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The highly contagious BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron sub-variants are currently causing problems in Thailand, just like they other countries – more hospitalisations but no trend of a higher number of deaths. The downward trend, since April 1, has plateaued over the past month and started creeping up again. With statistics from many countries suggesting that BA.4 and BA.5 are “highly transmissible”, Thai medical authorities are recommending the government increase the current control and prevention measures. Australia is now heading for its third Omicron wave in the coming weeks, as the BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants become the dominant Covid strains. Similar new […]

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So less than a week after relaxation we now have a sudden surprise emergency that demands masks all over again! Don't these eminent medics have any idea what is going on? The rest of the world has had B4&B5 waves for weeks and have hardly rushed to reinstate mask wearing. So why are we so much more at risk than the rest of the world? Quite simply we are not, but the government &  the medical authorities are not on the same page. And these headless chickens are running around squawking a variety of different messages. Total farce.

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Thailand News Today | Thailand enjoys  an increase in tourists and flights

Better change the 'enjoys' to 'enjoyed' 

 

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21 minutes ago, Pompies said:

So less than a week after relaxation we now have a sudden surprise emergency that demands masks all over again! Don't these eminent medics have any idea what is going on? The rest of the world has had B4&B5 waves for weeks and have hardly rushed to reinstate mask wearing. So why are we so much more at risk than the rest of the world? Quite simply we are not, but the government &  the medical authorities are not on the same page. And these headless chickens are running around squawking a variety of different messages. Total farce.

A total farce. Another “wave” is surely coming but these medicrats have learned nothing.

If he’s so worried about hospital beds, perhaps he should recommend that mild symptom patients not be admitted to hospital. Thailand has consistently allowed hospitalization for mild symptom and low risk cases  

And rather than talking about masks, he should be telling high risk patients about antiviral medications that actually work. 

And if you look at the somewhere like France, deaths are near lows even though there’s been a mild swelling in cases. 

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2 hours ago, Thaiger said:

The downward trend, since April 1, has plateaued over the past month and started creeping up again

So the masks didnt work?

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2 hours ago, Richard1944 said:

Don't see the point to reinstate mask mandate, everyone still have masks on 

Right. What are they scared of? 99.9% of the population still wears them indoors and 95% wear them outdoors. This is down to 70-80% in local sois, but no different to before the mandate was lifted. There has been almost no difference in rates of mask wearing today compared with June 23rd or even May 23rd. The reduction in mask wearing is barely noticeable. Only foreigners aren't wearing them, but even they tend to wear them indoors (especially on the BTS).

One British expat tells me he goes everywhere including the BTS maskless and while I like a confident person, his attitude is too cocky. I'm all in favor of saying "to hell with masks" but I don't fancy getting into arguments with guards and such. I simply avoid going to such places except out of necessity.

While malls are said to be a case of "it depends" if you go in maskless, I find it hard to believe this chap is able to go on the BTS maskless and brushes it all aside as if Thailand were the UK or America, which very clearly it is not.

He firmly believes mask wearing will be over in Thailand in a month. This same guy said Covid would be over in "2 months" back in January and of course he was totally wrong on that count. Nearly 2 weeks have passed with maybe a 5% reduction in outdoor mask wearing but only a 0.1% reduction indoors. Now with this new fear mongering campaign, I think it's safe to say there could well be more mask wearers next week compared with this week.

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30 minutes ago, JJJ said:

A total farce. Another “wave” is surely coming but these medicrats have learned nothing.

If he’s so worried about hospital beds, perhaps he should recommend that mild symptom patients not be admitted to hospital. Thailand has consistently allowed hospitalization for mild symptom and low risk cases  

And rather than talking about masks, he should be telling high risk patients about antiviral medications that actually work. 

And if you look at the somewhere like France, deaths are near lows even though there’s been a mild swelling in cases. 

There is definitely an agenda at play with masks here. I don't know where it comes from and I can't really answer the question of "why" other than some people have conflicts of interest in terms of profiting from mask sales. However, there may be more to it than that. The mask is like a muzzle. It's a symbolic thing. The government will almost certainly extend the emergency decree and in my opinion it's 99% sure it won't just be extended until September 30th, but probably well into 2023.

