Nine Omicron cases confirmed in Thailand to date, five others await confirmation

[Towny]

On 12/15/2021 at 8:46 PM, RichardColeman said:

Yeah, but isn't that the same organisation that said it was not a pandemic for ages, allowing full Chinese travel and said the virus was nothing to do with a lab leak  ? 

 

Trusts these clowns even less than the current TAT tourist predictions !

China should be held responsible for letting this virus out , personally I think it was deliberate to try and get the Worlds trade ! China are a disgrace

[daveAustin]

22 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

I'm about as far away from being a conspiracy theorist, anti vaxxer or Covid denier as you can get and I agree with some restrictions but we cannot continue like this forever. As has been said a thousand times, we have to learn to live with the virus - there will be more variants and more waves.

 

I wouldn't advocate vastly stricter measures - after nearly 2 years most country's economies are reeling.  I would however, be for stricter enforcement of the basic measures that are in place. I can't speak for Thailand but in the UK, a lot of people are now ignoring mask wearing etc. They are rarely prosecuted and are often 'serial' offenders.  People say its restriction weariness, I don't see the problem - if wearing a mask and keeping my distance for a few more months or even years will keep me Covid free, I don't have a problem. I've had Covid and its not something I want to experience again.

 

I heard a woman talking today (the UK gov are advising not to have get togethers etc. over Christmas if possible - only advising mind), she was saying, I don't care, I'm having my mother over for Christmas and that's that. I only just resisted saying 'yeah, and it could be your mother's last Christmas. There's a strong case for being sensible but somebody needs to enforce it.

 

Closing the borders would be a waste of time - as we have seen here, Omicron will get in and when it does it goes crazy.

 

One of the problems with Thailand is that the healthcare system will get overwhelmed very quickly if the don't stop putting people with few, if any symptoms in hospital. A friend's mum was hauled off at the end of last week - positive PCR but the tiniest of cold like symptoms. My friend and her daughter had only just arrived  in Thailand after over 2 years.  Mother is in hospital, daughter and grandaughter have to isolate for, I believe, 10 days and should one of them sneeze, the'll be hauled off too. I really don't see the sense in hospitalising people with very mild cases of the disease.

 

 

Actually people in uk do wear in shops, Tube etc (esp now), but generally not out in the open. Making/fining on that basis is wrong wrong wrong. That is gojng too far and achieves little but alienate one another. Typical of Thailand to go to the enth degree! This thing is killing us just as much mentally and economically. One things for sure, mask wearing will not end in Thailand. It will become ubiquitous. Sad. But yeah omicron is a cold. 

[ikke1959]

Although Omicron is not very dangerous at this moment, I doubt it is a good idea to organize mass events as for celebrating New Year's Eve.  Vaccinations are not protecting enough against this strain and to prevent a new wave maybe it is better to prevent again, than boosting the local economy now with a result that half January everybody goes back in lockdown or more restrictions. That will cosst more money I think. Thailand is not much different than Europe

[kiwikeith]

18 hours ago, Metapod said:

its just the flu. you people are insane. at this rate, you will be locked down and wearing masks for the rest of your lives

The medical experts have said that Omicron has mutated and now carries the human corona virus as well.

So crudely it could be called a half caste, part Sars covid and part human corona virus.

So our immune systems are used to fighting human corona virus, and so far this variant seems to causing mild illness, according to SA data.

So again fingers crossed.

[Rimmer]

Cut and paste from social media has been removed

[Stargeezr]

Just because the Omicron variant may take over as the dominant variant, doe not mean that the 

Delta or even the Alpha variant will be gone. If you catch either of these COVID variants, you better

hope that you are doubly vaccinated  and if you are a senior, get the booster if you can.

  Some posters are way too eager, to see this pandemic over.  With the people who refuse to vaccinate, 

and some places in the world where people have not been able to vaccinate all the variants are

likely still around in large numbers. Don't travel to the places of unrest, if you do not have to.

My 2 cents worth of advice.

[jacko45k]

2 hours ago, Stargeezr said:

Just because the Omicron variant may take over as the dominant variant, doe not mean that the 

Delta or even the Alpha variant will be gone

Well it kind of does from what I have been hearing from some sources. It will take some time globally, but has nearly achieved that in South Africa.

