OPINION

Give bin men jabs

A disgraceful but commonplace sight all over Bangkok has long been that of our trash collectors doing a dirty job without adequate uniforms. Covid has now made their job even more risky.

These lowly but essential workers are exposed to as much risk (maybe more) as front-line medical workers and should be provided with Covid jabs and full protective equipment with the utmost urgency.

Re: "Time to tune out", (PostBag, July 31).

Kudos to the highly professional article by Dr Nantakan Wongkasem. I never read a so clearly and easily understandable scientific article about electromagnetic pollution like this one.

It highlights the reality about the electromagnetic pollution with clear scientific data and contradicts the many reports that the electromagnetic waves are harmless. I received a new fibre high-speed modem, but I told the technician to deactivate the 5G function with the no.5 antennas. I am very happy with the already excellent speed of 4G.

Re: "Covid stats missing", (PostBag, Aug 5).

I was shocked with the complaint that the "daily count of cases and deaths in Thailand is important information and should be placed in some consistent and relatively easy to find place every day". Really?

I wonder if the same reader has an interest in any of the following questions?

1) What is the daily count of the number of people who have recovered from this terrible sickness?

2) What is the number of frontline doctors, nurses, ambulance crews and others taking care of Covid-stricken victims?

3) What is the number of volunteers who are providing food and clean water to those living in Covid infested areas?

4) What is the number of temples and monks who are daily cremating large numbers of infected corpses?

5) Did the same reader have a similar interest in the number of road accident fatalities which -- before lockdowns and inter provincial travel bans were imposed -- averaged 56 per day?

6) Is the reader in any way helping the infirm, the elderly and other high risk people who must put themselves at an even greater risk by having to leave their homes to shop for food and other necessities?

My guess is that the answer to all these questions would be a resounding "No!"

Anyway, the reader was asking for the impossible: For how can any daily newspaper give accurate up-to-date figures on a continually changing situation? That is what Thailand's Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) does best; and they have a website providing this information.

A better question would surely be, "How can I best be of help during this current crisis?"

As the Buddha said, "In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you."

Re: "Public reassured supplies aplenty", (Business, Aug 3).

Now I have got up from the floor after laughing very hard. The author should actually go to a supermarket and try to do some normal, weekly, food buying. Last Sunday I went to my usual supermarkets to buy my usual food items and this is what I encountered.

Store #1 increased its empty shelf space in virtually every aisle (only the candy and snack aisles were fully stocked). No chicken broth for months now, no large ketchup bottles, no canned tomato sauce, no bananas except for a few well past their use by date, no local vinegar, no large or jumbo eggs, hardly any 2-litre containers of milk -- except those due to expire the next day. Had to ask for ground beef since there was nothing in the display case.

Store #2 where I normally buy my chicken and pork had absolutely no chicken at all -- not even a tail feather. Told supplies haven't been delivered, but looking at the trays where the chicken is normally kept deliveries have been missing for days since there was nothing but pork on display. Also, no large or jumbo eggs -- only golf ball size ones in 30-piece trays. No fresh ginger and limited amounts of loose onions, most of which showed damage. Tomatoes very small, unripe and not worth buying. There were no 2-litre containers of milk -- only 4- and 5-litre containers spread out the length of the shelf.

Store #3 where I go only if desperate had some eggs that I could use and I bought both of them.

My wife just got off of the phone with her friend who told her that she went to a food wholesaler also in our area and that she also found many food shortages. So again, the author should actually verify the facts before he makes outlandish statements. Virtually everything I purchase is locally produced, so why the shortages?

Our Phuket Sandbox restrictions are unnecessarily redundant and should be loosened. For example, all arrivals have been fully vaccinated and tested negative, and Phuket' has achieved herd immunity. So, test arrivals on landing using rapid antigen tests (results known in 30 minutes); if negative, they may go anywhere they wish; if positive, they're quarantined. Retest them twice a week, using rapid antigen tests (the same testing frequency used by the UK National Health Service for its population). They may travel at will within any province that's achieved herd immunity.

Ventilation, aided by masking, is key to fending off Covid-19. Air flights worldwide are often crowded -- but with no clusters resulting, because everybody stays masked and ventilation in flight is excellent. No clusters have resulted from the recent outdoor anti-government protests, here or elsewhere, and of the 299 Covid-related cases at the Tokyo Olympics thus far, very few athletes have been infected despite the very close quarters required for some sports and no masking possible -- probably because of the very airy, well-ventilated areas.

Thus, outdoors, we should allow most activities -- with no need to mask.

Indoors is a different matter. We should proceed very cautiously, ensuring that markets, shops, etc have adequate ventilation (perhaps using exhaust fans, social distancing and transparent barriers and restricting numbers of patrons). We should have indoor masking, except when everyone in a room is from the same household.

The Phuket Sandbox seems to be working; let's help it work.

My Thai wife has owned a Western-style pub and restaurant in the lower Sukhumvit area for 18-plus years. She caters to all, from expats to Thais including families. During the first wave in March-April of 2020 when she was ordered closed by the government, she, along with friends and what she calls the pubs family, using her pub kitchen provided over 16,000 meals to people, any and all, no questions asked, out in the heat on Sukhumvit and Soi 7. It was our honour and pleasure to help so many people.

Today, my wife's pub and restaurant, along with those of all of her friends and colleagues, remain closed for the seventh of eight months in 2021. Around her, 90%-plus of the businesses, all owned by Thais who she has become friends with, have had to give up, or even close for good. Most are losing everything they had trying to make a living and survive. And none have seen a "penny" or baht of help.

Yesterday, while driving past on Sukhumvit, I was shocked and mad as can be, to see the construction site on the corner of Sukhumvit and Soi 7 fully open and operating, with workers coming in and out freely.

I then saw the same across at the construction site on corner of Soi 6, and as I continued down Sukhumvit, saw the same at many construction sites, wide open with workers freely coming and going. And I saw police watching and doing nothing.

Where is the justice here? While not a single cluster or tracing has been shown to have come from a true restaurant or pub (don't even try to classify the Thong Lor special hi-so clubs as restaurants or pubs) while hundreds, if not thousands of positive people have and continue to test positive from the supposedly closed construction sites.

And this government continues to say all is fair and everyone is treated the same. So why do we have to continue to watch our friends and families lose everything they have, while we get to watch, as usual, this government bow to their friends and fellow hi-so wealthy oligarchs.

Let the regular people have the same rights. Open the restaurants like my wife's. Do what is right and fair.

Oops, I'm talking about Thailand's government.

Are there many out there who like me that feel that their brains are being besieged and mashed by the daily Covid infection and death figures? It's got to the point where I just take a cursory look at them. It's hardly new news. It just spells doom and gloom. An ostrich? Maybe. Let's stick to the repeatedly published infection preventive measures and try to lead a new normal life. Other than that there is not much else one can do other than hope vaccines will be available and used on everyone.