Dr. Yong. File photo

 

This year is “game over” for COVID-19, as the World Health Organisation is expected to stop counting global daily infections, because reports of infections by every country submitted to the organisation are lower than actual figures and the disease will become seasonal, according to Dr. Yong Poovorawan, head of the Centre of Excellence of Clinical Virology at the Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University.

 

In his Facebook post today (Monday), he also said that COVID-19 in Thailand will subside this month, but will re-emerge from June until September, after which it will become a seasonal disease, like influenza.

 

After three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Yong said that we have learned ten things:

 

-The virus is evolving to survive, as it adjusts to reduce its severity and to co-exist with the human host. The mortality rate, which used to be 3-5%, has now reduced to 0.1%, similar to that of influenza.

 

-Severe diseases, such as Ebola, Marburg and Lassa fever have a slim chance of spreading globally. On the contrary, diseases which are less severe, such as influenza, can spread across the world.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/top-thai-virologist-says-2023-is-game-over-for-covid-19/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2023-02-20

 

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Even if the virus completely disappears, are those Thais who seem convinced that all foreigners have covid ever going to be able to change this view?

 

I feel like the damage is irreversible, at least in the short-term.

Better late than never,  I suppose.

 

Quote

After three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Yong said that we have learned ten things:

Most people with an ounce more sense than a billiard ball knew those things already 3 years ago, if they knew anything about history and had any common sense.

This dude is a joke.  He should  give his degree back and get a job at Big C.  He has been wrong with all his predictions and still advocates using masks!

COVID is deemed to be with us always - in one mutated form or another. 

 

Just as all rhino or rna viruses are. 

1 hour ago, BangkokReady said:

Even if the virus completely disappears, are those Thais who seem convinced that all foreigners have covid ever going to be able to change this view?

 

I feel like the damage is irreversible, at least in the short-term.

Don't think there are many who think that. 

Personally, I feel more uncomfortable around just the Chinese visitors. 

5 minutes ago, zzaa09 said:

COVID is deemed to be with us always - in one mutated form or another. 

 

Just as all rhino or rna viruses are. 

Let me think, will I believe you or Thailand's top virologist? You don't even attempt to provide a link to evidence to back up your idle speculation.

 

btw, covid is not a rinovirus, it is a coronavirus. I think that answers my question.

27 minutes ago, Taboo2 said:

This dude is a joke.  He should  give his degree back and get a job at Big C.  He has been wrong with all his predictions and still advocates using masks!

To be fair, he seems to be talking more sense now. In a previous statement he said masks were a personal choice. In this statement, he made one very interesting comment: "If we could turn back time, we should make use of the body of knowledge as our guide in coping with the pandemic, instead of submitting to pressure from social media." This seems to be an admission that he and other people who influence Thai public opinion and policy have been reacting to mass hysteria rather that providing leadership, and that this needs to change.

5 minutes ago, ozimoron said:

Let me think, will I believe you or Thailand's top virologist? You don't even attempt to provide a link to evidence to back up your idle speculation.

 

btw, covid is not a rinovirus, it is a coronavirus. I think that answers my question.

Edit: Thailand's self proclaimed top virologist.

1 minute ago, In the jungle said:

Edit: Thailand's self proclaimed top virologist.

If not him, who is?

So does this mean the Thais will finally be told to stop masking because they're obviously not going to stop until someone tells them to.

8 minutes ago, edwardandtubs said:

To be fair, he seems to be talking more sense now. In a previous statement he said masks were a personal choice. In this statement, he made one very interesting comment: "If we could turn back time, we should make use of the body of knowledge as our guide in coping with the pandemic, instead of submitting to pressure from social media." This seems to be an admission that he and other people who influence Thai public opinion and policy have been reacting to mass hysteria rather that providing leadership, and that this needs to change.

Sounds like he was just waiting for what the US FDA/CDC/Fauci and US Media would spew out and then copy it for Thailand.  He should have gone back to his basic training.  My degree is Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and I had to make decisions that were backed up with rigid calculations, data and peer reviews.  Folks who came out against anything the US said were censored in America by the Government in concert with Big Tech and Media.  Disgusting that folks who were trained all their lives to be objective were silenced by YouTube, FB, MSM, etc.  Lots of them lost their jobs.

3 minutes ago, jaywalker2 said:

So does this mean the Thais will finally be told to stop masking because they're obviously not going to stop until someone tells them to.

Idle speculation? Maybe a tinge of gratuitous Thai bashing?

5 minutes ago, jaywalker2 said:

So does this mean the Thais will finally be told to stop masking because they're obviously not going to stop until someone tells them to.

Spreading fear is a great way of maintaining political control so keeping everyone masked up and full of anxiety is great for Prayuth and Anutin.

Just now, edwardandtubs said:

Spreading fear is a great way of mainting political control so keeping everyone masked up a full of anxiety is great for Prayuth and Anutin.

Please explain the mechanism by which government recommendations to wear masks enables political control. I've been at a loss to understand this conspiracy theory and nobody seems wiling to explain it. Will you? My understanding is that recommendations to wear masks saves lives, simple as that. You know, Occam's razor. The same recommendations have been made by every nation on the planet, yet it seems to have not resulted in political control.

 

 

1 minute ago, ozimoron said:

Please explain the mechanism by which government recommendations to wear masks enables political control. I've been at a loss to understand this conspiracy theory and nobody seems wiling to explain it. Will you? My understanding is that recommendations to wear masks saves lives, simple as that. You know, Occam's razor. The same recommendations have been made by every nation on the planet, yet it seems to have not resulted in political control.

