Thailand ranked 5th in 2021 Global Health Security Index

[Fairynuff]

7 hours ago, blazes said:

Canada???   Our prime mincer, when he's not applying blacking to his face, responds to pandemics by sending $2000 per month to all who prefer to sit at home and watch Netflix. 

 

 

"I'm a lumberjack, and I don't care...."

America had trump, UK has Johnson and you’re complaining about Canada..... wow

[off road pat]

5 hours ago, Zack61 said:

Call me a skeptic 

Skeptic !!!

[DBath]

3 hours ago, Dont confuse me said:

Maybe I've misread the post but wasn't the ranking for countries ability in responding to the pandemic? Not the casualties per capita.

Considering Thailand were still  negotiating to procure more vaccine 2 years after the pandemic struck they surely cannot be labeled as quickly responding? ???? 

Yes and yes...I thought the same thing you did.

[BusyB]

They jest!

[Rocking Robert]

USA number one all right let’s hear it for the yanks????????

[cmarshall]

15 hours ago, Dont confuse me said:

Maybe I've misread the post but wasn't the ranking for countries ability in responding to the pandemic? Not the casualties per capita.

Considering Thailand were still  negotiating to procure more vaccine 2 years after the pandemic struck they surely cannot be labeled as quickly responding? ???? 

The original Global Health Security project, which completed in Oct. 2019, had the goal of evaluating preparedness for a possible pandemic.  So, that was prospective.  Now however, we have actual data from the actual, ongoing pandemic which can answer the question, "So, how did the countries actually perform?"  The answer to that question in a single number is the Covid deaths per hundred thousand.  The US, which was positioned to perform the best among nations actually performed among the worst.  Thailand, which ranked fifth in the 2019 study performed pretty much as predicted, which is to say, extremely well.  But the stars of the epidemic have been China, Taiwan, S. Korea, Viet Nam, and a few others.  Among those highly successful countries only S. Korea has a first-world level of GDP per capita.

 

We were very lucky to be in Thailand for the pandemic.

[cmarshall]

18 hours ago, DBath said:

I’m sure your ‘data’ is accurate, I mean just look at China’s numbers….
 

If you believe that, you just lost all credibility. 

1.  None of the numbers cited is accurate, except maybe S. Korea since none of them did adequate testing at the outbreak or had the means to.  Certainly there was never widespread testing of dead people.  Only S. Korea ramped up early for extensive testing and then carried it out successfully, due to the excellent leadership of the Korean Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

 

2.  If you think China experienced the devastation of, say, Northern Italy in Spring of 2020 and managed to keep it a secret, you are deeply lost in fantasy.

[placeholder]

19 hours ago, DBath said:

I’m sure your ‘data’ is accurate, I mean just look at China’s numbers….
 

If you believe that, you just lost all credibility. 

Actually, China has millions of foreigners living there who are scattered throughout the country. if hospitals were stressed the way they have been elsewhere, it would be known. You don't seem to take into account that in many ways China is like an Orwellian police state. So the govt. has the means to crack down quickly and effectively when an outbreak occurs. Also the population is currently about 80% doubly inoculated. And despite what reflexive China bashers believe, Sinopharm's and Sinovac's vaccines are very effective at subduing serious symptoms and preventing deaths. Just because the vaccines are less effective than the Western vaccines, doesn't mean that they are ineffective.

 

[jacko45k]

18 hours ago, Scouse123 said:

You do have proof of all you are saying above with your UK bashing?

 

Because according to this trusted report the UK comes in at number 26!

 

As always, it depends which metric one takes. The UK  is looking bad based on new infections lately, but one must take into account the high numbers of tests they do....and how those testing numbers have increased recently. Sadly the UK numbers are not great from any angle......I have to wonder why an advanced country is sitting so high in the tables....worse than any other European Country, Russia etc.

Thailand certainly looks better. 

[metisdead]

Some posts trolling about Donald Trump have been removed.

[sandyf]

20 hours ago, brianthainess said:

John Hopkins centre have no idea how they treated foreigners here then. 

Single track mind, the report had nothing to do with how foreigners are treated, anywhere.

[sandyf]

17 hours ago, Dont confuse me said:

Maybe I've misread the post but wasn't the ranking for countries ability in responding to the pandemic? Not the casualties per capita.

