Jump to content

anddy

Members
  • Posts

    1,262
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    7

Posts posted by anddy

  1. On 6/1/2021 at 6:37 PM, PeterRS said:

    I am starting to think all threads about vaccines in Thailand should be frozen. If not, the language in posts will become quickly X-rated. I know this is Thailand, but I remain utterly appalled - and furious - at the cheer inefficiency and now the chaos engulfing those who were elected to solve problems like these. They are the ones who got the country into this disaster by taking their collective eyes off the ball and permitting corruption and cronyism to rule, as it always does. It's at times like this that I wish Thailand would have a benevolent dictator rather than a collective bunch of political morons.

    I'm with @PeterRS on this, this is getting SOOO annoying. The point (for me) is not fear of covid, but wanting to get the vaccine to be able to travel again as soon as possible (which currently it is not even fully vaccinated). But with the "Phuket Sandbox" with Q-free entry into Phuket supposed to come July 1st, they now also restricted domestic travel to Phuket to vaccinated people (of which there are virtually none at this point). 

    As for "those who were elected to solve problems", remember they were NOT. They rigged the system and the election such that they got back to power. Thailand in fact DOES have a de-facto dictator (especially in the covid arena, nothing whatsoever happens there without his nod), except he is neither benevolent nor competent but the source of all current ills :( 

    Considering a vax trip to Germany, too. It would be easy to go there (I think no quarantine requirement there for Thai arrivals) and to get the vaccine. But all so utterly unreliable and unplannable for the return to Thailand. The Phuket model supposed to work only for "low to medium risk countries" (obviously they don't fully trust the vaccines). Even if Germany is low or medium at the time of going there, that designation can change in a heartbeat and then I get stuck there. Complete no-go!

     

  2. 5 hours ago, spoon said:

    Waiting on june 30th before i trust phuket will open july 1st.

    you're rushing to conclusions LOL, June 30th is too soon to believe it! Even July 1st. The first day to believe it will be when the first tourists actually arrive ;) 

    And even then it could be closed again in a split second if and when some outbreak happens, like seychelles-style. It can only be really trusted I suppose when it's been up and running for several weeks AND possibly survived new Covid cases there. 

    I don't want to be overly negative, but the flipflopping (and other monumental government failures) in recent weeks and months has been just appalling 

  3. 9 hours ago, joshhb said:

    Robert and Bom have opened a new restaurant on the west of the river. Kin Kao. It's a 30 minute taxi drive from Oasis.

    That's good to hear, though in that location they will never attract a tourist crowd (except @vinapu making the occasional trip there). 

    The name is about as simple as it gets: Kin Kao means to eat a meal, so I guess a loosely translated English name would be "Let's eat".

  4. had a salad with seared tuna from them through Grab just last week. My first time too, and it was good (though can't go THAT wrong with just a salad lol). Bit pricey, when compared to, for example, Jones Salad. But quality and taste seem to justify it.

    They seem to have branches everywhere 

  5. On 5/14/2021 at 2:53 PM, spoon said:

    People receive Covid-19 vaccines in Phuket. The island is rushing to vaccinate locals ahead of the reopening initiative slated for July 1. (Photo by Achadthaya Chuenniran)

    This has been stated many times and of it course makes sense to have at least 70% of the Phuket population vaccinated before they open the sandbox in their target date of July 1st.

    However, this is contradicted by this:

    Quote

    About 300,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine will be allocated to Phuket by the end of this month. More than 440,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be provided by August to ensure vaccination reaches up to 70% of the population.

    Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2117775/phuket-eases-travel-restrictions (last paragraph)

    So that implies the 70% won't be reached before September. Bye bye sandbox....

  6. 5 hours ago, spoon said:

    Im not even willing to suffer the 7 days i  phuket since i might only stay 2 weeks max. Having to spend 7 days in pattaya on the other hand is a piece of cake lol

    hehe yeah I hear ya.... Though Pattaya won't be much fun these days, either :( 

  7. On 5/14/2021 at 2:53 PM, spoon said:

    He said seven-day tour packages in Phuket will cost around 150,000-200,000 baht per person, which is significantly higher than average spending per of around 50,000 baht per trip prior to the outbreak.

    are these tour packages mandatory to be able to take advantage of the quarantine-free entry? 