 

 

It's not a "conspiracy theory", it's just political reality. The widespread political protests in 2020 came to an end due to covid restrictions and fearmongering and have never returned. Spreading fear discourages mass protests and makes people accept a "strong government" to keep them "safe".

2 minutes ago, edwardandtubs said:

It's not a "conspiracy theory", it's just political reality. The widespread political protests in 2020 came to an end due to covid restrictions and fearmongering and have never returned. Spreading fear discourages mass protests and makes people accept a "strong government" to keep them "safe".

How does reassuring people that the virus will end this year spread fear?

 

You're still unable to describe the actual mechanism by which this conspiracy theory works. The right like to just say "oh, it;s common sense" but can articulate nothing beyond that. As a sociologist, I'd like to know. It's beyond my ken.

5 minutes ago, ozimoron said:

How does reassuring people that the virus will end this year spread fear?

Prayuth and Anutin haven't been "reassuring people that the virus will end this year".

 

It reminds me of the constant claims that the election will be held NEXT year after the 2014 coup.

13 minutes ago, ozimoron said:

The right like to just say "oh, it;s common sense"

Who has ever said that about the topic we're currently discussing? You seem to be imagining things.

4 minutes ago, edwardandtubs said:

Who has ever said that about the topic we're currently discussing? You seem to be imagining things.

Seems to be his history - imagining things. 

Just an observation.

1 hour ago, Taboo2 said:

This dude is a joke.  He should  give his degree back and get a job at Big C.  He has been wrong with all his predictions and still advocates using masks!

You mean his engineering degree? He never had any qualifications to be health minister and his appointment had nothing to do with merit or ability. 

1 hour ago, edwardandtubs said:

To be fair, he seems to be talking more sense now. In a previous statement he said masks were a personal choice. In this statement, he made one very interesting comment: "If we could turn back time, we should make use of the body of knowledge as our guide in coping with the pandemic, instead of submitting to pressure from social media." This seems to be an admission that he and other people who influence Thai public opinion and policy have been reacting to mass hysteria rather that providing leadership, and that this needs to change.

Anutin providing leadership. That is a bizarre concept. He, like Prayuth and Prawit do not have a nanogram of leadership ability, within their entire bodies 

14 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

You mean his engineering degree? He never had any qualifications to be health minister and his appointment had nothing to do with merit or ability. 

which engineering degree would that be?

 

He attended upper-secondary school at Triam Udom Suksa School, and graduated Bachelor of Science in 1972 and Doctor of Medicine in 1974 from Chulalongkorn University.[2]

Inflammatory post removed.  Keep it on topic and civil.

 

2 hours ago, edwardandtubs said:

It's not a "conspiracy theory", it's just political reality. The widespread political protests in 2020 came to an end due to covid restrictions and fearmongering and have never returned. Spreading fear discourages mass protests and makes people accept a "strong government" to keep them "safe".

Folks seems to forget that Hong Kong has major political issues right before covid was unleashed.

He is oddly specific in his prediction but who knows, maybe he's right.

 

Coronaviruses are circulating all the time and lumped in with the rest of the colds although they hit far above their weight in the percentage of infections they cause considering there's around 200 'things' considered common colds and only 4 coronaviruses are in general circulation, until 2020 that is.

I referred to COVID it as the birth of a new cold to much derision back in 2020 - but that's exactly what was beginning, it just needed a few years to build up a measure of global immunity and mutate into something less harmful. Both of these processes now appear to be near completion and yes, it will probably never completely disappear but I wouldn't rule that out either.

 

1 hour ago, Taboo2 said:

Folks seems to forget that Hong Kong has major political issues right before covid was unleashed.

Covid was not 'unleashed'.  Continue with such unproven conspiracy theories and it will result in a suspension.  

 

4 hours ago, ozimoron said:

How does reassuring people that the virus will end this year spread fear?

 

You're still unable to describe the actual mechanism by which this conspiracy theory works. The right like to just say "oh, it;s common sense" but can articulate nothing beyond that. As a sociologist, I'd like to know. It's beyond my ken.

You won't get an explanation because there are no plausible explanations for a conspiracy.  For them, the idea of 'controlling' people is paramount, so naturally wearing a mask can't have anything to do with minimizing the health risk to the general population, so they must be simply using this to control us.  Once we are trained, they will control other things.   

1 hour ago, Credo said:

You won't get an explanation because there are no plausible explanations for a conspiracy.  For them, the idea of 'controlling' people is paramount, so naturally wearing a mask can't have anything to do with minimizing the health risk to the general population, so they must be simply using this to control us.  Once we are trained, they will control other things.   

That argument might have sounded very clever in the middle of 2021 but most countries of the world have now ditched masking. All you're doing now is revealing yourself to be someone who slavishly follows authoritarian clowns like Prayuth.

5 hours ago, ozimoron said:

which engineering degree would that be?

 

He attended upper-secondary school at Triam Udom Suksa School, and graduated Bachelor of Science in 1972 and Doctor of Medicine in 1974 from Chulalongkorn University. 

We were referring to Anutin. See the previous post on the thread. 

 

Mr. Anutin Charnvirakul graduated from Hofstra University, United States with Bachelor Degree in Industrial Engineering. He has also received Honorary Doctorate Degree in several fields, including Civil Engineering, Management, Public Administration, and Economics. 

 

A minor level of expertise in cement does not qualify one to be the health minister of a nation during a pandemic.