Thailand's unsung Covid-19 success story

[DrTuner]

15 minutes ago, Mulambana said:

I was reading an article that European genes have weak immune response. It was caused at the dawn of human evolution when interbreeding between neanderthals and modern human was rampant in Europe. But Australia and New Zeland have very low case fatality rate and compares well with Asian/African countries. This virus is very enigmatic. Every time one finds a theory, a counter example negates it. 

Ah yes, the European mongrels. 

 

Too bad a large portion of them carry genes from Genghis Khan.

[maingmoom]

6 hours ago, Tanlic said:

How stupid do you think people are? There are only eg 6 cases in Phitsanulok. Do you think for one minute if someone died of Covid 19 they could hide it and get away with it? Thais gossip the  same as everyone but out of 870,000 people who live there not one rumour suggesting there are people dying of Covid 10 is being circulated. Hospitals have thousands of staff u simply cant hide the truth from all..........you're the one that is in denial about how well Thailand for whatever reason has handled this 

And the same in Chachoengsou. I have heard of 3 or 4 people having the virus and not heard of one death. Same for my friends in other provinces. Give some credit where its due.

[Patts]

Pretty much every comment is pointing to the fact that countries in South East Asia have more sun and thus higher levels of Vit D which in part is true and the higher level of vitamin D will help fight the respiratory infection, it will not provide immunity. 

 

The fact is that America and Europe has had far more cases and a higher rate mortality is due to:

 

1) Delay in implementing lockdowns

2) Delay in stop international travel or in case of the UK not stopping it at all!

3)Governments not enforcing the wearing of masks

4) People taking the illness to lightly and comparing it to Flu

5) Poor nutrient intake of Vit C, Vit D and Zinc

6) While it has been shown that COVID19 can survive in temperatures of 60c higher temperatures and UV from the Sun prevent or decrease the ability and length of time the virus can survive on surfaces and in the air. 

 

But beyond all of the above and the main factor is Asia has been hit with the original L strain which is less contagious and has much lower mortality. The US and Europe have been hit hardest by the mutated S strain that came from Italy and is far more infectious and deadly. 

 

This is the reason for the wide difference in cases and deaths

[Patts]

42 minutes ago, Mulambana said:

I was reading an article that European genes have weak immune response. It was caused at the dawn of human evolution when interbreeding between neanderthals and modern human was rampant in Europe. But Australia and New Zeland have very low case fatality rate and compares well with Asian/African countries. This virus is very enigmatic. Every time one finds a theory, a counter example negates it. 

You talk utter <deleted>!

 

The article also said "research suggests" e.g not a fact and it also stated "Previous work has shown our ancestors had interbred with Neanderthals 55,000 years ago, possibly in the Middle East."  Since when is Europe in the Middle East?????

 

Further quotes from the article:

 

"The analysis shows the man was more closely related to modern East Asians and Native Americans than to today's Europeans."

"This sample, despite being in Romania, doesn't yet look like Europeans today," said Prof Reich.

 

Do your research instead of spreading lies!

Edited May 27, 2020 by Patts

[mr mr]

4 hours ago, Saint Nick said:

9 hours ago, mr mr said:

it is this kind of precise decision making that has shown the true strength and leadership skills of the current government. where would thailand be without this great decision making ? 

i for one am truly grateful.

Wow!

Denial is not a river in Egypt, you know?!

Leadership skills?
As in "keeping millions of people without job and financial aide for weeks or even months"?

Or as in "letting the Chinese come in by the plane- load, when the whole world already knew, what was going on"?

Or as in "scapegoating foreigners for the spread of the virus"?

Or maybe " implementing a useless curfew, a questionable alcohol ban and some non-sensesical measures like closing pool but opening markets (which never were closed in the first place"?

woooooooah cowboy.

 

maybe you should brush yourself off come into the saloon and have a drink. i'm buying. 

[5633572526]

9 hours ago, mr mr said:

it is this kind of precise decision making that has shown the true strength and leadership skills of the current government. where would thailand be without this great decision making ? 

i for one am truly grateful.

If the figures this government were giving out were accurate there would be no need for a curfew and everything should be open. The fact they they continue with this drunken orgy of control tells you they are not giving true numbers or are using this to keep political protests under wraps.

 I suspect that now that they are running out of excuses to continue this level of control there will be a mysterious rise in covid cases to justify the covid coup.

[NoComment]

The Kingdom as a whole should, so far, be congratulated. 

Everyone from the very top has made an amazing effort in attempting to control COVID19.

I hope that the country is allowed to recover without Chinese dominance.

Congratulations to all of the key workers.

[Ajarnbrian]

Good to see social distancing measures, more widespread testing, contact tracing and public education in countries including Thailand, S Korea, Australia and NZ. Other countries with large per capita numbers of virus cases and thousands of deaths could learn a lesson.