[The Hammer2021]

On 12/16/2021 at 6:52 AM, KhaoYai said:

I'm about as far away from being a conspiracy theorist, anti vaxxer or Covid denier as you can get and I agree with some restrictions but we cannot continue like this forever. As has been said a thousand times, we have to learn to live with the virus - there will be more variants and more waves.

 

I wouldn't advocate vastly stricter measures - after nearly 2 years most country's economies are reeling.  I would however, be for stricter enforcement of the basic measures that are in place. I can't speak for Thailand but in the UK, a lot of people are now ignoring mask wearing etc. They are rarely prosecuted and are often 'serial' offenders.  People say its restriction weariness, I don't see the problem - if wearing a mask and keeping my distance for a few more months or even years will keep me Covid free, I don't have a problem. I've had Covid and its not something I want to experience again.

 

I heard a woman talking today (the UK gov are advising not to have get togethers etc. over Christmas if possible - only advising mind), she was saying, I don't care, I'm having my mother over for Christmas and that's that. I only just resisted saying 'yeah, and it could be your mother's last Christmas. There's a strong case for being sensible but somebody needs to enforce it.

 

Closing the borders would be a waste of time - as we have seen here, Omicron will get in and when it does it goes crazy.

 

One of the problems with Thailand is that the healthcare system will get overwhelmed very quickly if the don't stop putting people with few, if any symptoms in hospital. A friend's mum was hauled off at the end of last week - positive PCR but the tiniest of cold like symptoms. My friend and her daughter had only just arrived  in Thailand after over 2 years.  Mother is in hospital, daughter and grandaughter have to isolate for, I believe, 10 days and should one of them sneeze, the'll be hauled off too. I really don't see the sense in hospitalising people with very mild cases of the disease.

 

 

Automatic hospitalization is leading to people with covid not coming out and staying within the community. It's a disasterous policy in some ways.

[metisdead]

Another copy and paste from social media has been removed. 

[Macrohistory]

Financial Times

 

‘No evidence’ that Omicron is less severe than Delta, say Imperial researchers

Study warns of elevated reinfection risk but notes ‘very limited’ data on hospitalisations

 

Oliver Barnes and John Burn-Murdoch in London 11 MINUTES AGO

 

There is currently “no evidence” that the Omicron coronavirus is any less severe than the Delta strain, according to early findings from researchers at Imperial College London, which also highlighted the elevated risk of reinfection posed by Omicron and the need for booster shots to combat it.

 

The research, based on UK infection data, casts doubt on the hopes of some experts that a change in the virulence of the new variant would ease the pressure on health systems despite Omicron’s high levels of infectiousness…

 

https://www.ft.com/content/020534b3-5a54-4517-9fd1-167a5db50786

 

[KhaoYai]

1 hour ago, Bkk Brian said:

I have no interest in politics for me the bigger picture of Public Health is far more important. He has a good team such as Prof Chris Whitty Chief Medical Officer,  physician and epidemiologist. 

Yes, I'm thankful for that. I just hope he follows their advice - he didn't last Christmas and look what happend in January.

[Bkk Brian]

6 minutes ago, KhaoYai said:

Yes, I'm thankful for that. I just hope he follows their advice - he didn't last Christmas and look what happend in January.

Well boosters were rapidly deployed, other measures such as work at home deployed not much else you can do unless you then start to limit social events and other stricter measures, it was hard enough for him to get the backing for these current measures. The virus loves politics, its best friend. 

 

Anyway with this mutation no matter what you do it spreads, nothing much will stop it unless you go into full lockdown to just delay it, nobody wants that again.

[KhaoYai]

2 hours ago, Kadilo said:

The UK was slow to mobilise the booster plan and lost 2-3 valuable weeks which would have been invaluable over the next month as cases rise quickly as you rightly say. 

I agree with you on many points but not that - the booster programme has been running for some time now, I had mine over a month ago. Given the logistics and the fact that the vaccines themselves have to be acquired, I think they're going as fast as they can. Its possibly going too fast = other illnesses are being put on the back burner.  For example, I need to have a blood test every 3 months and missing a 'bad' one could be quite serious.  My GP group have 3 surgeries, each with 2 nurses, I couldn't get a blood test on time recently because 5 out of 6 nurses had been seconded to the vaccine programme.  There are people reporting far more serious problems than that and sometimes is seems it doesn't matter what you die of, as long as its not Covid.