Thai officials are clearly still stuck in April 2020 and don't want to move on. Their own incompetence is going to cause a hospital bed shortage due to their greed and authoritarian attitudes.

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1 hour ago, Pompies said:

So less than a week after relaxation we now have a sudden surprise emergency that demands masks all over again! Don't these eminent medics have any idea what is going on? The rest of the world has had B4&B5 waves for weeks and have hardly rushed to reinstate mask wearing. So why are we so much more at risk than the rest of the world? Quite simply we are not, but the government &  the medical authorities are not on the same page. And these headless chickens are running around squawking a variety of different messages. Total farce.

I find it amusing when I watch video footage of travelers entering Laos, where even border officials aren't wearing masks anymore. In fact, it's almost as if Covid never existed in Laos, it's practically back to normal. Out on the streets, there is still a little bit of mask wearing going on in large cities like Vientiane, but from my understanding it's not compulsory even indoors and far less than 50% of the population still wears one in a mall for example. Only the Lao-China railway and domestic/international flights as well as the airport are strict. There you have near 100% mask wearing compliance but elsewhere it ranges from practically zero (in the rural countryside) to maybe 30-50% at best in indoor settings in Vientiane.

Thailand is becoming a joke with it's religious adherence to mask wearing.

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"Now, according to the head of the Faculty of Medicine at the Siriraj Hospital, to further mitigate the spread of the new sub-variants, the Thai government is recommended “to reinstate Covid-19 measures, including the requirement for everywhere to wear face masks."

How about you're all recommended to kiss my *ss including the requirement to do it without mask. 

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Not surprised. There is always one voice in the wilderness crying for more of the same old ideas. If you want to make an argument then start daily reporting of hospitalization numbers by "severe illness" and "on ventilator" and "deaths".  New cases and positive test mean nothing if few are severely ill, are on a ventilator, or have died. 

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11 hours ago, Highlandman said:

He firmly believes mask wearing will be over in Thailand in a month. This same guy said Covid would be over in "2 months" back in January

Sure you wern't talking to Pnut he believed the same .

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13 hours ago, Pompies said:

So less than a week after relaxation we now have a sudden surprise emergency that demands masks all over again! Don't these eminent medics have any idea what is going on? The rest of the world has had B4&B5 waves for weeks and have hardly rushed to reinstate mask wearing. So why are we so much more at risk than the rest of the world? Quite simply we are not, but the government &  the medical authorities are not on the same page. And these headless chickens are running around squawking a variety of different messages. Total farce.

The constant  wave of infections is damaging the  economic recovery of vital sectors. The healthcare systems in the EU and North America still suffer the loss of thousands of workers who are infected with Covid on any given day. Part of the problem the airline industry is facing is that large numbers of aircrew are off sick.

Several European countries are considering a reintroduction of masks in public areas. France is an illustraion;  https://www.voanews.com/a/with-hospitalizations-up-france-weighs-return-to-masks/6642757.html

 

The  public health  experts wanted the mask mandates to remain. It was the government which  took into consideration some of the more vocal opponents of the mask mandate. Bring it back for crowded indoor  areas, and let people go maskless outdoors.

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12 hours ago, Highlandman said:

One British expat tells me he goes everywhere including the BTS maskless and while I like a confident person, his attitude is too cocky. I'm all in favor of saying "to hell with masks" but I don't fancy getting into arguments with guards and such. I simply avoid going to such places except out of necessity.

While malls are said to be a case of "it depends" if you go in maskless, I find it hard to believe this chap is able to go on the BTS maskless and brushes it all aside as if Thailand were the UK or America, which very clearly it is not.

Interesting as I read that masks are still required on the BTS & MRT for now. I am up north out of the city since before the “relaxation” and haven’t used the BTS in a couple of weeks.   Even here in the rural areas most folks are still wearing their masks, inside, outside, and even if they are in a car by themselves driving.  Some of the younger Thais have them off when they are outside.  Maybe none of the guards have seen this Brit yet and notified him, as it has only been a couple of days since 1 July?  Masks have been required for the past couple of years as we all know and this the virus still spreads with or without mask mandates.  When just 1 farang doesn’t complying to current rules, it is magnified amongst many locals and we all get the label “dirty foreigners”.  I dislike wearing a mask as much as many others, but when on the BTS or MRT wearing one for one several minutes until you get off at your stop is not too hard to ask.

