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Hmmmm how about maybe vaccinating the population??? With a year head start on the rest of the world this could have been avoided. Shutting the door and hiding under the duvet was not really the best plan was it?

Is anyone questioning whether or not this punishing economic lockdown is working? Where is the science in the choice of which places to lock down? Tesco is OK, but Home Pro is not. Tesco is ok, but the mom and pop shops out front are not, even though it is a one on one transaction, in the open air? And speaking of rocket science, you fools are actually contemplating a space program, when you cannot even get it together to set up multiple vaccine center locations, and you cannot even plan sufficiently to have a large enough quantity of vaccines ready for when they are needed? Shame on you. Shame on you for your continued lies, deflections, blame, and labels. You behave like an infant. You are despised to no end. You are hated, disrespected, likely have an approval rating of less than 1%, and have less than zero credibility, just like your creepy boss. And the real hypocrisy here is that it is totally uncool with you goons to have a handful of foreigners hanging out having a beer together. But, it is ok for have 5,000 people deliberately crammed into one vaccination center, because you are either too cheap, too stupid, or too lazy to set up multiple centers. They used to blame your continued malfeasance on incompetence. That no longer flies. We know now it is deliberate sabotage of some sort. Nobody really knows why, but no other explanation makes sense anymore.

Thais with little savings really are not going to obey any isolation orders. They have to earn a living every single day.

"Welcome to Phuket. We will protect you. Bad tourists who test positive go to special five star hotel."

Wishful thinking... Only vaccinating and isolating will flatten their damned curve. The more they test, they more they are going to find the virus is even more out of control than they thought.

I hope the Covid deniers on here take a look at this photo and and take it in.

“promote the island as a safe destination“ - good luck with that. No really do hope it but it’s going to be a tough sell at best. Phuket was already being promoted as a safe destination and it’s only gotten worse since. The infections are raising on the island and country. There are less freedoms and more restrictions. The country is on the verge of a total lockdown and any traveler has to hope it won’t apply to Phuket too. And we are not even talking about the killing of tourists.

Again to my point about Israel. In the U.K. yesterday with 26,000 cases there were around 100 deaths. Back in December when the country was unvaccinated and had 26,000 cases it was around 500 deaths. So vaccines are protecting us from serious illness and death. Vaccines are now turning Covid in to what some people claimed 18 months ago. It’s now like having a bad dose of flu. Unpleasant and not something you would want. But and when you catch it, you should survive it.

No, Wachira's second such recovery. But this isn't terribly unexpected. Earlier in the pandemic there were others that had been infected twice. Here it would be interesting to note if he was infected with the same variant of the virus.

Well said. Nearly 85% of adults in the UK have had one dose and around 75% have had two doses of the vaccine including the Pfizer vaccine. What it has shown is it has not really stopped the number of people being infected, but it has protected most infected people from death and serious illness, plus the number of people having to have hospital treatment and/or use ventilators has seriously been cut. This is very practical proof as hundreds of million of these vaccines have been used and to me these vaccines are worth their weighting in gold and well worth using on a mass scale. A large proportion of the deaths and serious illness causes by the virus in the UK now are from the group of people who have not yet taken up the vaccine by choice when they could/should have.

Bloody hell you're right - there's loads of them. I would never have thought the thais would go for it. Infact I just ran the possibility past my Mrs and she took my beer away !!

Always risky having a wang khee on waterfall. But safer than having one near a ladyboy

@dmacarelli I’m not going to question the pain and damage this is all doing to peoples lives. I’m sure there are thousands who will die indirectly from Covid due to the economic impact. Many more will be held back in so many ways. The lockdown rationale question is always difficult and open to debate. I guess HomePro stocks non essential items and Tesco stocks food. Tesco is more easily able to police itself in terms of temperature checks, hand wash stations and signage etc. Mom&Pop stores will likely do none of that and sell alcohol with people say on tables outside. I guess you have to either close everything, and I mean everything. Or you have to draw the line somewhere and there will always be those right against the line and unhappy. As I’ve said a couple of times before. Who would want it be the one having to make these decisions? I know I wouldn’t.

Yes cases are increasing due to Delta variant. Far fewer (50%) less deaths than when Israel was unvaccinated back in December last year. So vaccines are working then. Great news for us all ??

Here is one to give you that old time feeling

Fair comment and thanks for your suitably pointed debut post. Hello, Dairyboy and welcome to Thaiger Talk Please feel free to tell us a bit about yourself in 'Introductions'. It's good to pick-up on those sometimes differing regional or geographical perspectives. And check-out the Guidelines, too, when you get a free minute. They're there to help us all enjoy our time here. Happy posting King Cotton

And everyone please note, they are talking about only Bangkok, what they plan for the rest of the country is anyone's guess, they still can't give out decent quantities of vaccines outside Bangkok.

