OPINION

Govt refuses to talk

Re: "No 'peace and order' at all", (Editorial, Oct 14).

The destruction of the political party that young people voted for has caused the removal of debate from parliament to the street. This is the "order" that Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha created and there was plenty of it. All relevant institutions packed with his friends and cohorts committed to the orders he gave them. But peace is not created by arrest, bans, detentions and prison sentences. Discussions are needed but the traditional establishment figures are determined never to talk about certain issues.

It's great at the top

Re: "THAI offers leave, early retirement", (BP, Oct 12).

The president of Thai Airways has reported that about 80% of THAI's 19,000 employees have voluntarily cut their salaries or agreed to unpaid leave. In most instances, when a business is struggling to survive, its leadership will demonstrate solidarity with staff by holding the line on their own bonuses and promotions, or even accepting pay cuts.

Instead, THAI executives have exposed their complete disregard for the company's rank-and-file employees -- adding insult to injury by rewarding themselves for the deplorable management they have conducted in recent times. They seem only too eager to milk the company for all the personal gain they can -- for as long as possible -- with no consideration for the future of the distressed company or its employees.

This is alarming

My letter of Oct 10 suggests what might happen if herd immunity is sought by fully opening the country. The figure of 1.4% was an assumption based on what has happened so far. It does not assume equal risk among all age groups; some groups may suffer very high mortality rates, others low rates.

In March, the World Health Organization (WHO) said: "The mortality rate for Covid-19 is 3.4% globally, higher than previous estimates of about 2%." This was at a time when, in many countries, little was done to contain Covid. In August, Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's top epidemiologist on Covid-19, said: "Several studies estimate the mortality rate of the novel coronavirus at 0.6%."

This at a time when many countries had implemented lockdowns. The US has an death rate per infection of 2.7% and a rate of 4% for closed cases, that is those with an outcome of either recovered or dead. Jack may think that my letter was "alarmist scaremongering" and that Thailand has taken "panic measures" with "draconian lockdowns". So should we throw the doors open and just sit back to see what happens?

Open the borders

Regarding continued Thai border closures on Covid-19 fears, the facts now clearly show mortality rates keep going down across the board on the virus, which the mainstream press does not report enough on. There is now less need to fanatically keep borders shut.