Tourism chiefs call for foreigners vaccinated against COVID-19 to be allowed to enter Thailand

[stuandjulie]

2 hours ago, James HKT said:

Really ? For the vaccines in the UK the protection has been estimated at 95%

Sinovac is the Chinese vaccine, reports suggest its efficiency can be as low as 50% which is the absolute minimum allowed Internationally. The Western main players are saying in the mid 90's, no word on the Russian one as data is skewed it seems.

[hioctane]

7 hours ago, Geoffggi said:

This is a really bad idea, even if they have had the vaccination there is absolutely no concrete evidence how effective it will be across the board, newly vaccinated people still need to be checked and monitored.

That is what Phase 3 trials are for. It is safe and effective enough for general distribution.

 

7 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

 

Watching a video this morning from the USA, said 7 million so far have been vaccinated and if the new Biden admin gets things happening, i.e. to vaccinate 1 million people a day, then by mid year they would have reached herd immunity.

 

So I think Thailand has to accept foreign tourists coming here is a ways off, 2021 should be the focus year and until then the Thai government should provide loans to tourism companies/hotels/resorts to keep them afloat, but not without secure tenure, and once they are all back and running, they can then repay the debts, could be a win/win, but does the Thai government have any money, who knows maybe they can knock on someone's door ?

Thailand is not floating and loans and people are starving to death. Any hope to normalcy should be welcome.

 

 

5 hours ago, Dialemco said:

Forget about international tourism this cannot return before 2022 earliest and then on a much smaller eco friendly scale. Meanwhile the Government should invest in alternative industries 

Any hope to normalcy should be welcome. Thais cannot go in like this much longer.

 

5 hours ago, Spellforce said:

They should open Phuket first and only open international flights to Phuket:

- vaccine all the population in Phuket

- allow only tourists with Pfizer or Moderna vaccins (because efficiency > 95% and also works with the new variant virus)

- do PCR tests to the tourists on arrival + after 10 or 14 days (because 5% of vaccined tourists may have the covid)

- tourists wont be allowed to move further than 2-3 km from their hotels

- after 10 or 14 days, tourists wlll be allowed to move only in tourists areas where the population has been vaccined (Pattaya, Kho Samui etc...)

 

It's time to reopen everything, vaccines are coming but everything can't be solved in only one day.

 

 

How is that any different from now except you don’t need a vaccine? The whole point was to remove quarantine.

 

8 hours ago, AmySeeker said:

When vaccines give efficiency figure - what does that mean ? Is it the rate of those catching it ?

95% efficacy means if 100 people took the vaccine, 5 still got infected. 

[ExpatOK]

A weak point in this plan is verifying that the foreigner has actually been vaccinated.  Certificates can by forged, immigration officials and doctors can be bribed. 

[Sean60]

Finally a good plan. Take it and ratified and implement it. It is about time.

Light at the end of the tunnel !!!!

[rioD]

Very dumb ideal.  Vaccinations are not cures, nor do they create immunity.  In fact The CDC says average effectiveness for past 15 seasons is 40%. It's been as low as 10%.

[khunPer]

11 hours ago, PatOngo said:

What if they prefer badminton???

Quality tourists don't play badminton...

[Gwen1234]

1 hour ago, hioctane said:

That is what Phase 3 trials are for. It is safe and effective enough for general distribution.

 

Thailand is not floating and loans and people are starving to death. Any hope to normalcy should be welcome.

 

 

Any hope to normalcy should be welcome. Thais cannot go in like this much longer.

 

How is that any different from now except you don’t need a vaccine? The whole point was to remove quarantine.

 

95% efficacy means if 100 people took the vaccine, 5 still got infected. 

Nope, if 100 people took the vaccine 100 people would still get infected, their bodies would just know how to beat the virus alot faster than without the vaccine, 95% of the time...

[Toany]

Maybe he does not realise that the vaccine does not stop you catching the virus or stop you carrying it and passing it on.  It help you to survive catching it. 

[shdmn]

The biggest danger is to the most vulnerable in the population.  Those are typically the ones that get vaccinated first.  So it would be fairly easy to justify letting tourists in without restrictions once the most vulnerable people in Thailand are vaccinated.  That could happen fairly soon.

Edited January 13, 2021 by shdmn

[davee58]

2 hours ago, James7001 said:

If you have been vaccinated and you also have had a recent negative Covid  test you cannot spread or carry the virus. 