Considering Thailand were still  negotiating to procure more vaccine 2 years after the pandemic struck they surely cannot be labeled as quickly responding? ???? 

Keep things in perspective, preservation of life is the primary benchmark.

 

A number of news reports have criticised the government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in the light of the conclusions reached by Exercise Cygnus.^[2][6] There was criticism^{[by whom?]} that no follow-up document was written detailing how to deal with an influenza pandemic after December 2016. In March 2020, the three government documents available for response to COVID-19 were those published in 2011 ("Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Strategy"), 2012 ("Health and Social Care Influenza Pandemic Preparedness and Response") and 2014 ("Pandemic Influenza Response Plan") respectively, with no revised report following Exercise Cygnus and no mention of ventilators.^[15]

^{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exercise_Cygnus}

[bert bloggs]

20 hours ago, brianthainess said:

And first in being the most racist country in the WHOLE WORLD and to the best of my knowledge the ONLY country in the world to do that, for giving vaccines to foreigners leaving them to last, after making them jump through more hoops than a circus, and giving all personal detailed info on a site made just for them, that a lot of people could not upload all photos on. 

Just a suggestion ,get a pink id card,i get quick tratment ,no problem getting the vacine, i certainly was not last in any q ,neither was a friend.

[DBath]

3 hours ago, cmarshall said:

“1.  None of the numbers cited is accurate…”

And yet here you are citing them in support of the great job Thailand has done when dealing with covid. I’ll agree that Thailand had an unusually low number of cases and deaths in the beginning and I’m glad I was able to live there during that time, but both of these things were just dumb luck. 
 

3 hours ago, cmarshall said:

2.  If you think China experienced the devastation of, say, Northern Italy in Spring of 2020 and managed to keep it a secret, you are deeply lost in fantasy.

Who said I was comparing China’s handling of covid or their covid situation with anyone? That said, China’s numbers were completely misreported and are bogus, IMO. I’ve lived, worked and spent a great deal of time there and if you think their gov’t controlled media isn’t capable of a major cover-up you’re seriously mistaken - even naive. 

[cmarshall]

13 minutes ago, DBath said:

And yet here you are citing them in support of the great job Thailand has done when dealing with covid. I’ll agree that Thailand had an unusually low number of cases and deaths in the beginning and I’m glad I was able to live there during that time, but both of these things were just dumb luck. 
 

Who said I was comparing China’s handling of covid or their covid situation with anyone? That said, China’s numbers were completely misreported and are bogus, IMO. I’ve lived, worked and spent a great deal of time there and if you think their gov’t controlled media isn’t capable of a major cover-up you’re seriously mistaken - even naive. 

To say the numbers are not accurate is not the same as saying that there is no information in them at all.  They are roughly approximate and useful especially when they can be compared with qualitative observations.  The Covid epidemic was essentially controlled by summer of 2020, when they permitted mass gathering in places like Wuhan water parks without a subsequent spike in infections.  Of course, they have had local outbreaks to which they have responded vigorously and effectively.  The comparison of Covid deaths per hundred between the US (242) and China (< 1) is essentially correct.  If the disease burden in China had ever exploded they would not have been able to hide it from the foreigners in the country or from the satellites passing overhead tallying how many cars were observed day by day in the hospital parking lots.

 

Citing the government control of the media as a broad generalization to justify your otherwise unsubstantiated assertion is indicative of a hatred of China.  Just like many of the posters here whose false denigration of the Thai response indicates their hatred of Thailand.

 

I take as evidence of the falsity of your belief that despite your having spent time in China you don't report any on-the-ground observation of high infection or death rates. 

Edited December 12, 2021 by cmarshall

[DBath]

32 minutes ago, cmarshall said:

“…the satellites passing overhead tallying how many cars were observed day by day in the hospital parking lots.”

That’s very funny…I’m sure glad nobody has put you in charge of any significant covert spy operations. 
 

 

32 minutes ago, cmarshall said:

To say the numbers are not accurate is not the same as saying that there is no information in them at all.

I don’t even know what you’re babbling on about here. Okay, so I guess we’ll just have to “trust the science” then?

