SURVEY: Is the threat of Zika serious enough to affect tourism?

[Scott]

SURVEY:   Is the threat of Zika serious enough to affect tourism?

 

There have been a number of topics about Zika and Singapore has now surpassed more than a hundred cases.   In your opinion do you believe that the Zika virus has the potential to seriously affect tourism?

 

Please feel free to leave a comment.

 

Links which may be of interest:

 

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/941076-dozens-more-zika-cases-identified-in-singapore/

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/940840-travel-warnings-as-zika-cases-in-singapore-cross-100-mark/

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/940846-thai-health-minister-assures-no-outbreak-of-zika-infection/

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/940925-chiang-mai-reports-2-more-zika-cases/

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/940994-phuket-health-officials-begin-scans-for-zika-virus/

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/940623-thailand-live-thursday-1-sep-2016/?page=1

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cumgranosalum]

It's not the threat, it's the perception.

 

In Thailand and most other countries Dengue or Malaria pose a much larger and more serious threat, but "Zika-phobia" has overshadowed them.

 

In the long run if this continues, it could pose a serious threat to efforts in the battles against Dengue and Malaria.

[klauskunkel]

According to TAT, their new mascot Pokémon will take care of Zikamon

[Caveat Emptor]

What's the point of this survey,  just one for the sake of it   ?

The government has already assured there's no problem,   no major outbreak so that's that sorted   !    

[JustNo]

Zika is manmade if you trawl through the records of it all. Scientists were only meant to release male mosquitos that were engineered with Zika, but somehow (must be by mistake of, why would it be anything else..) females got released too. 

[CGW]

Be scared people! be very scared!!! or we could just trust our immune systems

[Skeptic7]

Just another in a long line of "fear-mongering" false flag endemics and pandemics...or rather non-epidemics and non-pandemics. Not to say these maladies haven't caused suffering and death for an unfortunate few, but they certainly weren't epidemics or pandemics. More like government overreaction and media driven hype for ratings. 

 

Remember these?

 

SARS

Ebola

Chicken Flu

Bird Flu

Swine Flu

Flesh-eating bacteria

West Nile virus

...and now Zika

 

Did not include HIV/AIDS on the list as it proved a much more serious disease, but hardly a pandemic. The fear-mongering on this one was rife, especially in Thailand where the entire sex industry would be wiped out and the population "decimated". From a 1992 Chicago Tribune article:

 

"...Thailand for the first time revealed the shocking extent of an affliction that threatens to decimate its 57 million people by the end of the century."

 

Well the century ended and we are a decade-and-a-half into the next century and the sex industry is still booming and HIV/AIDS are rarely heard these days. Replaced long ago by the latest fear-mongering disease of the moment. 

 

Mai Pen Rai 

[chainarong]

It only effects pregnant ladies so unless you are pregers,  a night out in walking street with a SIM tracking device would be more harmful, especially if your pregnant wife  is left at home and military intelligence gives her a call.................................,

[NickJ]

The Olympics seemed to be fairly full.....

[lemonjelly]

The thought that a few years down the line loads of Thai kids could have microcephaly worries me more than tourist numbers.

[cumgranosalum]

1 hour ago, Skeptic7 said:

Just another in a long line of "fear-mongering" false flag endemics and pandemics...or rather non-epidemics and non-pandemics. Not to say these maladies haven't caused suffering and death for an unfortunate few, but they certainly weren't epidemics or pandemics. More like government overreaction and media driven hype for ratings. 

 

Remember these?

 

SARS

Ebola

Chicken Flu

Bird Flu

Swine Flu

Flesh-eating bacteria

West Nile virus

...and now Zika

 

Did not include HIV/AIDS on the list as it proved a much more serious disease, but hardly a pandemic. The fear-mongering on this one was rife, especially in Thailand where the entire sex industry would be wiped out and the population "decimated". From a 1992 Chicago Tribune article:

 

"...Thailand for the first time revealed the shocking extent of an affliction that threatens to decimate its 57 million people by the end of the century."

 

Well the century ended and we are a decade-and-a-half into the next century and the sex industry is still booming and HIV/AIDS are rarely heard these days. Replaced long ago by the latest fear-mongering disease of the moment. 