[Baerboxer]

9 hours ago, bodga said:

Claptrap, and this  govt  will use this  rubbish mercilessly to promote themsleves, social distancing is the last thing any Thais do, I shall await future  research as to why some countries have had  little impact with cv19 inc  surrounding countries. Whether  climate affects  the results or  not, outdoor  lifestyle etc.

 

Claptrap - indeed your post is! Whilst it's true to say much much more research needs to be done to determine the different effects in different countries, the Thai people have and are behaving far better than citizens in other countries. The UK has and is still shambolic.

 

I visited a shopping mall yesterday. First time since the easing. Very impressed at the precautions on entry, on entering individual shops within the mall and the general sensible behavior of the vast majority of the people in the mall.

 

 

[Baerboxer]

10 minutes ago, 5633572526 said:

If the figures this government were giving out were accurate there would be no need for a curfew and everything should be open. The fact they they continue with this drunken orgy of control tells you they are not giving true numbers or are using this to keep political protests under wraps.

 I suspect that now that they are running out of excuses to continue this level of control there will be a mysterious rise in covid cases to justify the covid coup.

 

What's your PhD in - Sophistry and illogical conclusions?

[Justgrazing]

3 hours ago, Moonlover said:

 

11 likes, 3 thank yous and 1 re-quote (from me) say otherwise. Stick to it @Yinn

 

Yea and .?

the bit about requote is very modest so are you a cheer leader or something .. 

[tribalfusion001]

On the BP, Thai MPI down for a 12th straight month, -17.21% from April 2019 with a forecast of -28% in GDP loss for the whole year. Unemployment could hit 12 to 15 million.

[Brunolem]

15 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

 

I visited a shopping mall yesterday. First time since the easing. Very impressed at the precautions on entry, on entering individual shops within the mall and the general sensible behavior of the vast majority of the people in the mall.

Where?

I have seen only empty malls since the reopening...

[Traubert]

53 minutes ago, Patts said:

You talk utter <deleted>!

 

The article also said "research suggests" e.g not a fact and it also stated "Previous work has shown our ancestors had interbred with Neanderthals 55,000 years ago, possibly in the Middle East."  Since when is Europe in the Middle East?????

 

Further quotes from the article:

 

"The analysis shows the man was more closely related to modern East Asians and Native Americans than to today's Europeans."

"This sample, despite being in Romania, doesn't yet look like Europeans today," said Prof Reich.

 

Do your research instead of spreading lies!

Makes as much sense as your batty theory.

[Saint Nick]

57 minutes ago, mr mr said:

woooooooah cowboy.

 

maybe you should brush yourself off come into the saloon and have a drink. i'm buying. 

Brilliant response!

Really funny!

Any reply to my comment as such?

No?

I'll pass on that drink!

[CLS]

It must be the jungle heat/humidity that kills the virus.

 

All in-country cases of super spreaders took place in air-conditioned venues like boxing stadiums or pubs.

 

The rest are imports from mostly Thai returnees that visited cold countries.

 

 

 

 

[Saint Nick]

46 minutes ago, Ajarnbrian said:

Good to see social distancing measures, more widespread testing, contact tracing and public education in countries including Thailand, S Korea, Australia and NZ. Other countries with large per capita numbers of virus cases and thousands of deaths could learn a lesson.

Okay...let's talk about tracing, that is si wonderfully done in Thailand!

There is a 7eleven next to my condo!

You have to wear a facemask, they take your temperature (which - more than 1 time in my case, was dangerously low!) and the newest treat: you have to "check in": write your name and your mobile# down!

But NO ONE is writing down the time you enter the shop and NO ONE writes down the time you exit!

For all they care, I am roaming the aisles of their store since 8:45 on Monday- morning!

How is that for super- tracing!

Or this: 30 meters from that specific 7eleven, there is a Family Mart, where they don't even bother to take the temperature!

Wanna know something funny: I have not been to one Family Mart, who handles it differently, but to several 7elevens, who handle it exactly, like I said!

Some don't even bother with the name and the mobile!

 

There is market, near my office!

It was NEVER closed or in anyway controlled, during the "lockdown"!

You could enter and exit anywhere you wanted and wander freely between the vendors!

With the re- opening of all markets, suddenly everybody could only enter the market through one entry and leave it through one exit, with most spaces in between now closed off!

So EVERYBODY is now squeezing into the market amd social distancing is out the window!

By the way: NO TEMPERATURE taken, NO CHECK IN, NO CHECK OUT...just two derps with hand- sanitizer!

Great tracing, right!?

 

The only thing, you can learn from Thailand, is how you make up false numbers and non- sensesical rules!

Mind you: I am all for SENSIBLE measures, that work hand in hand and are LOGICAL!

