Thailand News Today | Thai parents fear vaccine side effects on children
A German woman who had been missing for 7 days, has now been found.
75 year old tourist Barbara Elisabeth Monika Glag Lange was found safe in the สิรินาถ National Park along the northern west coast of Phuket. Last week it was reported that the lady had headed off for a morning walk from her hotel in Mai Khao.
From last Wednesday, when it became clear that she had gone missing, rangers from the National Park and tourist police joined in the search. She was found in a helicopter sweep, and was wearing a blue jacket with a white shirt and black pants. She was walking between Mai Khao Beach and Nai Yang Beach.
Searches had been sweeping up to 40 kilometres along the coast and up to 10 kilometres out to sea in search of the woman.
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The Thailand’s Health Services Department has revealed that parents are refusing to vaccinate their children against Covid-19, due to a fear of side-effects.
A recent survey shows many parents won’t vaccinate their kids as they’re more concerned about the effects of the vaccine than the effects of the virus itself.
According to a Thai PBS World report, the survey, carried out between April 22 and May 11, shows that just over 54% of children between the ages of 5 and 11 have received their first dose of a Covid vaccine and are about to receive a second.
However, the data shows that over 77% of parents polled are worried about serious side-effects from the vaccine. Over 55% say they’re not confident in the efficacy and safety of Covid vaccines and 37% have expressed concern that children with underlying health conditions might experience serious side-effects.
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2 studies in the US revealed that contracting the Omicron variant while fully vaccinated could boost your immunity to the extent that it can fight off a variety of coronavirus variants, according to new research.
The findings were revealed in 2 US studies from the University of Washington and from the Pfier vaccine producer BioNTech.
If backed up by real-world data, this could be a sign that millions of vaccinated people who contracted the Omicron variant are unlikely to become seriously ill from another Covid-19 variant soon.
The studies examined blood samples from people who’d had Covid and then received 2 or 3 vaccine doses. They also looked at blood taken from people who’d contracted the Delta and Omicron variants after receiving 2 or 3 vaccine doses. Other participants were vaccinated and boosted but had never had Covid and the last category had contracted the virus and had never been vaccinated.
The findings show that antibodies detected in vaccinated people who contracted Omicron outperformed those found in the other categories. The antibodies can even recognise and attack the Delta variant, which is significantly different to Omicron.
The studies also examined B cells, which produce fresh antibodies in the presence of pathogens, and found that vaccinated people who’d had Omicron got a better response from B cells than people who’d received a booster dose but had never been infected. The response was missing in unvaccinated people who’d had Omicron, says David Veesler from the University of Washington.
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Covid-19, and the controls taken to limit its spread, have clearly disrupted essential health services and other disease control programs worldwide. But those enforced changes have also resulted in the transmission of other infectious diseases, including dengue fever.
Despite dropping off the radar in the past 2 years, both in public interest and in actual cases, dengue is now making a comeback in places like Thailand.
According to GlobalData epidemiologists, lab-confirmed annual dengue cases in Mexico and Thailand have trended upwards in recent years and are expected to reach around 80,000 by 2023. But the impact of the Covid pandemic is driving a decrease in diagnosed cases of dengue in these 2 countries… the numbers falling below the forecast estimates.
So what is specifically driving this marked decrease in dengue cases? In the initial stages of the pandemic, there was a reduction in treatment-seeking behaviour for other illnesses besides Covid-19. One reason could be the focus on Covid and the lack of hospital availability for dengue. And the record-breaking dengue outbreaks in the Americas and south-east Asia in 2019 may have resulted in high levels of population immunity to dengue, so fewer individuals would have been susceptible to the virus in 2020. Staying at home, more attention to hygiene and fewer people getting out and about or travelling, certainly had an impact in the patter part of 2020 and 2021.
But now Thai health officials are saying, with the waning of the coronavirus, Thailand should expect an uptick of new cases this year. Two of the 193 people infected with the disease in the first month of 2022 died – one 37 and the other 40
There is no specific medication to treat dengue. About 1 in 4 people infected will get sick, some very, very sick. A severe case of dengue can be life-threatening within a few hours and will probably require hospitalisation. You can catch it more than once.
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The national parks at Mu Koh Similan and Mu Koh Surin have joined Mu Koh Lanta in Krabi province in closing for the monsoon season.
The famous tourist attraction of Maya Bay, on Koh Phi Phi Lek, kicked things off recently, when officials announced that it would once again close to allow the bay’s fragile eco-system to recover. Maya Bay re-opened to tourists in January, after being closed since June 2018.
Mu Ko Similan, Mu Ko Surin, and Mu Ko Lanta marine parks will remain closed for 5 months from today, as happens every year, in a bid to allow nature to recover. According to a Bangkok Post report, an announcement on Facebook confirmed the closure, adding that no visitors will be able to access the parks until October 14.
The policy of Thailand’s National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department is to implement these temporary closures during the “low” season, allowing the flora and fauna the time it needs to recover. Both the Similan and Surin marine parks are located in Phang Nga province and are very popular tourist destinations, as is Mu Koh Lanta in Krabi province.
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Online travel company, TripAdvisor, has released its list of the 25 best hotels in the world for 2022 and it includes 2 Thai properties.
The “Traveller’s Choice 2022 – Best of the Best Awards” ranks the Pimalai Resort and Spa, on Koh Lanta, in Krabi province, at number 12 and Sukhumvit Park – Marriott Executive Apartments in Bangkok at number 16.
Pimalai was chosen for its hospitality and for being the “perfect place” to honeymoon, while Sukhumvit Park was chosen for location and service. Thai PBS World reports that a number of other Southeast Asian properties also made the top 25, including The Padma Resort Ubud in Indonesia, The Lotte Hotel Hanoi in Vietnam, The Royal Purnama in Indonesia, and Jaya House River Park in Cambodia.
The Traveller’s Choice Best of the Best Awards rank hotels on the quality and quantity of guest reviews and ratings, taking each TripAdvisor sub-category into account, between January 1 and December 31, 2021.
This year, the top hotels in Thailand, according to TripAdvisor, are as follows:
- Pimalai Resort and Spa, Koh Lanta
- Sukhumvit Park, Bangkok – Marriott Executive Apartments
- Melia, Koh Samui
- Vana Belle, Koh Samui
- Layana Resort and Spa, Koh Lanta
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