 

Mai Pen Rai 

 

Largely because the scientific and medical advice was listened to.

[Skeptic7]

19 minutes ago, cumgranosalum said:

 

Largely because the scientific and medical advice was listened to.

Regardless, they overreacted and were wrong...same as everyone is doing now with the non-event called Zika.

[Wilsonandson]

2 new cases reported in Chiang Mai this morning and now an article reporting that Thailand is on high alert for the zika virus. Of course this will affect tourism. The spread of Zika cases in Singapore and Malaysia is also worrying. Rainy season is what viruses love and thrive in.

http://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/09/170984/zika-thailand-high-alert?m=1

[cumgranosalum]

33 minutes ago, Skeptic7 said:

Regardless, they overreacted and were wrong...same as everyone is doing now with the non-event called Zika.

How were they wrong? the predictions were that if nothing was done...etc etc...something WAS done and the disasters avoided....there's just no pleasing some people!

 

 

[cumgranosalum]

34 minutes ago, Skeptic7 said:

Regardless, they overreacted and were wrong...same as everyone is doing now with the non-event called Zika.

You don't seem to get it, you'll be saying that vaccines are a hoax next.

 

the truth is that back in the early 1900s the H1H1 flu virus killed between 50 and 100 million people because we simply didn't know how to handle these diseases which subsequently became pandemic....thanks  to better science and better communications we have effectively dealt with wave after wave of potentially pandemic diseases - and people like you who fail to understand the issues have the temerity to suggest they are "overreacting" or it is a "non-event" you should thank your lucky stars that they haver been MADE non-events by people who know about these diseases.

[Skeptic7]

3 minutes ago, cumgranosalum said:

How were they wrong? the predictions were that if nothing was done...etc etc...something WAS done and the disasters avoided....there's just no pleasing some people!

 

 

Ummmm...scroll up to post #10 and read again. MY point is that almost every time a new disease is "discovered" or resurfaces...overreactions run rampant and the media sensationalizes it until it seems (to the gullible anyway) like the end of the world as we know it and millions are going to die It isn't and they don't. None of these has even been a mild pandemic...not even HIV/AIDS. 

 

That is how they were/are wrong.

 

I predict Zika will prove no different and in a few weeks or months will be forgotten and there will be a new overreaction and unjustified panic to a new disease of the moment. 

[Skeptic7]

1 hour ago, cumgranosalum said:

You don't seem to get it, you'll be saying that vaccines are a hoax next.

 

the truth is that back in the early 1900s the H1H1 flu virus killed between 50 and 100 million people because we simply didn't know how to handle these diseases which subsequently became pandemic....thanks  to better science and better communications we have effectively dealt with wave after wave of potentially pandemic diseases - and people like you who fail to understand the issues have the temerity to suggest they are "overreacting" or it is a "non-event" you should thank your lucky stars that they haver been MADE non-events by people who know about these diseases.

You couldn't be more wrong in your assumptions. I am about the furthest thing from a conspiracy theorist or hoaxer or vaxer. Science and technology are fundamental in my daily life...in all of our lives. I never mentioned influenza or the "Spanish Flu" of 1918. That was a bonafide event, unlike those on my list...with the exception of HIV/AIDS (and it wasn't on my list). 

 

In every case I mentioned, there were enormous and costly overreactions to tourism and industry, further fueled by sensationalized and over-sensationalized media. The airline industry was one big example. Fortunately the predicted potential toll on humanity never happened...if you're suggesting, however, that all those diseases were bound to be global calamities, but for those "people who know about these diseases" just jumped in and saved the day, then it is you who doesn't understand the issues.

 

While I don't believe in 'lucky stars", I do have full confidence in science and modern medicine to do their utmost when the need arises. Please note in my original post, I pointed fingers ONLY at governments and media...NOT once at "people who know about these diseases". My point is that the "people who know about these diseases" can go about their jobs without inept governments and money driven media outlets causing undue hysteria. 

[Stargeezr]

Just bundle up all of those pesky mosquitos and send them to Iraq and Syria, give them to

ISIL.  At the same time give ISIL a small dose of Ebola and other diseases to make them

so sick that they have to spend time in hospitals instead of fighting. Fight ISIL from the inside

out. With the  Zika  virus also in Singapore and likely Malaysia and Vietnam, I think the tourism in

Thailand will not be that affected.