[Kadilo]

1 hour ago, KhaoYai said:

I agree with you on many points but not that - the booster programme has been running for some time now, I had mine over a month ago. Given the logistics and the fact that the vaccines themselves have to be acquired, I think they're going as fast as they can. Its possibly going too fast = other illnesses are being put on the back burner.  For example, I need to have a blood test every 3 months and missing a 'bad' one could be quite serious.  My GP group have 3 surgeries, each with 2 nurses, I couldn't get a blood test on time recently because 5 out of 6 nurses had been seconded to the vaccine programme.  There are people reporting far more serious problems than that and sometimes is seems it doesn't matter what you die of, as long as its not Covid.

Yes it’s a shame that people like yourself are now going to potentially suffer as a result of an all out attack on the booster. I too know of someone else waiting for heart surgery that keeps getting delayed as well as people who need hip and knee replacements. 
 

Of they die of anything else it’s likely  it will end up on the Covid numbers somewhere so the real problem gets

covered up. 
 

They are trying to go as fast as they can but cannot make up for the slowish start where there was a 2-3 week window when the first data came out before they started to seriously organise and get going. 
 

Now with each jab taking around 10 days before really kicking in there are a lot of potential cases which may have been avoided if they had acted sooner. 
 

Its no slight on the NHS and all the volunteer. They will as always do a wonderful job and try and minimise the impact from a leaderless Government in turmoil  with no direction, no credibility who are just out to save their own skin and I’m survival mode without thinking of the bigger picture. 

[Cherrytreeview]

40 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

Explain this misconception of a slowish start with a timeline of when WHO announced Omicron as a VOC on the 26th Nov, don't forget to take into account that on the 1st Dec Dr Mike Ryan, WHO's emergency director, said there was no evidence yet that giving boosters to the whole population, including healthy people, will provide greater protection against the disease.

 

Despite that the UK on the 7th Dec started the extra rollout for Omicron in addition to its previously ongoing booster program for delta.

 

Looking forward to a logical explanation...........................

Your going to be waiting a long time.

Seems to be the modus operandi of the TVF basement epidemiologists.

Make unsubstantiated statements as facts and provide no proof or links to back up their claims.

Here's a few actual facts -

Thailand 6% of population boosted.

UK 44% of population boosted.

Thailand 2 jabs 60%

UK 2 jabs 80%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Blumpie]

Well I see no new cases of omni-ding-dong since Wednesday.  ????  Of course it could be a lack of reporting too.  In thailand, which would be the case... 

[metisdead]

Another copy and paste from social media has been removed.

[metisdead]

Off topic posts and replies about the rising Omicron cases in the UK have been removed as this topic is about:

 

Nine Omicron cases confirmed in Thailand to date, five others await confirmation

 

 

[Cherrytreeview]

Animation to show how quick omicron spreads.

 

 

[Cherrytreeview]

Some encouraging data

 

 

 

 

 

[Cherrytreeview]

 

 

[Blumpie]

On 12/17/2021 at 6:32 AM, Macrohistory said:

Financial Times

 

‘No evidence’ that Omicron is less severe than Delta, say Imperial researchers

Study warns of elevated reinfection risk but notes ‘very limited’ data on hospitalisations

 

Oliver Barnes and John Burn-Murdoch in London 11 MINUTES AGO

 

There is currently “no evidence” that the Omicron coronavirus is any less severe than the Delta strain, according to early findings from researchers at Imperial College London, which also highlighted the elevated risk of reinfection posed by Omicron and the need for booster shots to combat it.

 

The research, based on UK infection data, casts doubt on the hopes of some experts that a change in the virulence of the new variant would ease the pressure on health systems despite Omicron’s high levels of infectiousness…

 

https://www.ft.com/content/020534b3-5a54-4517-9fd1-167a5db50786

 

These are great stories and it's exciting!  We need to understand that we still don't know for sure but it's looking that way more and more every day.  IT's good news and I don't see it going any other way, but we can't jump to that conclusion yet.  

