As the coronavirus infections graph continues to climb, it's the Prayut Chan-o-cha government's learning curve that has managed to remain flat.
The trend is worrying. The outbreak is expected to stay with us for a while, possibly up to 18 months according to world health authorities. With the leadership this weak, a state of unravelling is foreseeable. And so many people will get hurt.
The Covid-19 crisis demands a thoughtful, well-organised and coordinated response from the country's leadership. Its contagious nature also calls for inclusive and emphatic policies in which no particular groups are left vulnerable.
The outbreak has laid bare the shortcomings of the Prayut government. A spin-off of the military dictatorship, the coalition has shown that its trademark ultra-conservatism is not suitable for a modern crisis.
Worse, instead of owning up to its shortfalls the government is blaming citizens and letting citizens blame one another.
As Covid-19 spreads, a witch-hunt has followed. Patients, or people suspected of contracting the virus, face stigma and segregation. Communities are bent on taking the law into their own hands as they try to bar people suspected of carrying the disease from coming into their areas.
The discrimination can't be allowed to go on.
What the government, especially Prime Minister Gen Prayut, must learn immediately is that the culture of believing things will be taken care of as soon as the leader gives an order does not work.
The military-style, top-down approach has not been effective during the past five years. And it stopped functioning at all in the face of a complex health crisis that requires comprehensive planning and cooperation from multiple parties.
The chaos at Suvarnabhumi airport on the weekend was the latest case to cement the prognosis.
The government last week asked Thais stranded overseas to delay their trips back until April 15.
The order was apparently given without prior preparation or thought about its consequences. As it turned out, some 158 Thais had obtained all the necessary documentation and boarded their flights to return home before the order was given. However, they landed after it came into effect and were told they were required to undergo a 14-day quarantine at state facilities.
News reports on that night stated that these 158 returnees refused to comply and a commotion erupted.
According to the news, an army general in charge of the situation eventually had to let them go back home to shelter.
The news unleashed public outrage. The 158 returnees were slammed as selfish and irresponsible. PM Gen Prayut called for an urgent meeting and told officials to spare no effort to bring them all to back to state quarantine. Before long, all the returnees' names were publicised, circulated and shamed.
But testimonies from some of the returnees and their relatives suggested the situation might not fit the "selfish travellers" narrative. Many said they were willing to follow the order but had to wait for many hours without knowing how to proceed or where they would be sent for the quarantine.
One said she was finally brought to the navy's facility in Sattahip but told to stay in a room with two strangers which she did not regard as appropriate social distancing.
The navy apologised the next day saying they had not been informed in advance so could not prepare the quarantine facility in time. Later, a video clip was circulated online which showed that the returnees were told by a soldier they could self-quarantine at home.
So there was confusion but probably not total disobedience as suggested by the news. But these people have already been exposed, blamed and shamed by the public.
In retrospect, transition points in the trajectory of Covid-19 infections lie in three events.
First was Lumpinee Boxing Stadium which held a big event against the government's order.
The second upward curve followed City Hall's sudden closure of malls and shops in Bangkok without back-up measures which drove hundreds of thousands of workers back to their home provinces and dispersed infections around the country as a result.
The third was the delayed action in handling people travelling into the country which prompted imported cases and associated ones to jump.
The three negative shifts point to the government's inability to grasp the situation and act in time to cope with it.
As Covid-19 infections continue to rise, it's not enough to play catch-up. The government must overcome a steep learning curve. And it must do it fast.