Just wash your hands,

for 100 percent certainty. ????

[D M G]

Let's argue over common sense. 

[D M G]

I truly believe if I suggested we live in HazMat suits for the rest of our lives and never allow any international travel that some people on this comment board would support it.

[Harveyboy]

12 hours ago, PatOngo said:

All farang are lich.......let's rip them off!

lip them off ..ha

[shdmn]

3 hours ago, ExpatOK said:

A weak point in this plan is verifying that the foreigner has actually been vaccinated.  Certificates can by forged, immigration officials and doctors can be bribed. 

Yes, you can spend time and money trying to do all that and put your own health at risk or you can just, you know, get vaccinated.  Tough choice. 

Edited January 13, 2021 by shdmn

[habuspasha]

I just got first shot of Moderna yesterday in NYC.  Hope to travel to BKK 10 days after 2nd shot Feb. 9.  "Proof" is a "Covid 19 Vacination Card" with computer link to all information.

 

If non-contagiousness is not certain yet, at the very least we should not have to pay for Covid insurance.

[onebir]

12 hours ago, kotsak said:

They keep forgetting that the vaccine is to protect you from getting sick, not to stop the spread.

Actually the Pfizer vaccine is turning out to reduce transmission pretty quickly (rising to 33% on 14th day after vaccination). That's based on data for over 60s. Given how age-dependent the severity of this virus is, I wouldn't be surprised if it attenuates infections in younger groups more strongly. Israel should be rolling out vaccines for under 60 age groups soon, so there should be data on that soon.

 

(I'm hoping they investigate delayed second doses; data on that could really help get the most of the vaccines worldwide.)

[Daveyh]

All vaccines so far are not as effective as you would think, some as low as 50%, hence any easing of the restrictions for financial gain is much too early. We could very quickly find ourselves in a deadly situation all because people want to open up businesses. This pandemic is about saving lives, the people of Thailand have been very complacent with the rulings from government over the past year. Any financial crisis should be borne by the government during this period as well as ensuring everyone has an acceptable standard of living. All these "trips to the moon" & Naval submarines etc need to be immediately shelved & the taxpayer's money spent on surviving the pandemic.

[shdmn]

5 minutes ago, habuspasha said:

I just got first shot of Moderna yesterday in NYC.  Hope to travel to BKK 10 days after 2nd shot Feb. 9.  "Proof" is a "Covid 19 Vacination Card" with computer link to all information.

 

If non-contagiousness is not certain yet, at the very least we should not have to pay for Covid insurance.

Does that insurance have to be some Thai insurance scam scheme or can it be from your home country?  If they are not making money from that they yes I would hope they drop that requirement soon.

[onebir]

3 hours ago, hioctane said:

95% efficacy means if 100 people took the vaccine, 5 still got infected. 

I think 95% efficacy means:

1000 people take the vaccine, 1 still gets infected

1000 don't & 20 get infected.

(1 - (1/20) = 0.95)

[onebir]

11 minutes ago, habuspasha said:

I just got first shot of Moderna yesterday in NYC. 

Maybe you should start a 'co-vaxxed' thread, where people can report any reactions etc.

[onebir]

5 hours ago, chrisbangkok said:

Brazilian studies today apparently show the Sinovac efficacy to be around 50% which will be the vaccine of choice from Thailand's biggest target tourist group China for instance. 

That's... terrible.

 

Under the SIR model, that vaccine couldn't deliver herd immunity even in a 100% vaccinated population. See "Imperfect Immunity". (Here R0 ~3, so 1-1/R0 = 0.67 > E, the vaccine effectiveness, in which case "it would be impossible to eliminate an infection even by vaccinating the whole population". For E=50%, R0 needs to be <2.)

[bangon04]

6 hours ago, bimmerbob said:

That is not an outdoor sport. ????

 

Beach Volleyball?

[bangon04]

24 minutes ago, shdmn said:

Does that insurance have to be some Thai insurance scam scheme or can it be from your home country?  If they are not making money from that they yes I would hope they drop that requirement soon.

Who believes that thai hotels are making money from the ASQ scheme?? They persist with it... unless you are comparing it with zero occupancy

Edited January 13, 2021 by bangon04
added

[shdmn]

5 minutes ago, bangon04 said:

Who believes that thai hotels are making money from the ASQ scheme?? They persist with it... unless you are comparing it with zero occupancy

Insurance is a separate issue from the quarnatine thing.

