Government dismisses rumours of Phuket sandbox collapse as “fake news”

[Thaiger]

The government says the Phuket sandbox scheme is going very well, describing rumours of its imminent demise as, “fake news”. According to a Bangkok Post report, Thanakorn Wangboonkongchan from the Centre for Economic Situation Administration says the only thing threatening the sandbox scheme is false reporting on social media that claims the island has been ordered to close due to Covid-19 being out of control. Thanakorn has hit back at the claims, saying the sandbox scheme is alive and well and vaccinated foreign tourists continue to arrive. He has called on people to stop sharing false information which could create […]

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[gummy]

As Cilla would say " your'e gorra lav, gorra gorra lav"

[EdwardV]

What else would you expect them to say. It’s kinda like when they denied they were going to lock done BKK again and we all know what happen. 

[triplebogey]

was this fake news or not so hard to tell nowadays

 

Before the 2001 inauguration of George Bush, was invited to a get acquainted tour of the White House.

After drinking several glasses of iced tea, he asked outgoing President Bill Clinton if he could use his personal bathroom.


When he entered Clinton 's private toilet, he was astonished to see that President Clinton had a solid gold urinal!

That afternoon, George told his wife, Laura, about the urinal. “Just think,' he said, 'when I am President, I too could have a gold urinal. But I wouldn't do something so self-indulgent!”

Later, when Laura had lunch with Hillary at her tour of the White House, she told Hillary how impressed George had been at his discovery of the fact that, in his private bathroom, the President had a gold urinal.

That evening, when Bill and Hillary were getting ready for bed, Hillary smiled, and said to Bill:
“I found out who peed in your saxophone.”

 

[Bluesofa]

1 hour ago, gummy said:

As Cilla would say " your'e gorra lav, gorra gorra lav"

'gorra lav'    Yeah, it makes me want to go for a p!ss too.

 

1 hour ago, Thaiger said:

The government says the Phuket sandbox scheme is going very well, describing rumours of its imminent demise as, “fake news”.

I think would be more accurate to describe them as a 'fake government'.

[vlad]

Can Tim confirm 70% of Phuket has been Inoculated as Piyapong Chuwong states.

[AdvocatusDiaboli]

5 hours ago, Thaiger said:

government says the Phuket sandbox scheme is going very well

Now is this fake news? No. Just a slight porky by a politician. Going very well indeed, their guesstimates have been ever decreasing for the last 3 months.

[JohninDublin]

"Prediction is difficult, especially of the future." (Nils Bohr)

Regarding the figures not matching expectations, that is really no surprise. You would have to be an optimist to justify the investment that has been made in this scheme.

Personally, I think there have been many PR failings in this, but on paper, I think it's not such a bad theory. You have an Island with border controls and all who come on to the Island, must be at least tested and in some cases also vaxxed. They have so far discovered seven sandbox infections, two of whom arrived by land. Three were hospitalised and detected within 24 hours. The 4th since hospitalised, was the travelling companion of the land crossing, so she would have been in a ASQ hotel within 24 hours, during which time, she was isolated.

Then there are the three kids, none of whom were vaxxed. It appears that the Swiss was detected as part of the arrivals testing scheme. The two Burmese were detected in the 7 day second test. Probably because the viral load was insufficient to register on the first test. We now know that there there are three Burmese women listed as infected, so the presumption is that the 3rd woman was part of the same travel group as the two kids. This raises the question as to what happened to there close contacts on their flight. Were they isolated? Or maybe it was decided that as none of the close contacts failed their 7 day tests, they were safe. If that is what happened, you have to question why close contacts of the Emirates case could not have been cleared in the second test? In the Emirates case, we know that the infected pax had received Sinovax. My researches have shown that only two vaxxes have so far been approved by Burma, Sinovax and AZ.

Again, looking at the Emirates flight, within days, it was announced that these people in ALQ's wanted to be released to return home. Nothing was said about this being allowed, and I only found out yesterday that they had left the country.

Now I am reading that anyone who has received one Sinovax shot, will get AZ for their second shot, Anyone, having had two shots of Sinovax, will get a third shot of AZ. Hardly a ringing endorsement of the efficacy of Sinovax.

I have a flight booked to land August 5th, and when I read about the Emirates flight, I was 95% convinced I need to cancel my booking. Fortunately, I am booked with Qatar Airways and they allow fully refundable cancellations up to three hours before take-off. As I've dealt with the drip-feed of information about all these events, I am now about 80% likely to cancel. I wonder how many people cancelled or abandoned plans immediately upon hearing of the Emirates case? "What? You mean to say that if I am deemed a close contact of someone on the same flight, I am going to have to go into an ALQ hotel for 14 days, even if I've only booked a 10 day trip? Sod that. Cancel everything"

That question brings me to my earlier point about PR failings. What I would like to see is more transparency. Why for example, did they not say, "Those who would rather leave than undergo 14 days confinement are free to do so, as long as the Airline will accept them". Why are they not reporting which vaxxes have failed these four cases? Why are they still accepting passengers who have had Sinovax, when the recent "AZ booster for Sinovax" say's what many of us might be thinking about this product? Finally, we have the problem of unvaxxed children, to which there is the additional problem of the cruelty of putting them in hospitals while the rest of their family are in ALQ lockdowns. And of course, there is the potential problem that if it is the parents who fail the PCR test, these kids may face being locked up in a hotel room while the parents are in hospital. That will be a PR failing of epic proportions if it occurs.

The good thing that I would say about the Phuket gov, is that they do have the power to make any necessary modifications quite quickly, and they need to give urgent consideration to whether children under 18 should be admitted under the sandbox scheme in view of all the potential problems they represent. Add to that, fuller disclosure surrounding each case, including what vax failed, and because of the lack of confidence in Sinovax, exclude those who are relying on this. The other thing that I think is needed, is to make it clear to those who are confined in ALQ's as close contacts, that they can leave TH, if the Airline deems that risk to be acceptable.