be hope this will end the messy World that Covid-19 made...????

 

Unfortunately for those that invested in Covid-19-vaccine stocks, they fell rapidly in value yesterday...????

[klauskunkel]

Quote

Thailand must calm down over Omicron, senior doctor says

I shall only calm down if it is Dr. Yong saying this.

If it's not Dr. Yong I shall panic!

[vivananahuahin]

i will invest now in flu shares

[TheScience]

Never let a good crisis go to waste.

 

 

[BangkokReady]

10 hours ago, darksidedog said:

As for banning flights from Africa, given it is already present all over the world, not sure how that will help.

There seems to be a lot more cases in Africa than around the world.  Banning flights from countries with high numbers of the variant means that fewer cases can potentially enter Thailand.

[Benmart]

Panic and hysteria mongering are often the tools of control as evidenced by recent history. For a virus with an extremely low fatality rate, it appears that there is more to this story which is not appearing in mainstream media.

[BangkokReady]

7 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

the whole world needs to calm down

 

The severity of Omicron is not yet known

The severity being not known is the exact reason why you act quickly.  You don't wait until you confirm that the horse has definitely bolted before you reluctantly close the stable door, simply because you know people don't like the stable door being shut.

[Mr Derek]

7 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

Not just Thailand, but the whole world needs to calm down, that should be rephrased - the Media needs to calm down, a lot of the fear and misinformation has been spread by the media simply placing precedence over being first rather than most accurate. 

 

The severity of Omicron is not yet known - I have read that it is more transmissible than the Delta variant, I have read that the differences of this variant are that it is a slightly different evolution / lineage than other known variants which is the only reason it is a variant of concern at the moment. 

 

It is not yet known whether or not Omicron causes a presents a greater risk of severe illness or whether vaccines are any less effective against Omicron. 

 

 

It is inevitable that the following point (#1) will surface, but this is readily contradicted by bigger picture thinking (point #2)

 

1) IF the spread transmission of Omicron is so prevalent (I read somewhere, 4x Delta ? - I’m not sure if thats accurate) - then it doesn’t matter who is or who isn’t vaccinated, everyone will be exposed, thus vaccination doesn’t limit spread. BUT.. if so this MUST be held in context with my next comment. 

 

2) Omicron highlights the importance of widespread vaccination of ‘effective’ vaccines (key word - effective).

Vaccines which prevent infection or limit the severity and duration of infection also play a significant roll in limiting the potential for antigenic drift - simply put, the less people who have Covid-19 the less potential there is for drift. In a vaccinated community the potential for the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 into another variant is reduced. 

 

This was the  issue in with the UK Alpha B.1.1.7 - where it is suspected that reduced ‘controls’ earlier on in the pandemic led to widespread infections in the UK with an increases probability of existing variants drifting into a variant of concern, the result was B.1.1.7.

 

While Western nations have been able to achieve (relatively) successful vaccination programs, poorer nations, particularly in Africa have been left by the wayside. For whatever reasons (economic, political, corruption etc - this has been widely discussed and argued in another thread on this forum) many nations in Africa have not been vaccinated, this has lead to continued outbreaks and the inevitable antigenic drift of SARS-CoV-2 within the continent into this new Omicron variant. 

 

Last year many people were ringing alarm bells, pointing out that this global issue needs a global response as any area which falls behind with vaccination presents continued risk of new variants which present risk to all nations unless 'lock-out’ is continued, but we can see that ‘lock-out’ does not work, the virus always ‘seeps’ through, borders are porous. 

 

The greatest concern for us all is taking our (as an international community) foot off the throttle and allowing areas to fall by the wayside, allowing further variants to develop, the next variants could be the ones which evade detection, evade vaccines and impact us more severely - so far, we have been very lucky that SARS-CoV-2 is not the major killer it could have been. 

 

A lot of people have and still are arguing that Covid-19 kills such a small minority of those who contract it. But, that is not the issue at all and those people have failed to recognise the big picture potential, which is, IF a virus such as this is permitted an uncontrolled foothold it could drift and evolve into something far more frightening, even to those currently downplaying the issues. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

tl;dr but I agree with your first paragraph. Covid paranoia has been relentlessly fuelled by the leftist media (read the Telegraph for entirely different picture). Leftists think they are more liberal, but unfortunately they are also more sensitive and insecure which means that they want to exert more and more control whenever they can, which is the opposite of liberal.

[arithai12]

9 minutes ago, BangkokReady said:

The severity being not known is the exact reason why you act quickly.  You don't wait until you confirm that the horse has definitely bolted before you reluctantly close the stable door, simply because you know people don't like the stable door being shut.

That's one way, safe is safe. But there's a price to pay, and frankly the world economy and especially the poorer classes have already paid a very high price in the last 2 years. I don't advocate behaving as if new strains don't exist. The middle way would be advisable: let's be careful, but let's not overdo it. In fact, all indications so far are that Omicron's effects are rather mild.

 

To be practical: contact tracing of all Omicron infections: yes. Banning flights from specific countries: no.

[BangkokReady]

15 minutes ago, arithai12 said:

That's one way, safe is safe. But there's a price to pay, and frankly the world economy and especially the poorer classes have already paid a very high price in the last 2 years.

Wasn't the lack of closed borders the reason for the virus reaching the level it did, resulting in economic slow-down?

[mrfill]

Photo looks like an out take from The Living Dead Go Cleaning In Bangkok

[daveAustin]

9 hours ago, khunPer said:

If those experts that are talking now are right, then Omicron might be the relief of Covid-19 when being the major variant with less symptoms and almost no severe illness, replacing the dangerous disease to something more like a common cold. There might be hope this will end the messy World that Covid-19 made...????

 

Unfortunately for those that invested in Covid-19-vaccine stocks, they fell rapidly in value yesterday...????

Even with that, problem with covid is the word has been stigmatised. Hypothetically, Flu could kill twice as many but people would still fear covid19 more because a) it needs time to be accepted and b) people are idiots. 

[khunPer]

46 minutes ago, daveAustin said:

Even with that, problem with covid is the word has been stigmatised. Hypothetically, Flu could kill twice as many but people would still fear covid19 more because a) it needs time to be accepted and b) people are idiots. 

I found this about Thailand once I searched for the influenza epidemic in 2018...

According to the latest WHO data published in 2018 Influenza and Pneumonia Deaths in Thailand reached 44,549 or 9.11% of total deaths. The age adjusted Death Rate is 47.82 per 100,000 of population ranks Thailand #70 in the world. Review other causes of death by clicking the links below or choose the full health profile.

Source: World Health Rankings.

 

Total number of Covid-19 deaths per today (7th December) is 20,995, which equals 30 per 100,000.

Source: WorldOmeter.