The BS you see in this country, every step of the way is abysmal and a disaster and nothing else but a  massive power- trip by the government!   

[Patts]

50 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Claptrap - indeed your post is! Whilst it's true to say much much more research needs to be done to determine the different effects in different countries, the Thai people have and are behaving far better than citizens in other countries. The UK has and is still shambolic.

 

I visited a shopping mall yesterday. First time since the easing. Very impressed at the precautions on entry, on entering individual shops within the mall and the general sensible behavior of the vast majority of the people in the mall.

 

 

You clearly don't live in the Uk so how would you know "The UK has and is still shambolic.?" Yes there are a few morons who don't follow lockdown rules but most do. I would say that the UK government was slow to react and they should have made face masks mandatory in public. From the video's I've seen in the media, there is no social distancing in Thailand, markets full of people, BTS, bus stations etc. 

 

The UK are doing over 100,000 tests a day, how many are Thailand doing? 

The UK is likely to be the first country with a vaccine, that is due to be completed and available September, when is Thailands due to be ready?

[mrfill]

3 hours ago, gravia said:

So they are concerned about a second wave, even if its 200% worse that would mean 150 odd deaths . This is nothing, the road death toll of 26000 in the Covid 19 period is of far greater concern. It is amusing to see motor bike riders with stupid masks but no helmet. the average Thai  death toll per day from all things is 1,400. So the economy is destroyed, people have no jobs and no money to eat, people are depressed and bored and are becoming institutionalised, shopping Malls are open but empty, Restaurants cant sell alcohol also empty. Why Thailand has so few cases has nothing to do with lock down, masks, plastic face screens or social distancing. Just go to a local market. There must be some other reason that this whole area of south east asia has so few cases and deaths compared to Europe, UK similar population but 1000s of supposed corona deaths and cases it just doesn't add up.

Year 2017/18 60,000 influenza deaths in the USA alone. (Covid 19 is a influenza type virus), nobody shut down the world.  In 1918/19 Spanish flu 50,000,000 deaths worldwide nobody shut down the world. So why now? .

WHO now says maybe Sweden had the right approach, my feeling is that it would have certainly worked here in south east asia. But shutting the boarders would have been required.

Is that the Sweden with 4000+ deaths - the one next to Norway (235 deaths) and Finland (312 deaths) - the one with over 10x the death rate of its immediate neighbours? That doesn't look successful to me.

[Brunolem]

3 minutes ago, Patts said:

 

The UK is likely to be the first country with a vaccine, that is due to be completed and available September, 

I would bet a few thousand baht against that one...

 

Interested?

 

[Moonlover]

5 hours ago, Peter Denis said:

I am not a thai basher, far from that. 

But this farang-bashing and thai-glorifying post of yours is truly pathetic.

 

Imagine for a moment that you are back in your home country, wherever that may. You are member of a community forum in your home country and a group of foreigners join that forum.

 

That foreign group begin to hurl daily insults at your country and its people. And they do it unrelentingly on a daily basis and there is nothing you can do about it.

 

That is what @Yinn has to put up with on a daily basis, from a group of very ignorant, cowardly people who would never dare to say the things that they do if it were it not for the cloak of anonymity.

 

So just show a little bit of sympathy and understanding will you?

[Monomial]

1 hour ago, Patts said:

Pretty much every comment is pointing to the fact that countries in South East Asia have more sun and thus higher levels of Vit D which in part is true and the higher level of vitamin D will help fight the respiratory infection, it will not provide immunity. 

 

The *fact* is that America and Europe has had far more cases and a higher rate mortality is due to:

 

1) Delay in implementing lockdowns

2) Delay in stop international travel or in case of the UK not stopping it at all!

3)Governments not enforcing the wearing of masks

4) People taking the illness to lightly and comparing it to Flu

5) Poor nutrient intake of Vit C, Vit D and Zinc

6) While it has been shown that COVID19 can survive in temperatures of 60c higher temperatures and UV from the Sun prevent or decrease the ability and length of time the virus can survive on surfaces and in the air. 

 

But beyond all of the above and the main factor is Asia has been hit with the original L strain which is less contagious and has much lower mortality. The US and Europe have been hit hardest by the mutated S strain that came from Italy and is far more infectious and deadly. 

 

This is the reason for the wide difference in cases and deaths

 

I emboldened and added asterisks to the word "fact".  I apologize but it was necessary to highlight the error.

 

All of these things you have pointed out are merely theoretical possibilities, currently lacking in any suficiently convincing data or scientific predictions that have withstood falsifiable tests. Absolutely NONE of them are fact.

 

There is too much fake news spreading around already. I get tired of hearing everyone treat science as equivalent to opinion. It is not. Finding any genuine science on this disease in the forest of people that present their opinions as fact is exhausting. Opinions continue to be used to justify policies by governments as if opinions counted as facts.

