News Forum - Health ministry says Covid-19 will become endemic in Thailand this year

[Thaiger]

Thailand’s Public Health Ministry plans to move Covid-19 from pandemic status to endemic status this year. According to a Bangkok Post report, Dr Kiattiphum Wongrajit says this can be achieved thanks to people cooperating with the vaccine rollout. While the Omicron variant is highly-contagious and spreading rapidly across the country, symptoms are milder and the death rate is lower. “The disease naturally reduces its severity on its own and everyone in Thailand is cooperating with the vaccination drive. Consequently, the disease can do no harm. Besides, there are effective operations for treatment and the slowdown of outbreaks. These will make […]

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[Stonker]

Thailand leading the way ... all other countries I'm aware of have said three to five years at best.

I'm not sure what the rush is, since as soon as the virus goes from a pandemic to endemic the vaccine manufacturers are going to put up their prices  ...

[AdvocatusDiaboli]

13 hours ago, Thaiger said:

Thailand’s Public Health Ministry plans to move Covid-19 from pandemic status to endemic status

Just like what Thailand RTP has done with the Road Toll!

[DiJoDavO]

14 hours ago, Thaiger said:

The disease naturally reduces its severity on its own and everyone in Thailand is cooperating with the vaccination drive

Pick one.... You only need one.... 

[DiJoDavO]

3 hours ago, Stonker said:

Thailand leading the way ... all other countries I'm aware of have said three to five years at best.

You stay 3 to 5 more years in lockdown. That's ok.

[Stonker]

9 minutes ago, DiJoDavO said:

You stay 3 to 5 more years in lockdown. That's ok.

It's not up to me - and since we're not "in lockdown" here in Thailand it's not really possible to "stay" in lockdown for 3 more years or 3 more minutes.

[Lyp14 [ctxa]]

Same old story about how evil the big Pharma are because they make billions. 

Do they not have a right make money? Take a look at the death rate during the first wave of COVID infections worldwide and you will see what has been averted with the vaccines... 

Let's suppose for a moment that they could make a COVID vaccine which lasts forever but instead they made it necessary to get booster shots just to make more money (again, this is just a supposition)... What would the problem be with this? Why don't we have light bulbs that last forever when it's clearly possible to build them this way? 

Suddenly the big Pharma have become the devil by supposedly doing things which everyone else has been doing for decades... While in reality the big Pharma have saved a lot of people from being six feet under...

 

Edited January 11, 2022 by ctxa

[Vince]

8 hours ago, Stonker said:

Thailand leading the way ... all other countries I'm aware of have said three to five years at best.

I'm not sure what the rush is, since as soon as the virus goes from a pandemic to endemic the vaccine manufacturers are going to put up their prices  ...

India is already supposed to be mass manufacturing COVID vaccine on the cheap. How much is a booster of Sinovac and Sputnik V gonna command anyways? A few eYuan/rubles, comrade? 

[Nabashalam]

Endemic? Well that's a No Brainer! And it will be one of many...

There are 100s of flus and viruses waiting in the concert hall as the tune up... 

Some natural (keep cutting down our rainforests) , some man made (keep schlepping around in those clandestine viral labs). We will be the masters of our own fate... WTFU!!!

[Stonker]

15 hours ago, Vince said:

India is already supposed to be mass manufacturing COVID vaccine on the cheap.

As long as Covid-19 is a 'pandemic' manufacturers allow them to - certainly Pfizer, Moderna and AZ - but when the 'pandemic' ends and it's only 'endemic' that discount ends.

[Stonker]

16 hours ago, ctxa said:

Same old story about how evil the big Pharma are because they make billions. 

Do they not have a right make money? Take a look at the death rate during the first wave of COVID infections worldwide and you will see what has been averted with the vaccines... 

Let's suppose for a moment that they could make a COVID vaccine which lasts forever but instead they made it necessary to get booster shots just to make more money (again, this is just a supposition)... What would the problem be with this? Why don't we have light bulbs that last forever when it's clearly possible to build them this way? 

Suddenly the big Pharma have become the devil by supposedly doing things which everyone else has been doing for decades... While in reality the big Pharma have saved a lot of people from being six feet under...

Exactly - the suggestion that "big pharma" is taking advantage of the pandemic is pretty disingenuous - if they don't produce the vaccines, who's going to ?

[Rain]

38 minutes ago, Stonker said:

Exactly - the suggestion that "big pharma" is taking advantage of the pandemic is pretty disingenuous - if they don't produce the vaccines, who's going to ?

Well......wouldn't it be more prudent and responsible of 'em to produce a true/real vaccine instead of marketing a temporary contraceptive measure that's promoted to be so?

[King Cotton]

10 minutes ago, Rain said:

Well......wouldn't it be more prudent and responsible of 'em to produce a true/real vaccine instead of marketing a temporary measure that's promoted to be so?

Is it substantially doubted that the 'big pharma' are NOT producing 'true/real' vaccines, instead of marketing temporary measures that are promoted to be so?