I thought this myself when I first heard about the service being launched, I just couldn't see much crossover (get it?) between the average Patts punter compared to the average Hua Hin expat. Shame to see any service cancel though

That’s exactly how I feel about it all. I’ve been spending most of the year living in Thailand since around 2006. I haven’t gone down the retirement extension option; which is now getting harder with only a NonO-A seemingly available which requires health insurance. Currently that’s fine, but it won’t be if I make it past 70 years old. Back in 2006 until around 2012 I use to get an annual Non-O multiple entry tourist visa. It gave me 90 days and a quick trip in to Cambodia or Laos or even a quick holiday to Hong Kong or Malaysia and back in got me a further 90 days. That’s all been removed and getting harder all the time. It’s clear to me that they wish for 14-30 day tourists to spend 10,000 baht a day and then go home. I’m considering Malaysia as an alternative. Like you I don’t want much. Just somewhere relatively easy to get in to. Reasonably safe when you travel and weather far better than you get in Northern Europe in the winter months!

I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but if I had 3 kids in Thailand, I would be doing all I could to get them out and in a better country for their long term future. Not a great option if you like living in Thailand, but I’d certainly be making solid plans to move out with my family at very short notice. The Chinese are experts and if advising the Thai government, they will surely become far more hardline.

It was probably the same company which procured those lamp posts. I took this ferry once, there were another 2 people on it. Whoever had this brilliant idea must be financed by government, because it's obviously was a waste of money

Another permanent casualty of the on again, off again lockdown model. The only difference is the ferry series is big enough to get noticed. Hope the government can do more to help those who are too small to get a story written about them.

As a kid I had a pet mouse called Elvis .. but he got caught in a trap and couldn't walk out ..

Under the Land Traffic Act of 1979 / 2522 it's illegal to leave the scene of an accident in Thailand until police arrive unless all involved agree responsibility or you're taking someone injured in the accident to hospital, and it's a criminal offence (Sections 78 and 160) with a penalty of a fine and / or three months jail time. Edit: claiming that someone told you on Thaiger Talk that you had 48 hours to report the accident isn't likely to cut much ice.

Hopefully for all those in Udon Thani, he is not self isolating. I just hope he has not moved to CM.

"I resent the fact that the USA has made Pfizer demand so high globally without increasing regional manufacturing." I resent that you are making this an anti-American issue for no reason other than pique. Yeah, they could look like AZ here in Thailand or any of the vaccines that India has refused because of indemnity issues, by allowing others to produce their product. Look at the nightmare that is happening here as a good example. This isn't a case of the US wanting you or anyone else approaching them on bended knee looking for fealty to recieve vaccines, it's largely about being able to control quality and ensure the drugs are properly made and handled. The fact is that an American company managed to create the best product available on the market now, and that is what people want, Thailand included, it seems. Demand has vastly outstripped supply but they appear to be producing as much as they safely can, so far. To blame the US government, which is passing out free vaccines as quickly as they can be made smacks of sour grapes and an incomplete grasp of the situation.

Give it over with your "can we call it a vaccine" rhetoric. "noun - a substance used to stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity against one or several diseases, prepared from the causative agent of a disease, its products, or a synthetic substitute, treated to act as an antigen without inducing the disease." That is what these compounds do. There is no vaccine that protects people from getting sick, they are designed to promote the body's defense systems so that degree of illness is mitigated, sometimes to zero effect, if we're lucky. You can have 2 and 3, but for god's sake, stop whining about the vaccines that actually do what they are designed to do, and are better than anything you have thought up with until now. I'll take the shot and increase my chances of surviving the damned virus if I do catch it, thank you.

I am not sure if that is gibberish because you believe what you wrote, or because you used Google translate!

I don’t understand all the people that haven’t been to Phuket for 16 years and hate the place commenting and moaning about the place.

This article smacks of corporate propaganda and contains many statements which expats and Thai's alike may find debateable. Excerpt below:- "This digital pivot is part of CP Group's efforts to burnish the chain's image and shed its association with Tesco, which Thai consumers had come to associate with cheap, low-quality goods. The British retailer, struggling with competition from German discount chains in its home market, had lacked the resources to invest in improving Asian operations." https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Retail/Thai-CP-Group-brings-Lotus-supermarkets-into-digital-age

Lockdown measures aren't working because there is no lockdown. Some places have had to close, but the vast majority of Thailand is open as usual. A strict harsh lockdown before everyone left BKK for the provinces back in April (Songkran) and we wouldn't be seeing this madness.

Yes, I agree. Why is so much emphasis put on vaccination and so little on treatment ? Could it be that the pharmaceutical industry has a bigger interest in promoting vaccination with a huge profit margin then selling pharmaceuticals which are cheap and who's patent have already run out leaving little money to be made.

No more “highway to hell”.