Geezer

[PatOngo]

Nothing is serious enough to affect tourism! Onward and upward!

[MaxLee]

Nobody in TAT would dare to spill the beans at the stake of losing face...

[ClutchClark]

Two pregnant women cases in BKK.

First one gave birth with no indication baby has head deformity.

 

Will it effect tourism? I think it can. What young couple wants to risk their unborn child?

[cumgranosalum]

9 hours ago, Skeptic7 said:

You couldn't be more wrong in your assumptions. I am about the furthest thing from a conspiracy theorist or hoaxer or vaxer. Science and technology are fundamental in my daily life...in all of our lives. I never mentioned influenza or the "Spanish Flu" of 1918. That was a bonafide event, unlike those on my list...with the exception of HIV/AIDS (and it wasn't on my list). 

 

In every case I mentioned, there were enormous and costly overreactions to tourism and industry, further fueled by sensationalized and over-sensationalized media. The airline industry was one big example. Fortunately the predicted potential toll on humanity never happened...if you're suggesting, however, that all those diseases were bound to be global calamities, but for those "people who know about these diseases" just jumped in and saved the day, then it is you who doesn't understand the issues.

 

While I don't believe in 'lucky stars", I do have full confidence in science and modern medicine to do their utmost when the need arises. Please note in my original post, I pointed fingers ONLY at governments and media...NOT once at "people who know about these diseases". My point is that the "people who know about these diseases" can go about their jobs without inept governments and money driven media outlets causing undue hysteria. 

talking to a brick wall

[IMA_FARANG]

The kind of "tourusts" that flock to places like Pattaya or Phuket will not wory about the Zikka virus, as their attention is usually focused much lower down on other body parts first.

 

[ClutchClark]

2 minutes ago, IMA_FARANG said:

The kind of "tourusts" that flock to places like Pattaya or Phuket will not wory about the Zikka virus, as their attention is usually focused much lower down on other body parts first.

 

 

Fully agree that such tourists already accept the risk of disease as part of their Thailand Adventure.

 

But many tourists do not fall jn that category.

[Wilsonandson]

30 minutes ago, ClutchClark said:

Two pregnant women cases in BKK.

First one gave birth with no indication baby has head deformity.

 

Will it effect tourism? I think it can. What young couple wants to risk their unborn child?

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/Two-women-in-Bangkok-infected-with-Zika-virus-30294594.html

One of the women already gave birth to a healthy baby who has no symtoms of the deadly virus so far, but authorities will continue to monitor the baby’s health condition and conduct regular blood and urine tests.

Another infected woman currently has an 18-week-old pregnancy and her condition is being closely monitored by health authorities

[Wilsonandson]

http://en.apdnews.com/xin-hua/483142.html

  According to the Public Health Ministry, 97 Zika cases were reported in Thailand from January to the end of June, compared with an average of five to seven each year in the past. Sopon Mekthon, permanent secretary of the Public Health Ministry, said four provinces including the famous tourist destination Chiang Mai, are on the Zika transmission watch list, where 20 new cases have been reported since last week. 

[ClutchClark]

3 minutes ago, Wilsonandson said:

http://en.apdnews.com/xin-hua/483142.html

  According to the Public Health Ministry, 97 Zika cases were reported in Thailand from January to the end of June, compared with an average of five to seven each year in the past. Sopon Mekthon, permanent secretary of the Public Health Ministry, said four provinces including the famous tourist destination Chiang Mai, are on the Zika transmission watch list, where 20 new cases have been reported since last week. 

 

Was Zika something that was tested for aggressively in the past?

 

The increase in the number of confirmed cases needs to be contrasted against how many were tested this year compared to those past years to have meaning.

[Credo]

I think one of the problems with this virus is that it is mosquito borne and they are very, very effective vector for any disease.   We are never very successful at killing them or anything they carry -- think Malaria and Dengue fever, as well as a host of other diseases.   

 

Once contracted it is then sexually transmittable for quite a while.  

[Scott]

Here is a link to the story about the WHO warning about sexual transmission of Zika.