Just asking !

[Stonker]

12 minutes ago, Rain said:

Well......wouldn't it be more prudent and responsible of 'em to produce a true/real vaccine instead of marketing a temporary contraceptive measure that's promoted to be so?

It is a "true / real vaccine" and it met the requirements laid down, which were for protection, not for sterile immunity - reduced transmission wasn't even mentioned as a 'nice to have'.

Of course the vaccines so far aren't perfect, particularly against variants that never existed when the vaccines were made - but do you think it would have been "prudent and responsible" for them not to have released what you see as "a temporary contraceptive measure" when they had it, and to have waited (and kept everyone waiting) until they had something better?

Seriously?

[Rookiescot]

13 minutes ago, Rain said:

Well......wouldn't it be more prudent and responsible of 'em to produce a true/real vaccine instead of marketing a temporary contraceptive measure that's promoted to be so?

Your own immune system does not prevent reinfection. 

[Faz]

A number of off topic posts and replies have been removed.

This topic is not about discussing the effectiveness of vaccines, your posts are in the wrong thread and should be directed to the CCC thread which is for that purpose.

Further such posts will be removed and the members warned.

[Vince]

3 hours ago, Stonker said:

As long as Covid-19 is a 'pandemic' manufacturers allow them to - certainly Pfizer, Moderna and AZ - but when the 'pandemic' ends and it's only 'endemic' that discount ends.

Good point. But then it's just a flu shot at that point, no? If you are high risk you want the pills...

[Stonker]

12 minutes ago, Vince said:

Good point. But then it's just a flu shot at that point, no? If you are high risk you want the pills...

No, absolutely not.

It's still Covid, not 'flu'.

It's got nothing to do with how virulent or dangerous the virus is at all - it's purely and only about the numbers affected and the spread, not the danger.

It's a common mis-conception.

... and while it's a different issue, "the pills" are only effective if administered in the very early stages which is unlikely in many cases.

[Rangers]

I see the usual suspects are taking the news well. 

[Vince]

1 hour ago, Stonker said:

No, absolutely not.

It's still Covid, not 'flu'.

It's got nothing to do with how virulent or dangerous the virus is at all - it's purely and only about the numbers affected and the spread, not the danger.

It's a common mis-conception.

... and while it's a different issue, "the pills" are only effective if administered in the very early stages which is unlikely in many cases.

I think I see your point, but COVID is a novel coronavirus. The coronavirus family includes ... the flu viruses (or vice versa). 

It's the novelty that made COVID so problematic. It's now less novel. 

Without a (high) mortality rate COVID is just a flu variant - cough, fever, etc. 

For the at risk there's a pill - yes, not well deployed or cheap yet and early use required, yes. 

When the Covid has the mortality rate of a normal flu season is there still going to be a concern? 

[Rain]

5 hours ago, Vince said:

I think I see your point, but COVID is a novel coronavirus. The coronavirus family includes ... the flu viruses (or vice versa). 

It's the novelty that made COVID so problematic. It's now less novel. 

Without a (high) mortality rate COVID is just a flu variant - cough, fever, etc. 

For the at risk there's a pill - yes, not well deployed or cheap yet and early use required, yes. 

When the Covid has the mortality rate of a normal flu season is there still going to be a concern? 

Don't look know, but it already does have a comparative mortality rate of any given year influenza - the numbers have been consistent - pre-vaccine and vaccine era. 

[Stonker]

9 hours ago, Vince said:

I think I see your point, but COVID is a novel coronavirus. The coronavirus family includes ... the flu viruses (or vice versa). 

It's the novelty that made COVID so problematic. It's now less novel. 

Without a (high) mortality rate COVID is just a flu variant - cough, fever, etc. 

For the at risk there's a pill - yes, not well deployed or cheap yet and early use required, yes. 

When the Covid has the mortality rate of a normal flu season is there still going to be a concern? 

Sorry, but what you're saying is simply incorrect as what works one way doesn't work the other - it's not "vice-versa".

Just as with colds, some flu's are a corona virus - about 20% of colds are - and all are respiratory viruses, but that doesn't mean that Covid is a flu variant as it isn't.

They're entirely different families.

It's like saying all mice are mammals, so because whales are mammals then whales are a mouse variant.

They're all mammals, just as colds, flu and covid are all respiratory viruses, but they're very different.

[Stonker]

3 hours ago, Rain said:

Don't look know, but it already does have a comparative mortality rate of any given year influenza - the numbers have been consistent - pre-vaccine and vaccine era. 

That's totally untrue.

The mortality rate of flu here has never been remotely near that of Covid, nor has it in most countries.

That's simply misinformation and totally wrong.

There were, for example, 3 (three) flu deaths here in 2020 and the year before that there were 27, with most years averaging around 30 or less.

30 is a long way short of well over 20,000.

https://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/crimecourtscalamity/2020/11/19/2020s-flu-cases-plunge-in-covid-anxious-thailand/