Taken: Hunting The Sex Traffickers This is very well done, lots of covert filming, but not in a sensational way. It doesn't denounce prostitution, but makes the case about trafficking. Three episodes available on the bay & Rar. https://www.channel4.com/programmes/taken-hunting-the-sex-traffickers.

Protection against hospitalisation is still high and protection against death higher again. I think most discerning individuals would take that as a win.

I have sympathy for the business and people dependant on tourism in Pattaya however until the numbers of fully vaccinated and fully recovered exceeds the remainder then Covid will still persist. Also If it opens up for tourists the young ladies will flock back and unlikly they will be fully vaccinated. Catch 22

There maybe some explanation of why there are so many infections of fully vaccinated people in USA and Europe "A preprint study conducted by nfrence and the Mayo Clinic found that Pfizer's effectiveness dropped substantially when up against the Delta variant. The Aug. 8 study concluded that the vaccine was only 42 percent effective against the virus in July when Delta was the dominant variant. This is a significant drop in protection for a vaccine whose efficacy was 95 percent in clinical trials." I guess, I am lucky to get both shots of AZ. Maybe Thailand should think twice before using Phizer for frontliners, it may backfire.

The Bangkok Post usually release the data on their website around 9am Thai time if you want to see the latest data early. You may ask, "Is that every day?" , The truth is, I don't know, I'm not that desperate to know, and usually can't be bothered, or interested, to check.

Testing is only going to throw up more cases Vaccination Is the way forwards but with both inadequate amounts of useful vaccines and an over reliance on sinovac thats a weak agent its going to be a long hard ride The government failed to plan when it was ahead its behind now the countries hurting and the tourism business that was supposedly Not that important to the economy is going to be stalled for another 12 months in reality

They announce this, the same time as they announce that there will be a massive sell of Phuket, to overseas tour operators. The place has all but died, nothing open that a tourist would be interested in. How many times do you want them to buy a tile with their name on it, and slap on the Big Budda? For God sake, yawn, yawn, yawn! You don't come here for cultural enhancement! You come here for a good time, and to treat and pamper yourself, and pay peanuts for it. Or that's the way it was and should be, before Phuket overpriced itself. We expect people to come to a shithole masquerading as a tropical paradise, and pay through the nose for everything. Unless it is made easy and welcoming for tourists, with few restrictions, and value for money, all we will be waiting for is the death certificate to be signed.

Shocking story, I can’t imagine how her family are feeling and with all the travel restrictions on top of everything else. My prayers are with her and her extended family ?

Me too, I had planned to be in Phuket this year and be there now but it is too much of a risk as the lockdowns might get worse there so there is no point going. Rawai beach, at the end of the beach, there is a dirt road parallel to the sea where the fishermen wives sell fresh crab, fish, prawn etc, you buy by the kilo and then walk a few yards across the road and have in cooked as you sit drinking a beer at one of the many restaurants. They charge by the kilos for cooking. Phuket is a great place as you can stay in a very quiet area or go to the busier areas, the choice is up to each individual but at least there is a choice. A friend of mine stays during the winter in a house in a village near Ayuthia, it has a shack called a restaurant and another shack which sells beer, the highlight of the day is going to the beer shack and drinking bottles of beer. Three days there is enough but only if you have your own car to escape in in order to drive to other places. I think a lot of expats complaining about Phuket have not been in decades and have not seen the changes going on, plus I think a lot of them live in small villages in some remote places and are thus bored to death and need something to moan about. ?

New record since February in the very much vaccinated Israel, 5755 new cases yesterday. Thailand should consider something else like Ivermectin instead of trying to repeat the same failed recipe. Madness!

Where the accident seems to have happened (No 7 motorway towards Sattahip) it is a well lit dual carriageway. Assuming that the trailer was stationary it should have been easily visible (unlike some other areas where similar incidents have occurred)

It is hard to believe but was most certainly legal for many decades and it probably still is. I think it was due to people stoping after after accidents generally in villages when they ran people over and getting beaten to death by local mobs. That has happened quite a few times also. You are correct it allows drunken or drugged drivers to evade justice but that's the way it was and probably still is.

My wife and I have been planning and pushing back our next trip since March 2020, and were scheduled to use the Sandbox to arrive in October, but we're moving the trip again to April 2022. We're both vaccinated and we're not really worried about the "cases" in Thailand, but we're concerned about concerning others around us - we don't want to travel as the scary enemies putting everyone at risk, or at least the perception of that. And as many, many others have said - everything is closed, and we're avid consumers of wine and/or beer with our food, two major factors which we know will affect the outcome of spending thousands of dollars, flying nearly 28 hours, having devices shoved up our nostrils, and potentially risking it all to be forced into ASQ if someone near us tests positive. The juice isn't worth the squeeze.

Did the bulldozers already mowed down Soi 6 ?