COVID makes comeback in Thailand as booster fatigue leaves door open

[rabang]

I swear in the west covid is not appearing in the news almost at all anymore. Yet in the Bangkok newspaper we can not make links to at this forum there is still a section for it and at least a couple recent (from past month) articles with photos of very small schoolchildren all masked up. Go figure.

[onthedarkside]

Off topic post about Thailand road deaths removed along with an off topic post making unsubstantiated claims and a quote with no citation

[anrcaccount]

The time for the general public to be concerned, and take any special measures in relation to covid has passed.

 

People can get vaccinated - if they choose. Apart from that, no measures are necessary. 

 

Look around the world, that's now the reality.

 

Alarmist media reporting like this hardly makes the news elsewhere, why it still does in Thailand is a real curiosity. 

 

 

 

 

[h90]

1 hour ago, arithai12 said:

I was never locked up during Covid. Were you?

Market was closed, park was closed, restaurants were closed, alcohol sales was prohibited that is pretty close to locked up. In Europe you were not allowed to leave home unless absolute necessary and than can't leave your area.

[Danderman123]

9 hours ago, Caldera said:

Are the boosters available here even effective against the current variant(s)?

 

It's probably best to just let it spread to broaden community immunity, most cases are mild anyway. 

How many are you okay with people  dying, in order to broaden community immunity?

 

Except you don't get there, because every infected person is a laboratory for the virus to mutate. And not all of the mutations are going to be milder.

 

The way to stop the virus is by having fewer people infected.  Duhhh..

 

[Danderman123]

2 hours ago, arithai12 said:

I was never locked up during Covid. Were you?

I was locked up with 30 women in Pattaya. I almost died.

[Danderman123]

11 hours ago, Jaggg88 said:

or spreading it. They claim it stops you getting seriously ill but I've not seen the evidence to prove that.

Vaccination reduces your chances of getting infected. Vaccination reduces the severity of your infection. Vaccination reduces transmission of the virus by infected persons.

[Caldera]

18 minutes ago, Danderman123 said:

The way to stop the virus is by having fewer people infected.  Duhhh..

Yeah that worked well. Duh.

[Paradise Pete]

10 hours ago, ICU Kid said:

Source?

https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/vaccination-may-protect-against-long-covid

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9905096/

 

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/lack-vaccination-severe-illness-tied-higher-risk-long-covid

 

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(22)00354-6/fulltext

 

 

[NoshowJones]

16 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

If I recall right, Thailand seems to have gotten most or all of its stock of bivalent COVID vaccines via donations from South Korea and France....

 

I don't believe I've seen anything indicating Thailand has, on its own, used its own money to buy stocks of the bivalent vaccines.

 

Which is probably one reason why they're continuing to use/offer the older monovalent vaccine versions alongside the bivalent ones.

 

 

"I don't believe I've seen anything indicating Thailand has, on its own, used its own money to buy stocks of the bivalent vaccines."

The unelected soldiers needed to keep their own personal income stream going.

[Paradise Pete]

10 hours ago, ICU Kid said:

This one didn't age well either:

Pfizer and BioNTech announced Monday their coronavirus vaccine was more than 90% effective in preventing Covid-19 among those without evidence of prior infection

At the time he said it that was correct. Then the virus mutated. Still effective though.

[h90]

35 minutes ago, Paradise Pete said:

At the time he said it that was correct. Then the virus mutated. Still effective though.

no it was never correct....a virus that is in the respiratory tract. The vaccine only builds antibody in the body. So even a perfect vaccine does not prevent you from getting it. Just when it enters and tries to make you really sick you have a defense and have it only very mild. And than in the next infection you have antibodies in the mucus and can't get it again till the next major mutation.
That is the reason why many companies try to develop a vaccine that you spray into your nose.

So that theater with 90% efficient than Russia told theirs is better and than Pfizer added a few points to be just better than the Russian were just marketing lies.

[Danderman123]

1 hour ago, Caldera said:

Yeah that worked well. Duh.

except for some misinformed holdouts, it could have gone better.

[jacko45k]

11 hours ago, Caldera said:

Are the boosters available here even effective against the current variant(s)?

 

It's probably best to just let it spread to broaden community immunity, most cases are mild anyway. 

Where did we hear that before........?

[dinsdale]

1 hour ago, Danderman123 said:

How many are you okay with people  dying, in order to broaden community immunity?

 

Except you don't get there, because every infected person is a laboratory for the virus to mutate. And not all of the mutations are going to be milder.

 

The way to stop the virus is by having fewer people infected.  Duhhh..

 

The virus will not and cannot be stopped. Bit like the common cold and the flu. They are still here and will continue to be as will covid. It's purely up to you if you want to be jabbed with mRNA vaccines and wear a mask for the rest of your life. Even if you do you CAN STILL get covid and spread it. As for "not all of the mutations are going to be milder" can you please support this with some evidence. Crystal ball perhaps?

