Thai Health Experts Alleviate Public Concerns About New Covid-19 Variant

[webfact]

 

By Tanakorn Panyadee

Thai health experts came out to soothe public concerns about a new strain of Covid-19, explaining that while it may be more transmissible than previous variants, it is still not a major concern.

Speaking at a press conference on April 18th, Dr. Opas Karnkawinpong, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Health, revealed that there may be a slight increase in COVID-19 cases following the Songkran festival in Thailand, but the rise is not expected to be significant.

 

Currently, Thailand’s dominant strain of COVID-19 is a combination of Omicron and XBB.1.5 variants, while the newly identified XBB.1.16 strain is being closely monitored but is not an immediate cause for concern, despite being more transmissible.

 

Full story: https://thepattayanews.com/2023/04/20/thai-health-experts-alleviate-public-concerns-about-new-covid-19-variant/

 

-- © Copyright The Pattaya News 2023-04-20

 

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[ikke1959]

So why all the media attention for something that is no concern yet??.. Scare people and keep the masks on till 2050??

[zzaa09]

Lockdown eminent - 

[jacko45k]

1 minute ago, ikke1959 said:

So why all the media attention for something that is no concern yet??.. Scare people and keep the masks on till 2050??

I don't think it is about masks so you can probably let that OCD matter go.... just people who previously felt they had found a cause, now feeling redundant. 

[ikke1959]

2 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

I don't think it is about masks so you can probably let that OCD matter go.... just people who previously felt they had found a cause, now feeling redundant. 

I don't know.. Today I have to go he hospital and I will wear a mask. Why would you think, but last week I needed a bloodtest and went in without a mask and everyone was looking at me as if I was a criminal, and the nurse asked why I did not wear one. I explained that there is no real threat anymore, and than she ran away, just scary I think??? So I thought I let myself go with the flow....But it is still strange... Songkran no masks and now again everybody wearing one

[jacko45k]

1 minute ago, ikke1959 said:

I don't know.. Today I have to go he hospital and I will wear a mask. Why would you think, but last week I needed a bloodtest and went in without a mask and everyone was looking at me as if I was a criminal, and the nurse asked why I did not wear one. I explained that there is no real threat anymore, and than she ran away, just scary I think??? So I thought I let myself go with the flow....But it is still strange... Songkran no masks and now again everybody wearing one

I can imagine they are still in use and a good idea in hospitals, they are major places for getting sick! A Thai nurse I know still uses masks a lot..... 

 

[dinsdale]

Alleviate concerns driven by the media. Seems most on this platform were not concerned. I mean I wasn't. I admit I did start wearing 2 masks and washed my hands every 5 min. but I wasn't concerned.

????

[anrcaccount]

Thai media has a strange obsession with this virus. IMO their coverage of it causes far more concern than warranted. 

 

Elsewhere in the world coverage of it has practically ceased, yet it's still a front page story here frequently.

 

Clearly the pandemic is ending.

 

Overall, Worldwide cases and deaths are as low as they've been since early 2020. 

 

Time to move on.

 

 

 

[RichardColeman]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

but is not an immediate cause for concern, despite being more transmissible.

Unless you are obese, a heavy smoker, or over 85 !

[dinsdale]

37 minutes ago, anrcaccount said:

Thai media has a strange obsession with this virus. IMO their coverage of it causes far more concern than warranted. 

 

Elsewhere in the world coverage of it has practically ceased, yet it's still a front page story here frequently.

 

Clearly the pandemic is ending.

 

Overall, Worldwide cases and deaths are as low as they've been since early 2020. 

 

Time to move on.

 

 

 

I mostly agree with but the pandemic isn't ending, it's ended.

[NoshowJones]

5 hours ago, dinsdale said:

I mostly agree with but the pandemic isn't ending, it's ended.

The medical profession don't want to lose all the extra income the have aqquired since the pandemic started.

[Burma Bill]

6 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

So why all the media attention for something that is no concern yet??.. Scare people and keep the masks on till 2050??

Common sense from across the border????  (from today's Khmer media 20 April 2023):

 

"Prime Minister Hun Sen declared this yesterday afternoon that the mandatory facemask wearing and rapid COVID-19 testing at any public gathering (including hospitals) will be discontinued. Our New Year celebration was held without COVID-19 infections, therefore the Royal Government, at the request from Ministry of Health, would like to end the mandatory wearing of facemask and COVID-19 rapid test for any mass gathering,”

 

https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501276347/cambodia-ends-mandatory-facemask-wearing-and-rapid-test-for-mass-gathering/

 

Personally, I (and many other people) have not worn masks for many months. Masked folk are definitely not the norm.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

6 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

I explained that there is no real threat anymore,

As of last week, an average of 60+ people per day were being hospitalized in Thailand for COVID, and some of those sick enough to require intubation because they cannot otherwise breathe.