 

38 minutes ago, cmarshall said:

“…your otherwise unsubstantiated assertion is indicative of a hatred of China.”

With many Chinese friends who live there and a Chinese wife with family there, it’s not likely. Many of our friends there were still unaware of covid as of the summer of 2020 and didn’t believe it when we discussed it with them. I doubt you know anything about China nor have you even been there before.

 

46 minutes ago, cmarshall said:

I take as evidence of the falsity of your belief that despite your having spent time in China you don't report any on-the-ground observation of high infection or death rates.

Well, I’m not sure if that’s as bad as what you’re trying to do here by throwing around what has already been established as your “inaccurate, yet still meaningful” covid stats. 

[Scouse123]

5 hours ago, jacko45k said:

As always, it depends which metric one takes. The UK  is looking bad based on new infections lately, but one must take into account the high numbers of tests they do....and how those testing numbers have increased recently. Sadly the UK numbers are not great from any angle......I have to wonder why an advanced country is sitting so high in the tables....worse than any other European Country, Russia etc.

Thailand certainly looks better. 

The UK has taken the approach that we must not allow the country to become bankrupt by this pandemic, which affects a small proportion of the population very severely, and has decided it is a risk worth taking.

[cmarshall]

2 minutes ago, Scouse123 said:

The UK has taken the approach that we must not allow the country to become bankrupt by this pandemic, which affects a small proportion of the population very severely, and has decided it is a risk worth taking.

And that would be the same Tory government that decided that have trade agreements with their largest trading partner were not strictly necessary?

[Scouse123]

2 hours ago, bert bloggs said:

Just a suggestion ,get a pink id card,i get quick tratment ,no problem getting the vacine, i certainly was not last in any q ,neither was a friend.

The vaccines available to foreigners sped up enormously after the donation  of Pfixer from the USA and France and others declaring they would vaccinate their own nationals at Embassies within the country,

 

This embarrassed the Thais and sprang them into action as well as exposing their outright xenophobic policies that were taking place in vaccine queues until there was outside intervention.

[Scouse123]

6 minutes ago, cmarshall said:

And that would be the same Tory government that decided that have trade agreements with their largest trading partner were not strictly necessary?

You are over simplifying something that was very complex, but yes that would be the same Tory government that the people backed, rightly or wrongly, around two years ago in a landslide.

 

Whether their polices are right, remains to be seen, but the vast majority of the voting public trusted them.

[cmarshall]

1 hour ago, DBath said:

That’s very funny…I’m sure glad nobody has put you in charge of any significant covert spy operations. 
 

Tell it to the Israelis:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/satellite-images-of-chinese-hospital-parking-suggests-outbreak-began-in-august/

 

1 hour ago, DBath said:

 

I don’t even know what you’re babbling on about here. Okay, so I guess we’ll just have to “trust the science” then?

 

The innumerate often fail to grasp how to reason from statistics that are known to be incomplete.

 

1 hour ago, DBath said:

 

With many Chinese friends who live there and a Chinese wife with family there, it’s not likely. Many of our friends there were still unaware of covid as of the summer of 2020 and didn’t believe it when we discussed it with them. I doubt you know anything about China nor have you even been there before.

 

Well, I’m not sure if that’s as bad as what you’re trying to do here by throwing around what has already been established as your “inaccurate, yet still meaningful” covid stats. 

Congratulations on your connections to Chinese society from which you still have no relevant observations to report.  So, none of your Chinese circle observed coffin shortages, people dying on the street, or hospitals with patients on gurneys filling waiting rooms?  How many Chinese in you circle of contacts got Covid?  No one I know in Thailand got Covid.  I periodically asked my Thai family and acquaintances if they knew anyone infected with Covid.  They always answered in the negative until in September one person did have a friend whose mother died of Covid.  By comparison in my circle of contacts back in the States there are many people reporting Covid cases firsthand including one of my own family members.

 

So, while not dispositive that is the kind of limited, but concrete observation on the ground that can tend to confirm or disconfirm theories like yours in the absence of any data to support them.  

[cmarshall]

2 minutes ago, Scouse123 said:

You are over simplifying something that was very complex, but yes that would be the same Tory government that the people backed, rightly or wrongly, around two years ago in a landslide.

 

Whether their polices are right, remains to be seen, but the vast majority of the voting public trusted them.