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2 hours ago, Dancbmac said:

Interesting as I read that masks are still required on the BTS & MRT for now. I am up north out of the city since before the “relaxation” and haven’t used the BTS in a couple of weeks.   Even here in the rural areas most folks are still wearing their masks, inside, outside, and even if they are in a car by themselves driving.  Some of the younger Thais have them off when they are outside.  Maybe none of the guards have seen this Brit yet and notified him, as it has only been a couple of days since 1 July?  Masks have been required for the past couple of years as we all know and this the virus still spreads with or without mask mandates.  When just 1 farang doesn’t complying to current rules, it is magnified amongst many locals and we all get the label “dirty foreigners”.  I dislike wearing a mask as much as many others, but when on the BTS or MRT wearing one for one several minutes until you get off at your stop is not too hard to ask.

My favorite are still the motorcyclists wearing a mask but not a helmet. 

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Still see the useless temp checks everywhere i got temps from 32 till 37.4 sometime at the same machine it take them 2 years to find out they not work but still keep them most have something to do with the ability they can not learn or dont want to learn  

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Masks won't make any difference at all to the hospitalisations.

Vaccines and antivirals for the elderly / vulnerable are the only measures that will help- focus on what matters. 

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1 hour ago, rc1 said:

Masks won't make any difference at all to the hospitalisations.

Vaccines and antivirals for the elderly / vulnerable are the only measures that will help- focus on what matters. 

So curtailing the spread of the virus ‘doesn’t make a difference to hospitalisations) 🙈

Hmmm so it takes 5 years to be a virologist (the chaps who advocate mask wearing) - how stupid were they to waste all that life when they just needed to consult a Thai expat forum for the facts 😀

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Just commonly accepted medical facts from all around the world showing the vast majority of hospitalisations occur in the elderly, under vaccinated.

The infectiousness of the virus too high, so measures like masks for the general public not addressing the issues that matter - keeping the vulnerable out of hospital and alive. 

 

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21 hours ago, Janneman said:

Thailand News Today | Thailand enjoys  an increase in tourists and flights

Better change the 'enjoys' to 'enjoyed' 

Right. Daft muzzle rules will scare the tourists off.

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24 minutes ago, rc1 said:

Just commonly accepted medical facts from all around the world showing the vast majority of hospitalisations occur in the elderly, under vaccinated.

The infectiousness of the virus too high, so measures like masks for the general public not addressing the issues that matter - keeping the vulnerable out of hospital and alive. 

That's true. Omicron is so extremely contagious that muzzles of the flimsy cloth variety don't make much difference, especially outside. It's a mild infection, more like a cold for healthy people who've had the vaccine. 

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/variants/omicron-variant.html

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10 hours ago, Vigo said:

Part of the problem the airline industry is facing is that large numbers of aircrew are off sick.

Wonder if that has anything to do with a certain medical procedure that was required by many airlines.  Strange how once that was introduced soo many in flight crews started being unfit to fly.  

 

10 hours ago, Vigo said:

The  public health  experts wanted the mask mandates to remain

you forgot to put quotes around "experts."  Same "experts" that have got every single thing wrong since day 1.  i do wonder why people and organizations that were completely unknown just a few years ago that have enjoyed the spot light for a few years are worried about the spot light.... i mean "health issue" to go away 🤔

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4 hours ago, MrNovax said:

Wonder if that has anything to do with a certain medical procedure that was required by many airlines.  Strange how once that was introduced soo many in flight crews started being unfit to fly.  

you forgot to put quotes around "experts."  Same "experts" that have got every single thing wrong since day 1.  i do wonder why people and organizations that were completely unknown just a few years ago that have enjoyed the spot light for a few years are worried about the spot light.... i mean "health issue" to go away 🤔

Cut the BS and write in a manner that does not suggest delusional paranoia. What is the medical procedure that was required by many airlines? Why are you unable to just say that instead of tossing out a nonsensical  statement?

The core medical experts have been consistently  accurate since  day 1. The problem is that there was political pressure put on them to tamper their position to avoid panic in the population. The key strategy of managed containment until vaccines were available worked. The vaccines strategy worked. The use of masks and reduced density worked,  The increased cases reflect the removal of core infection spread procedures.

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