We all know why they are trying to slow the spread -  horrifyingly high spreadability, the hospitals will once again be overwhelmed.  This thing doubles every 2-3 days!  Incredible!  If it's as good as it sounds, let's get herd immunity as soon as we know.  

One big factor that we don't know is is there long covid symptoms with this seemingly and probable mild form of the disease?  I sure hope not.  

This is an exciting time and we will be seeing real action in the world starting soon.  How many factories will shut?  Will China keep it out?  I doubt that.  What will they do with their policy of zero covid?  How will Thailand compare with its relatively high amount of natural immunity from previous infections and vaccine rate?

Lots going on in the news.  Every day we are learning more and more.  

[Blumpie]

On 12/18/2021 at 5:02 AM, Cherrytreeview said:

Animation to show how quick omicron spreads.

 

 

This graph is great!  You are not going to stop omicron.  It is far far far too transmissible.  This will be over in some months, and will not be drawn out.  It is impossible to stop this, like it or not.  

[Kadilo]

Some more potential good news amongst the d&g

 

https://news.sky.com/story/omicron-may-be-less-efficient-at-attacking-lungs-compared-to-other-variants-uk-study-suggests-12499678

[Bkk Brian]

9 minutes ago, Kadilo said:

Some more potential good news amongst the d&g

 

https://news.sky.com/story/omicron-may-be-less-efficient-at-attacking-lungs-compared-to-other-variants-uk-study-suggests-12499678

This was also found and published on the 15th Dec by the University of Hong Kong

 

 "the Omicron variant replicated less efficiently (more than 10 times lower) in the human lung tissue than the original SARS-CoV-2 virus, which may suggest lower severity of disease."

 

https://www.med.hku.hk/en/news/press/20211215-omicron-sars-cov-2-infection

 

However they also found that it:

 

"infects and multiplies 70 times faster than the Delta variant and original SARS-CoV-2 in human bronchus, which may explain why Omicron may transmit faster between humans than previous variants."

 

‘It is also noted that, by infecting many more people, a very infectious virus may cause more severe disease and death even though the virus itself may be less pathogenic. 

 

 

[Bkk Brian]

16 minutes ago, Blumpie said:

This graph is great!  You are not going to stop omicron.  It is far far far too transmissible.  This will be over in some months, and will not be drawn out.  It is impossible to stop this, like it or not.  

I think once it hits any particular country it will be hit hard but it may well be over in less than some months.....fingers crossed

[Cherrytreeview]

6 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

This was also found and published on the 15th Dec by the University of Hong Kong

 

 "the Omicron variant replicated less efficiently (more than 10 times lower) in the human lung tissue than the original SARS-CoV-2 virus, which may suggest lower severity of disease."

 

https://www.med.hku.hk/en/news/press/20211215-omicron-sars-cov-2-infection

 

However they also found that it:

 

"infects and multiplies 70 times faster than the Delta variant and original SARS-CoV-2 in human bronchus, which may explain why Omicron may transmit faster between humans than previous variants."

 

‘It is also noted that, by infecting many more people, a very infectious virus may cause more severe disease and death even though the virus itself may be less pathogenic. 

 

 

Just shows you how much actual real world scientific data some posters pay attention to.

Instead, it's scraping around using Dr Google to find the same article posted days later on mainstream media.

The same mainstream media they complain about on a daily basis.

Some of us actually try and find objective scientific data, devoid of mass media filtering.

 

 

[Kadilo]

 

 

Latest numbers from the UK. 83,000  new cases, around 7,000 down from yesterday. 45 new deaths with Covid, lowest for some time and as yet no sign of daily deaths rising. 

[Bkk Brian]

Data from Denmark is looking good, its a highly vaccinated country and this is a good sample size, hosptializations are 60% down from the Delta wave (young age group caveat):

 

Actually, more recent data from Denmark looks more encouraging. Based on a far larger sample size, Omicron hospitalizations are at ~0.6% vs. ~1.5% for Delta (~60% down).

https://covid19.ssi.dk/virusvarianter/omikron

[Cherrytreeview]

 

Oh dear.

Seems the Thai government don't share the views of are crack team of TVF basement epidemiologists, who think that everything is hunky dory and omicron is only a figment of "doom and gloom" merchants.

Looks like every prediction they made is about to be proved wrong again.

Thailand lockdown bets anyone?