[rabas]

30 minutes ago, h90 said:

no it was never correct....a virus that is in the respiratory tract. The vaccine only builds antibody in the body. So even a perfect vaccine does not prevent you from getting it. Just when it enters and tries to make you really sick you have a defense and have it only very mild. And than in the next infection you have antibodies in the mucus and can't get it again till the next major mutation.
That is the reason why many companies try to develop a vaccine that you spray into your nose.

So that theater with 90% efficient than Russia told theirs is better and than Pfizer added a few points to be just better than the Russian were just marketing lies.

Not scientifically or medically accurate. Vaccines can prevent you from getting infected and it can be shown that you did not actually have a 'mild' infection. This requires a control group, then you can show the vaccinated group got fewer infections. See the large Israeli Pfizer study on early vaccines strains.

 

Note, the word 'infected' varies but must be defined around real world measurement methods. A definition based on what one imagines might happen inside a cell or nose is not medically accurate. 

 

So what was claimed at the beginning was medically correct at that time.

 

Read this, it may help clear it up.

https://www.bmj.com/content/376/bmj.o298

 

They found that reduced  transmission occurs mainly when the vaccinated person really does not get infected. 

 

[cmsally]

It would be interesting to see a study comparing the efficacy of the Covid vaccines compared to that of various dosages of Vitamin D. Vitamin D has been found to lessen the likelihood of catching Covid as well as lessening the symptoms.

 

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2022.836738/full

[anrcaccount]

Where else in the world are healthy 19 olds  (at infinitesimal risk of any serious harm from this virus) at their first job at 7-11 or Makro, forced to wear face coverings due to a company mandate?

 

Ask yourself that...........? 

 

Don't even get me started on the school children.

 

Vaccines and anti-virals are available for anyone, and particularly should be considered by the vulnerable.

 

NPI's for the public are no  longer justifiable or proportionate. 

 

 

[Bkk Brian]

53 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

The virus will not and cannot be stopped. Bit like the common cold and the flu. They are still here and will continue to be as will covid. It's purely up to you if you want to be jabbed with mRNA vaccines and wear a mask for the rest of your life. Even if you do you CAN STILL get covid and spread it. As for "not all of the mutations are going to be milder" can you please support this with some evidence. Crystal ball perhaps?

" As for "not all of the mutations are going to be milder" can you please support this with some evidence. Crystal ball perhaps?"

 

Antigenic shift/drift, covid goes through this, its the same with flu, some years it can be more virulent. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

4 hours ago, rabang said:

I swear in the west covid is not appearing in the news almost at all anymore. Yet in the Bangkok newspaper we can not make links to at this forum there is still a section for it and at least a couple recent (from past month) articles with photos of very small schoolchildren all masked up. Go figure.

Perhaps that's because...

 

--In Thailand, new COVID hospitalizations are at a year-high level for 2023, more than 400 new per day on average, and have been steadily rising since April.

 

--Whereas in the U.S. for example, COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths have been declining pretty steadily for months now.

 

Some people here seem to have geographic confusion... This is Thailand, not the U.S. or the U.K.  The COVID situation here should be judged on what's occurring here...not in some other countries with entirely different COVID situations.

 

Back in March when new COVID hospitalizations in Thailand were running 150-170 per week, no one was much talking about COVID here, myself included.

 

But now, new COVID hospitalizations in  Thailand have steadily risen for the past two months to now nearly 3,000 per week, and people are rightfully talking.

 

[dinsdale]

11 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

" As for "not all of the mutations are going to be milder" can you please support this with some evidence. Crystal ball perhaps?"

 

Antigenic shift/drift, covid goes through this, its the same with flu, some years it can be more virulent. 

Not showing any sign of this with Omicron variant. A new variant would have to emerge. 

[Bkk Brian]

3 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

Not showing any sign of this with Omicron variant. A new variant would have to emerge. 

Which is of course very good news the way it has evolved so far, hopefully it will stay that way, but as you mentioned yourself, nobody has a crystal ball

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

26 minutes ago, cmsally said:

It would be interesting to see a study comparing the efficacy of the Covid vaccines compared to that of various dosages of Vitamin D. Vitamin D has been found to lessen the likelihood of catching Covid as well as lessening the symptoms.

 

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2022.836738/full

 

Reputable studies, and organizations such as the U.S. National Institutes of Health, have found insufficient evidence that Vitamin D actually helps prevent or treats COVID.

 

Vitamin D doesn't prevent COVID-19, other respiratory infections, studies find

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/vitamin-d-doesnt-prevent-covid-19-other-respiratory-infections-studies-find

 

AND

 

"NIH COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines

 

Although multiple observational cohort studies suggest that people with low vitamin D levels are at increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and worse clinical outcomes after infection (e.g., higher mortality rates), clear evidence that vitamin D supplementation provides protection against infection or improves outcomes in patients with COVID-19 is still lacking.^1,2

Recommendation

There is insufficient evidence for the Panel to recommend either for or against the use of vitamin D for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19."

 

https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/therapies/supplements/vitamin-d/

 

As the NIH document above explains, the various studies that have found benefit from Vitamin D tend to have been poorly done or have other limitations that make their findings suspect.