But they don't trust them so much lately, do they?  As the full effects of Brexit continue to increase, such as the trade consequences of finally checking incoming goods for which the Tories made no preparation in the past five years, their regret of their misplaced trust is only likely to increase as well.

[Scouse123]

2 minutes ago, cmarshall said:

But they don't trust them so much lately, do they?  As the full effects of Brexit continue to increase, such as the trade consequences of finally checking incoming goods for which the Tories made no preparation in the past five years, their regret of their misplaced trust is only likely to increase as well.

One of the wonderful things about living in a democracy such as the UK, if you don't like your government, you can vote them out every four or five years.

 

That being said, the vote to leave the EU has been taken in a democratic fashion and the majority voted to leave, so get over it.

 

We are now moving far away from the topic in hand and what this thread is about which is Thailand rankings i the global index.

[DBath]

1 hour ago, cmarshall said:

Tell it to the Israelis:

Your link proves nothing and is unsubstantial - barely even circumstantial at best. Even if those sat images were - in fact - meaningful it would only serve to further debunk your claims that the Chinese could not possibly hide such a mass outbreak, since that data was gathered well before December 2019 - starting in August that same year. And I clearly recall, as I’m sure do many others, there was no news about covid until mid to late December. 
 

The link you provided only substantiates that the Chinese embarked on a campaign of misinformation and lies and coverup much sooner than was reported. Yet, you keep defending them - and by them I mean the CCP.
 

You just like to use a lot of big flowery words to support your incomplete data. That you even admit is incomplete yourself - not very impressive. 
 

1 hour ago, cmarshall said:

“Congratulations on your connections to Chinese society…”

Thanks. You’ve never been to China have you? Probably spent most of your life stuck behind your keyboard looking up big words on the internet. Many of my Chinese friends were locked in their homes and not allowed to even go out to buy food because of strict CCP lockdowns; and this went on well past April of 2020. You’re so baseline and always jumping to your weak conclusions. 
 

1 hour ago, cmarshall said:

No one I know in Thailand got Covid.  I periodically asked my Thai family and acquaintances if they knew anyone infected with Covid.  They always answered in the negative until in September one person did have a friend whose mother died of Covid.  By comparison in my circle of contacts back in the States there are many people reporting Covid cases firsthand including one of my own family members.

You asked your Thai family and friends? That sounds very official. What was the sample size and where were they located? Which province? I find it hypocritical, even comical, how you condemn others for not backing up their arguments or claims using data and/or facts, then you turn around and do exactly the same thing you just condemned them for.
 

You’re rather incorrigible, aren’t you. 

[Dont confuse me]

9 hours ago, sandyf said:

Keep things in perspective, preservation of life is the primary benchmark.

 

A number of news reports have criticised the government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in the light of the conclusions reached by Exercise Cygnus.^[2][6] There was criticism^{[by whom?]} that no follow-up document was written detailing how to deal with an influenza pandemic after December 2016. In March 2020, the three government documents available for response to COVID-19 were those published in 2011 ("Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Strategy"), 2012 ("Health and Social Care Influenza Pandemic Preparedness and Response") and 2014 ("Pandemic Influenza Response Plan") respectively, with no revised report following Exercise Cygnus and no mention of ventilators.^[15]

^{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exercise_Cygnus}

Try to understand the original post then perhaps you won't waste you or anyone else  time.

[jacko45k]

18 hours ago, Scouse123 said:

The UK has taken the approach that we must not allow the country to become bankrupt by this pandemic, which affects a small proportion of the population very severely, and has decided it is a risk worth taking.

Judging by the debt the government is incurring I wonder if that can be avoided. 

[sandyf]

On 12/12/2021 at 6:16 PM, Dont confuse me said:

Try to understand the original post then perhaps you won't waste you or anyone else  time.

It is fairly obvious where the lack  of understanding lies.

From the original post.

"The 2021 Global Health Security Index, released on Wednesday, ranks 195 countries according to their capacity to respond to epidemics and pandemics, as assessed by John Hopkins Centre for Health Security, "

 

In any assessment there has to be a benchmark, and for an epidemic/pandemic that would be loss of life.

Vaccination is merely one cog in the gearbox.