    If yes, then the whole project of course is just a mirage and will not materialize

    If no, then you should go @spoon :) 

  8. 4 hours ago, z909 said:

    For political policy, 20 years is close to never, so it rather looks like they have no interest at all in dealing with corruption.

    exactly, and as @PeterRS remarked at the end of his (very interesting) Kong Kong story the political will has to be there, which clearly is absent here. This is put up for show, with the long time frame there is no risk of any immediate "damage" to the golden goose and in a year or less the whole thing will be entirely forgotten

    Such "initiatives" have happened here before haven't they? To what effect? Zero as everyone knows

  9. On 5/12/2021 at 9:16 PM, BiBottomBoy said:

    The French Army is running the thing which I didn't realize.

    interesting, that's probably a good idea because
    1. it puts the army to a REALLY beneficial use
    2. they know how to organize things and logistics much better than some bureaucracies, so increasing the vax program's efficiency

    Plus it gives plenty of eye candy (and potentially flirting options) lol

  10. My point wasn't if they have reached herd immunity level or to question the effectiveness of vaccination programmes, I was only wondering why they haven't achieved 100% vaccination rate yet. Since all vaccines were donated, were the numbers of doses not enough and they ran out? Sounds implausible at only 200k doses they require. 

  11. I don't get that the Seychelles are only at 60+% vaccinated. I just tread yesterday in the context of a new surge of infections there that they (a) started vaccinating in January, so VERY early, and (b) that their population is 100,000. Small country with limited resources or not, getting 100k people (=200k doses) done is not that much

  12. 7 hours ago, z909 said:

    The Bangkok Post showed an estimated timeline for this (below).    That's 60 million doses of Astra Zeneca before the end of the year.    In which case, the high risk people should all have been vaccinated by then.

    Today the Bangkok Post is also reporting that samples from test batches of Thai made vaccine has passed Astra Zeneca quality checks in Europe. 

     

    Thaivaccine.thumb.jpg.cd9032ca75a9b578f3ce4f0f7a7eb235.jpg

     

     

     

     

    I find it important to note that this timeline is vaccine doses delivered by the manufacturer and received by the government, NOT doses administered to people. This super capable government may think "oh that's same same but different" but evidently it is not. 

    If they want to fully vaccinate 70% or approx. 50 million people by year end , starting June, that's over 500k shots to be administered every single day on average starting June 1st. That looks like a fairy tale to me. But then again, better aim too high and miss than too low and hit. And better to increase the urgency late (i.e. now) than not at all. 

  13. 27 minutes ago, z909 said:

    That's slightly higher than it should be, but way cheaper than flying abroad.    Likely to be an easy decision for the expat board members. 

    why is that slightly higher than it should be? It's for the PACKAGE of two shots, so only 1500 per shot, seems very reasonable to me. The article states that the cost per dose is $37 -38 or 1200 Baht, so there is very little mark-up

  14. 4 hours ago, z909 said:

    However, I've not heard reports of mass vaccinations on Phuket

    They have indeed started there, over 100k people have already received vaccines (don't ask me if one or two shots and in what proportion), representing 25% of Phuket's population. Not so bad relative to the rest of the country. I just read this recently, but don't have the source handy. Presumably Bangkok Post or Khaosod or Thai Enquirer. 

    image.png

  15. And as usual, there is another new twist in the story: now they say Phuket must have zero cases before they can re-open. 

    Oh really, and why? If they achieve their goal of 70+% vaccination in Phuket and thus the coveted "herd immunity", then why would zero cases be necessary? A few cases here and there won't lead to another major outbreak and no hospitals would be overwhelmed. 

    And, more importantly, even if they get the vaccination level AND the zero cases, then what happens if the inevitable happens and there are new cases after reopening??? As usual a policy not thought through at all, meaning it can be safely ignored.

    https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2111667/cases-must-drop-for-sandbox-scheme

  16. 4 hours ago, Gaybutton said:

    I would like to know who in TAT came up with this prediction and on the basis of what?

    I would venture to guess on no basis, just with the aim of spreading rather useless) optimism about the reopening. The same could be observed from the government, constant stop and go (as @PeterRS highlighted in the post right above), apart from the usual reasons of incompetence etc, ostensibly in order not to squash the hopes of millions in the sector and to prevent suicides to skyrocket even further

    Just one attempt in an explanation ;) 

  17. 3 hours ago, reader said:

    What puzzles me is that the embassies that represent expats in large numbers residing in Thailand aren't stepping up to the plate to inoculate their own citizens.

    I don't find that puzzling. Embassies and their diplomatic mail transport channels are simply not equipped to handle special medical transports like this, particularly if it's the super deep freeze Pfizer or Moderna jabs. Plus zero staff and infrastructure on the embassy grounds. So logistically it's an impossibility. What they SHOULD do though, kick the Thai governments ass about this! That's the least they can do, and they are perfectly able to.

×
×
  • Create New...