Thailand has been very fortunate in the grand scheme of things as far as Covid is concerned. There was very little loss of life here and if we are being honest, almost all of those deaths were people who were in pretty rough shape already and a strong breeze might have offed them.
Some would say that the lockdown was too extreme and caused tremendous financial strain and has resulted and continues to result in massive unemployment that is not going to recover any time soon. The people are starting to get very frustrated about the fact that there is likely no end in sight for the foreseeable future and this is going to have a much higher impact on this country, since upwards of 20% of their overall Gross Domestic Products is dependent on tourism and foreign investment that simply isn't going to happen as long as the country keeps its borders closed
Recently in the city of Rayong, an entire shopping mall was shut down for two days because a single person suspected of being Covid positive was shopping there. They closed the mall, tested all of the staff for the virus (all returned with negative results) and then disinfected the entire mall. When the mall opened back up a few days later, almost no one went there.
Does this all seem a bit crazy to you? Because it does to me.
How long is this country going to have this sort of over-reaction anytime someone is suspected of having Covid and going to a public place? Will this start to be a weapon that businesses use to harm competing businesses? Are we seriously going to close down large businesses every single time there is some suspicion of a potentially infected visitor? Are people seriously this afraid of a disease with an incredibly high chance of survival?
I'm not going to get on anyone's case for being cautious or even overly afraid of something that I think has been hyped to a crazy degree by the media but are we really going to shut down anything that even looks like it could possibly have some connection with covid? They sprayed the entire mall with disinfectant. Is that even healthy to be breathing bleach residue?
I think this country is very selectively cautious about certain things and then not at all about others. For example, it is very well known how dangerous the roads are here and how Thailand routinely is in the top 3 in the world for road deaths, yet a large portion of the population refuses to wear helmets or seat-belts despite the fact that they are very aware of this.
The Kingdom of Thailand had 22,000 road fatalities last year and the highest road death rate of any country in the world at nearly 37 people per 100,000 losing their lives in mostly very preventable death situations. Yet the level of precaution taken in this environment never changes. There's only 3 countries in the world that even come close to this per-capita death rate in regards to Covid-19 and there is plenty of speculation about those numbers being padded for political or financial reasons. There is no denying that when your head is smashed on a motorbike and you weren't wearing a helmet, what the cause of death was.
I guess i just don't understand the crazy overreaction to this virus. Is there this level of panic where you live?