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

4 hours ago, anrcaccount said:

The time for the general public to be concerned, and take any special measures in relation to covid has passed.

 

The time is greater now than any time thus far in 2023:

 

Thailand weekly new COVID hospitalizations and deaths:

 

March 26 to April 1:

 

May 21 to 27:

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/posts/pfbid02tXUeEnaX7KySm7i7jAyPCUYaMemoQEPccFeAgjfANwb55nUWFzRphFuHWPp1o99Cl

 

-- New weekly COVID hospitalizations in Thailand (2,970) are at the highest level thus far for 2023.

 

--COVID patients hospitalized in serious condition (425) are at the highest level thus far for 2023.

 

--COVID hospitalized patients requiring intubation in order to breathe (253) are at the highest level thus far for 2023.

 

[anrcaccount]

8 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

The time is greater now than any time thus far in 2023:

 

Thailand weekly new COVID hospitalizations and deaths:

 

March 26 to April 1:

 

May 21 to 27:

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/posts/pfbid02tXUeEnaX7KySm7i7jAyPCUYaMemoQEPccFeAgjfANwb55nUWFzRphFuHWPp1o99Cl

 

-- New weekly COVID hospitalizations in Thailand (2,970) are at the highest level thus far for 2023.

 

--COVID patients hospitalized in serious condition (425) are at the highest level thus far for 2023.

 

--COVID hospitalized patients requiring intubation in order to breathe (253) are at the highest level thus far for 2023.

 

Just alarmist language.

 

That doesn't mean the public should be concerned in the slightest. 

 

These numbers are tiny in a population of over 70M , and mostly elderly and with co morbidities. There are always a lot of people on hospital due to respiratory infections. 

 

By way of comparison, Australia, which is less than 1/3 of the population of Thailand , is running at 2,633 hospitalizations per day ( rolling 7 day average). 

 

https://www.health.gov.au/health-alerts/covid-19/case-numbers-and-statistics?language=und

 

Like almost every other country in the world, Covid is gone from the news there, nary a mask in sight and people go about their lives normally. 

 

 

[ikke1959]

4 hours ago, Danderman123 said:

Vaccination reduces your chances of getting infected. Vaccination reduces the severity of your infection. Vaccination reduces transmission of the virus by infected persons.

it doesn't reduce your chances of Covid. Me and my partner both vaccinated with Astra and after that 2x full vaccination with Moderna and we both got 3 times Covid after the vaccinations...Indeed not serious illness, but I am wondering if we got Covid if we weren't vaccinated.. I believe we were not...

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

2 minutes ago, ikke1959 said:

it doesn't reduce your chances of Covid. Me and my partner both vaccinated with Astra and after that 2x full vaccination with Moderna and we both got 3 times Covid after the vaccinations...Indeed not serious illness, but I am wondering if we got Covid if we weren't vaccinated.. I believe we were not...

COVID vaccinations don't cause COVID.

 

Perhaps you should look at your own behaviors, as to why you supposedly kept coming down with the virus, when others such as myself didn't.

 

"MYTH: A COVID-19 vaccine can make me sick with COVID-19. FACT: Because none of the authorized COVID-19 vaccines in the United States contain the live virus that causes COVID-19, the vaccine cannot make you sick with COVID-19."

 

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/facts.html

 

"Myth: You can get COVID-19 from the vaccines. This is FALSE.

“There’s no live virus in the vaccines, so they can’t infect you,” says Dr. Cunningham. “Basically, the vaccines make our bodies produce one single protein from the virus—the protein that infects our cells. By making that protein, we prevent infection. You might have side effects like a headache or chills, but that’s because your body is creating an immune response, not because you have an infection.”

 

https://www.henryford.com/blog/2021/08/vaccine-myths

 

[Tom H]

23 hours ago, Tom H said:

China: 40 millions per week right now?

https://time.com/6283257/china-xbb-covid-outbreak/

[rabas]

54 minutes ago, anrcaccount said:

Just alarmist language.

 

That doesn't mean the public should be concerned in the slightest. 

 

These numbers are tiny in a population of over 70M , and mostly elderly and with co morbidities. There are always a lot of people on hospital due to respiratory infections. 

 

By way of comparison, Australia, which is less than 1/3 of the population of Thailand , is running at 2,633 hospitalizations per day ( rolling 7 day average). 

 

https://www.health.gov.au/health-alerts/covid-19/case-numbers-and-statistics?language=und

 

Like almost every other country in the world, Covid is gone from the news there, nary a mask in sight and people go about their lives normally.

What you call daily hospitalizations (2633) from your link are actually reported as:

 

Weekly COVID-19 cases in hospital and ICU and case notifications, Australia, 01 Jan 2022 to 30 May 2023.

 

That sound like the total number in hospital averaged over a week.

 

Thailand's numbers are 'new' hospitalizations per week 2970 and per day 494.

 

[dinsdale]

25 minutes ago, Tom H said:

https://time.com/6283257/china-xbb-covid-outbreak/

This is interesting. I wonder how many billions of masks are being worn and discarded in the garbage yet numbers of infections are huge.