 

You seem to have a very odd definition of "no real threat anymore."

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

42 minutes ago, NoshowJones said:

The medical profession don't want to lose all the extra income the have aqquired since the pandemic started.

Rubbish.... doctors and nurses around the world died from COVID often because they were trying to keep their COVID patients alive during a worldwide pandemic.

 

Not because they were in it to make a buck.

 

Health and Care Worker Deaths during COVID-19

 

WHO estimates that between 80 000 and 180 000 health and care workers could have died from COVID-19 in the period between January 2020 to May 2021, converging to a medium scenario of 115 500 deaths¹.

 

https://www.who.int/news/item/20-10-2021-health-and-care-worker-deaths-during-covid-19

 

Edited April 20, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

6 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Unless you are obese, a heavy smoker, or over 85 !

65 and over is a more accurate threshold for where the health risks from COVID begin to get much worse. And then the odds of bad outcomes obviously get even worse as you get older from there.

 

 

Edited April 20, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[ikke1959]

15 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

As of last week, an average of 60+ people per day were being hospitalized in Thailand for COVID, and some of those sick enough to require intubation because they cannot otherwise breathe.

 

You seem to have a very odd definition of "no real threat anymore."

where did you get that information from?

 

[dinsdale]

41 minutes ago, NoshowJones said:

The medical profession don't want to lose all the extra income the have aqquired since the pandemic started.

Sorry tend to disagree. Not the medical profession but big pharma and the owner/owners of all those masks piled up in warehouses don't. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

16 minutes ago, ikke1959 said:

where did you get that information from?

 

Here on this forum,  as reported by the Thai Min of Health.

 

"Department director-general Tharet Krutnairawiwong said 435 patients were admitted to hospital for treatment of Covid-19 between April 9 and 15, about 62 cases per day. Of the number, 30 had lung inflammation and 19 were put on ventilators, up 58% and 36% respectively, from the previous week."

 

 

Those COVID hospitalization numbers from last week are more than double those from the week before, and the highest for Thailand since late January of this year.

 

Edited April 20, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[dinsdale]

20 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

As of last week, an average of 60+ people per day were being hospitalized in Thailand for COVID, and some of those sick enough to require intubation because they cannot otherwise breathe.

 

You seem to have a very odd definition of "no real threat anymore."

Come on now. If they're being intubated it's because there's something else going on. I reckon the number of non-covid patients being intubated in hospitals for non-covid related problems is a lot higher. It even states in the article...

10 hours ago, webfact said:

it is still not a major concern.

and

10 hours ago, webfact said:

is not an immediate cause for concern

I mean you just can't ignore what's being said and what has been said about Omicron since it booted Delta off the face of this planet. Yes, people will still die with or from Omicron but people die from the flu. The common cold can be enough to tip some people over the edge but let's keep it in perspective. Omicron and all it's variants so far show as being a mild infection for the vast majority of the world's population. This is an indisputatable fact. It's what the medical and scientific community have said and will continue to say as long as the virus remains the Omicron strain.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

15 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

Come on now. If they're being intubated it's because there's something else going on. I reckon the number of non-covid patients being intubated in hospitals for non-covid related problems is a lot higher. It even states in the article...

and

I mean you just can't ignore what's being said and what has been said about Omicron since it booted Delta off the face of this planet. Yes, people will still die with or from Omicron but people die from the flu. The common cold can be enough to tip some people over the edge but let's keep it in perspective. Omicron and all it's variants so far show as being a mild infection for the vast majority of the world's population. This is an indisputatable fact. It's what the medical and scientific community have said and will continue to say as long as the virus remains the Omicron strain.

 

And again, you provide absolutely no credible sources to substantiate what you're claiming. COVID, even Omicron, is NOT the same as or comparable to the flu in terms of severity.

 

Omicron hospital illness 54% deadlier than flu hospital cases, study finds

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/omicron-hospital-illness-54-deadlier-flu-hospital-cases-study-finds

 

 

COVID Omicron variant infection deadlier than flu, studies suggest

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/covid-omicron-variant-infection-deadlier-flu-studies-suggest

 

 

Edited April 20, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[NoshowJones]

18 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Rubbish.... doctors and nurses around the world died from COVID often because they were trying to keep their COVID patients alive during a worldwide pandemic.

 

Not because they were in it to make a buck.

 

Health and Care Worker Deaths during COVID-19

 

WHO estimates that between 80 000 and 180 000 health and care workers could have died from COVID-19 in the period between January 2020 to May 2021, converging to a medium scenario of 115 500 deaths¹.