 

This is fundamentally wrong. While I understand governments use this illegitimate tactic to control populations for their own agendas, we do not need to adopt their egregious habits.  We need to be better than them. We need to accept that nobody genuinely knows what is happening here, and we likely won't know for many years in hindsight.

 

Until this point, everyone's opinion is just that, and nobody's opinion should ever be considered fact.

 

 

[transam]

3 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

Imagine for a moment that you are back in your home country, wherever that may. You are member of a community forum in your home country and a group of foreigners join that forum.

 

That foreign group begin to hurl daily insults at your country and its people. And they do it unrelentingly on a daily basis and there is nothing you can do about it.

 

That is what @Yinn has to put up with on a daily basis, from a group of very ignorant, cowardly people who would never dare to say the things that they do if it were it not for the cloak of anonymity.

 

So just show a little bit of sympathy and understanding will you?

Have you read what Yinn has said about farangs over the months...?  ????

 

[Peter Denis]

3 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

Imagine for a moment that you are back in your home country, wherever that may. You are member of a community forum in your home country and a group of foreigners join that forum.

 

That foreign group begin to hurl daily insults at your country and its people. And they do it unrelentingly on a daily basis and there is nothing you can do about it.

 

That is what @Yinn has to put up with on a daily basis, from a group of very ignorant, cowardly people who would never dare to say the things that they do if it were it not for the cloak of anonymity.

 

So just show a little bit of sympathy and understanding will you?

I will if she refrains from spouting her xenophobic narrative.

By doing that Yinn shows that she is of the same fabric as the thai-bashers.

She is well-poised to explain the thai point of view and would have my full sympathy when doing that, but a rant on the stupid farangs and Thailand Uber Alles deserves a disapproval.

 

 

[Patts]

1 hour ago, Traubert said:

Makes as much sense as your batty theory.

What Batty theory? Please enlighten me on what you're referring to? 

[metisdead]

Some inflammatory posts have been removed. 

[Patts]

20 minutes ago, Monomial said:

 

I emboldened and added asterisks to the word "fact".  I apologize but it was necessary to highlight the error.

 

All of these things you have pointed out are merely theoretical possibilities, currently lacking in any suficiently convincing data or scientific predictions that have withstood falsifiable tests. Absolutely NONE of them are fact.

 

There is too much fake news spreading around already. I get tired of hearing everyone treat science as equivalent to opinion. It is not. Finding any genuine science on this disease in the forest of people that present their opinions as fact is exhausting. Opinions continue to be used to justify policies by governments as if opinions counted as facts.

 

This is fundamentally wrong. While I understand governments use this illegitimate tactic to control populations for their own agendas, we do not need to adopt their egregious habits.  We need to be better than them. We need to accept that nobody genuinely knows what is happening here, and we likely won't know for many years in hindsight.

 

Until this point, everyone's opinion is just that, and nobody's opinion should ever be considered fact.

 

 

Please feel free to provide evidence that any of the points I have posted are incorrect. Everything I have posted is from Doctors and Scientists but if you know so much better happy to hear where I was wrong

[DrTuner]

36 minutes ago, CLS said:

It must be the jungle heat/humidity that kills the virus.

It doesn't kill, but certainly does have an effect in decreasing the R0. In Sao Paolo, the current hotspot with the favelas, the weather is around the optimal temp for the virus to spread:

 

Unless the combined effect of all measures, herd immunity and external factors drop the R0 under 1.0 for an extended period of time, the virus will keep spreading, only the speed of the spread will vary. We saw with the climbing numbers in Thailand before the lockdowns that it wasn't < 1.0.

 

There's debate in Finland now about should they try to completely squash it New Zealand style, or should they allow a controlled spread to slowly build up immunity. They are in a position to do either thanks to the test & trace network. It's all about managing the R0 until a vaccine arrives.

[Yinn]

5 hours ago, Justgrazing said:

 

How come then this apparent success is not being lauded outside of Thailand .? 

N Z , S K , Taiwan and China ( if you believe them ) are held up as those who appear to have had an element of success dealing with .. In Europe Germany and Greece are touted especially against the backdrop of some of the other countries efforts who I would not disagree wid'ju  have made a right Horlicks of it in particular Britain .. But I don't see no bigging up of Thailand's success .. Nothing on the international press or TV .. How can this be ? less 100 deceased from C V and yet outside of Thailand not a peep .. How odd .. 

https://thethaiger.com/coronavirus/who-praises-thailands-coronavirus-measures

[transam]

3 minutes ago, Yinn said:

https://thethaiger.com/coronavirus/who-praises-thailands-coronavirus-measures

WHO also praised the Chinese................????