RichardL

It was always going to though. That's kind of how these things work. Weaker (in terms of impact) viruses spread more easily. Unfortunately many still panic about case numbers, even the the fatality rate has diminished massively. Covid's fatality rate is no longer at a level that warrants emergency measures.

It never ceased to amaze me, the amount of Russian couples where the girl looks like a model (and spends all of her time posing like one) and the guy looks like a murderer. That said, the few Russians I've sat down and chatted to (more in Nha Trang than in Thailand - and in Russia) have been decent people. I didn't get the impression that many of them were running the country though, or rich, for that matter. As one guy said to me "In Siberia, we have snow, cold, and bears, so I come to Vietnam"

It's been reported that they are on par with a "bad flu" season now, which is still bad, but we never took these measure during bad flu seasons before.

Omicron seems to spread very rapidly, but spreads more rapidly in major cities, so what appears to be happening is cities are peaking and falling, but the spread to other areas is slower. There's also been a higher incidence of people in hospital 'with' covid, rather than because of it, and the same would be true of deaths. As the virus weakens, as these things tend to do, there has to come a point where Thailand, and the world in general, realises it needs to treat it in the way it does with other viruses with similar mortality rates. Once a handful of major countries take that step, the rest will follow.

COVID will never go away, but the risk from covid is already subsiding. The mortality rate has dropped from about 12 in 1000 to about 2.

If it's a contributing factor it will normally be recorded on the death certificate, whatever the illness. It doesn't mean she died specifically OF Omicron, of course, but it would also be unfair to say it wasn't an Omicron death, just because she had other illnesses.

White schoolkids (especially male) are now the least likely (per capita) demographic to go to university in the UK. They tick no diversity boxes, so don't get any special help. They also have the lowest social mobility. Only 1 in 3 go on to university, compared to nearly half for black students. https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/education-skills-and-training/higher-education/entry-rates-into-higher-education/latest Actual direct discrimination can happen. A friend of mine's husband is Indian (as is she) and an IT manager. He will only hire Indian workers, partly because as an Indian, he feels it's his duty to help other Indians, and partly because he doesn't think non-Indians would fit in the the culture of an Indian team. That's completely illegal here, but his company (quite a large one) will never complain.

Weak evidence? This is common knowledge. It's just that people in the USA like to assume attitudes in their country are universal. There was no racial segregation in society. There were no 'back of the bus' laws, no 'whites only' signs, no segregated sports leagues, non-whites weren't barred from going through the front door of buildings etc etc. Now, part of this may well have been due to the very low numbers of black people in the UK, but it's still true that the UK didn't have racial segregation like the USA did.

The strange thing is that the whole point of the show was that is was highlighting the stupidity of racism, with the bigotted neighbour always shown up as ridiculous. The show just used terms that were commonly used back then, when they were seen as impolite rather than hateful.

The UK has much higher vaccination rates, and also a higher tolerance to death numbers. Thailand gets 50 deaths a day, and the nation panics. The UK gets 200 a day, and nobody bats an eyelid. As for masks, I hate wearing them, and I know that the masks most people wear aren't very effective at all in preventing you from picking up the virus. They are more effective (albeit far from perfect) at stopping you spread the virus if you have it. There does seem very little point making people wear them outdoors though. I don't think I'd want to take a holiday anywhere where I have to wear a mask most of the time though. I find it too uncomfortable. It feels 'mildly suffocating', like the annoyance of having a blocked nose. I also don't really like having things on my face/head. I hate wearing hats, even when it's really cold, for example. I have to wear glasses to drive, and it's always a relief to take them off. I can fully understand why nations bring in such restrictions. I'm just against the logic of where they are applied.

Casinos aren't legal in China, which is undoubtedly where the push for this has come from. This will be casinos built by Chinese, run by Chinese, and frequented almost exclusively by Chinese, with the profits going back to China. There will be a boom for local construction workers, and jobs for locals working in them, but the thousands of Chinese tourists will do nothing for the rest of the town's economy. Anyone who has ever been to Macao, which is China's main casino area (local laws apply), will know how utterly dead the place is, despite the 3 million tourists who go there each year. Pattaya (where this will no doubt end up) will have a seafront of hotels/casinos, and Walking Street will become a street of shops and restaurants.

"The TAT anticipates that tourism businesses will need to change their business models to better focus on ... diversifying their target audiences to include both long-distance markets such as European countries and the Americas, as well as short-distance markets such as Asian and ASEAN countries so that they do not have to rely solely on a single market." When did Thailand rely on a single market before?

Also England, unlike most countries in the world, has been fully opened up for nearly four months now. Infections have risen, but serious infections are still at manageable levels.