[HandsomeTallFarang]

25 minutes ago, Daveyh said:

All vaccines so far are not as effective as you would think, some as low as 50%, hence any easing of the restrictions for financial gain is much too early. We could very quickly find ourselves in a deadly situation all because people want to open up businesses. This pandemic is about saving lives, the people of Thailand have been very complacent with the rulings from government over the past year. Any financial crisis should be borne by the government during this period as well as ensuring everyone has an acceptable standard of living. All these "trips to the moon" & Naval submarines etc need to be immediately shelved & the taxpayer's money spent on surviving the pandemic.

“All because people want to open up businesses”

This is an incredibly ignorant and shortsighted opinion. Yeah, those arrogant losers who have to earn money to keep on living and not be out on the street, instead they should go bankrupt so they don’t kill someone’s grandma.????
 

Not everyone is a pensioner on retirement like you, and some people actually need to WORK to earn a living, the entire idea of “everyone has to be made destitute because a virus with a greater than 99% survival rate is going to kill everyone unless we all lock ourselves in our basement, forever” is a pure dystopian nightmare-fantasy.

 

THE VIRUS IS HERE TO STAY. Learn to live with it. ten-fold people will die from “deaths of despair”; drug and alcohol abuse, suicide, homelessness, depression, unemployment, mental illness caused directly by lockdowns, etc. than people will die from a flu virus that 9.9 out of 10 people make a full recovery from.
 

Coronavirus isn’t a big deal unless you are a coffin-dodging obese retard, you don’t shut down society because some old people might die when they probably would have died anyway from a regular flu or pneumonia. 
 

 

[Captor]

13 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

This guy will do anything to hit his number.

 

Surprised he hasn't suggested cloning tourists yet?

 

While millions of people may have received their first vaccination, they are mostly elderly, at-risk or essential workers, first-responders, politicians, health professionals. Hardly into temples, beaches and cuisine right now.

 

 

Maybe in a year or two, a COVID vaccination will be required, and without it, no entry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why in a year or two? Should be OK as soon as the person has the injections. Maybe in 4-5 months.

[Albert Zweistein]

12 hours ago, madmen said:

Hilarious! The TV bar stool infectious disease unit are tripping over themselves in a rush to post misinformation! 

Great entertainment. 

Yes surprisingly many doctors are posting on this subject.

[shdmn]

1 hour ago, Albert Zweistein said:

Yes surprisingly many doctors are posting on this subject.

Like the people with a post count under 100 telling us cHInA bAd iNTeNTIonALY sPREAd vIRus.  VACciNE bAd INstaLl BiLl gATeS trACKing dEviCe anD gIVe U auTiSm?

Edited January 13, 2021 by shdmn

[fakser]

16 hours ago, webfact said:

Tourism chiefs call for foreigners vaccinated against COVID-19 to be allowed to enter Thailand

 

Picture: Siam Rath

 

The leaders of five key groups from Thailand’s tourism industry have called on the government to approve plans that would allow any foreigner vaccinated against COVID-19 to enter Thailand without restrictions.

 

While Thailand is open to foreign tourists, any foreigner visiting the country is required to undergo mandatory 14 day quarantine at their own expense.

 

Allowing vaccinated foreigners to visit Thailand without the undergoing quarantine would help to mitigate some of the effects the COVID-19 outbreak has had on the country’s now decimated tourism industry, the group said.

 

Pipat Ratchakitprakarn, Minister of Tourism and Sports, was due to present the proposal for Cabinet approval on Tuesday, Siam Rath reported. 

 

Mr Pipat added that the Ministry of Public Health would also be required to decide on the matter.

 

The proposal is one of a number of measures put forward by the group, which is made up of operators including the Tourist Police, Thai Hotel Association and the Association of Thai Travel Agents.

 

Some of the other proposals include soft loans and reduction in rates, such as electricity bills, for hotels and tourism businesses.

 

More details were also put  forward regarding the so-called ‘golf quarantine’ which would allow tourists to stay at a resort and play golf, rather than being confined to their rooms. 

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2021-01-13

 

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Pfizer Vaccine is 95 % effective. Today I received the 2nd shot. So prepare the welcome ceremony for me...

[gafdtomaka366]

16 hours ago, shdmn said:

You are not as efficient a spreader though, because you are not sick and therefore you are not coughing and sneezing.   

Sick, but asymptomatic person isn't an efficient spreader either then - he's nor coughing, nor sneezzing.