 

https://www.who.int/news/item/20-10-2021-health-and-care-worker-deaths-during-covid-19

 

Looks like I have to explain myself again. I am not hitting out at the dedicated nurses and doctors, it is the head ones at the top who are more interested in their own financials. The pandemic is finished, we do not need certain parties to try and keep some kind of virus fear going and creating more anguish for the ordinary Thai people, the fact that most of them are afraid to dispose of their masks proves that.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

16 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

I mean you just can't ignore what's being said and what has been said about Omicron since it booted Delta off the face of this planet.

 

People can and  do die from Omicron associated pneumonia. Study from a South Korea hospital.

Comparison of the causes of death associated with delta and Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variants infection

"During the Omicron-dominant period, 42 (6%) of 654 patients with COVID-19 were admitted died (Supplemental Figure 1). The primary cause of death was COVID-19–associated pneumonia in both the Omicron (64%, 27/42) and Delta (88%, 37/42) eras "

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9710103/

 

Edited April 20, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

17 minutes ago, NoshowJones said:

the fact that most of them are afraid to dispose of their masks proves that.

 

Or perhaps they're actually interested in trying to protect their health at a time when COVID is spreading and increasing in Thailand, and not risking spreading COVID to others around them.

 

[NoshowJones]

28 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

Sorry tend to disagree. Not the medical profession but big pharma and the owner/owners of all those masks piled up in warehouses don't. 

Are the medical profession and big pharma not on the same wavelength? Sorry if I got that wrong. During the height of the pandemic, who was it that was responsible for putting people into hospital just because they were found to be sitting near someone on the plane who tested positive and charging them around 15,000 Bt for the privilege? It wasn't the soldiers government all on their own.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

21 minutes ago, NoshowJones said:

Looks like I have to explain myself again. I am not hitting out at the dedicated nurses and doctors,

Then maybe you should stop posting derogatory comments about "the medical profession," which typically means doctors, nurses and associated professionals.

 

If you want to criticize the pharma industry, then criticize what it is.... the pharma industry.

 

 

Edited April 20, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[dinsdale]

Just now, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

And again, you provide absolutely no credible sources to substantiate what you're claiming.

 

As to more people being intubated for things other than covid sure I didn't provide evidence. It's a guess but an educated and reasoned one. Plenty of people with serious lung disease need to be intubated. Cancer patients. TB patients. Pulmonary heart disease patients. Road accidents victims. The elderly suffering from organ failure. The list is extensive. My 'guess' therefore is there are more people being intubated for these conditions than for Omicron. You say 19 people on ventilators (up 36% from the wk before so then there were only 6) well which do you think would be more? You just have to have a smitten of reasoned thought that in a popuation of around 70,000,000 people most being intubated isn't because covid. As for not showing evidence that Omicron is a mild viral infection for the magority of the world's population there is no need to. This is an indisputeable fact as I said.

[NoshowJones]

3 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Or perhaps they're actually interested in trying to protect their health at a time when COVID is spreading and increasing in Thailand, and not risking spreading COVID to others around them.

 

"when COVID is spreading and increasing in Thailand," That is not what I read, I read that some health authority said there was no cause for concern. I repeat "no cause for concern".

[NoshowJones]

6 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Then maybe you should stop posting derogatory comments about "the medical profession," which typically means doctors, nurses and associated professionals.

 

If you want to criticize the pharma industry, then criticize what it is.... the pharma industry.

 

 

I repeat again just for you. I am not referring to the dedicated doctors and nurses, is that plain enough, will I repeat it again?? This debate with you is now finished.

[dinsdale]

4 minutes ago, NoshowJones said:

Are the medical profession and big pharma not on the same wavelength? Sorry if I got that wrong. During the height of the pandemic, who was it that was responsible for putting people into hospital just because they were found to be sitting near someone on the plane who tested positive and charging them around 15,000 Bt for the privilege? It wasn't the soldiers government all on their own.

Big pharma and the medical proffession are two different beasts. That's not to say that many within the medical proffession did not profit from this.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

16 minutes ago, NoshowJones said:

"when COVID is spreading and increasing in Thailand," That is not what I read, I read that some health authority said there was no cause for concern. I repeat "no cause for concern".

You guys really need to do a bit more reading:

 

"Department director-general Tharet Krutnairawiwong said 435 patients were admitted to hospital for treatment of Covid-19 between April 9 and 15, about 62 cases per day. Of the number, 30 had lung inflammation and 19 were put on ventilators, up 58% and 36% respectively, from the previous week."

 

COVID hospitalizations last week were up 250% / 2-1/2 times over what they were the prior week, and now are at their highest level since January.

 

The Thai MoPH is saying "no cause for concern" because they believe, probably correctly, that they have enough hospital bed capacity to treat the COVID patients who are going to end up being hospitalized.

 

Speaking for myself, as an age 60+ person, I'd rather do my best to AVOID ending up hospitalized from COVID in the first place.

 

Edited April 20, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK