Reader question: Why close everything for 55 deaths?

What effect could all these measures have had in the slums in Bangkok where the houses are small and everyone lives close together?
A single person with the virus should infect the entire neighborhood.
Something is wrong with this virus.

You apparently do not realize, just like the Thai government, that Chinese tourists contribute little to the economy, travel is booked and paid for in China, travel is done by Chinese bus companies, they stay in Chinese-owned hotels where they stay on an all-in basis .
The Thai government has learned nothing from the Russian debacle, half of the condos in Pattaya are empty and / or for sale. But according to the government, everything is going well 🙂 The Thai farmer bank (of the Thai government) is almost bankrupt. Thai Airways is a bottomless pit, thanks to the government. Nothing comes of all the promised investments for lack of money. So we just say that there are only 55 deaths in Thailand, sorry but the time that I still believed in Fairytales is over long gone.

Emily,

Even if no ban had been imposed on tourists from Europe, etc., tourists would not have come (due to lockdown in their own country). The same applies to export: it was already lagging behind and was not improved by corona measures in the field of transport.
The cap brigade may not always make decisions in the interest of the country and people, but they can do little about corona either.

The sum of what would have happened if no measures had been taken is very simple.
The study by the Englishman Neil Ferguson et al. of March 16 is 18 pages long and well worth reading for those who are really interested. The English policy, which started too late, is based on it.
They predicted 0,5 million deaths in the UK and 2,2 million deaths in the USA without measures. That translated to the world population means an order of magnitude of 70 million deaths.

Very briefly it goes as follows. Infection number around 3, as long as it remains well above 1, the number of infected people will grow quite quickly. Growth will stop when around 70% of people are no longer infected, i.e. around 5 billion. The mortality rate is now estimated at 1.4%, so 70 million and unimaginable chaos throughout the world, both emotionally and economically.
And whether there are 30 or 100 million is not so important for the conclusion, which reads:
Measures are inevitable.
The way in which, the extent to which, the duration of which, experts and governments may ponder. If you read newspapers such as the Volkskrant and NRC, you can get an impression of the complexity of the choices that have to be made.

I find some of the opinions I read a bit short-sighted.

As has often been said: the vast majority get it and notice nothing or very little and are not bothered by it at all. Point. And this point is also what this topic is about, namely for those few people who are sick and a handful of infections per day in Thailand flatten the entire economy with 10 million unemployed. And these are not unemployed people that we pamper in the Netherlands, but people without money and income. Read in the news that in Italy (in the poor south) 700.000 people are already going hungry because of the Covid misery. I also read in the NRC that 130.000 additional people will face hunger because of Covid. I would also like a report on the millions of people who do not get enough to eat and therefore have no energy every day, are weak and die prematurely (these are often children). And for your information (from UN): before the Covid era, 24.000 people died of hunger per day and this could be solved by providing an extra contribution of 11 billion per year. Compare that to the billions that are now gone.

I broadly agree with your argument. What is happening now is that measures have been taken worldwide, based on unreliable figures and assumptions. Even the death figures are not accurate. I lost my only sister completely unexpectedly last year. In a country like the Netherlands you would expect that a cause of death could be determined, but nothing. Despite repeated insistence from the relatives, no plausible explanation has been issued six months later. And now all the deaths are said to be due to a previously unknown disease? So I personally don't believe it. And now you hear a lot of people downplaying the flu. Flu? I can say from my own experience that it is an almost annual battle against the flu virus. And one day the virus will win the battle, or I'll leave because of something else. So be it, it's part of life. There is also no causal link between measures and a reduction in the consequences of the virus. That simply cannot be proven. And I actually think that if you observe the normal caution, which I was taught from home, sneezing into your handkerchief, washing your hands, staying at home if you are sick, that is sufficient. Just like with the climate, humanity thinks they can influence a natural process, but they will never be able to influence it. Viruses will continue to come and go and the Earth will continue to evolve. It is still a young planet, in puberty actually. It has yet to take its final form and that includes climate changes and natural disasters. Perhaps in a few centuries, when more inventions have been made and man will know himself better. And above all, he will know his place in creation. And despite all this, hardly anyone dies too early or too late. And it is not by chance that too many are born. The earth monitors this process. Look what happens after a war. Then more men will be born (baby boomers, for example). I think the worst thing is that ordinary working people (not capitalist investors, but people who often try to sell their own fresh products) who depend on their daily work for their daily bread now have to sit still, worldwide. In addition, in Thailand many of these people are dependent on tourism, the gates of which are not expected to open wide again (unfortunately). It is hoped that politicians will one day land their feet back on the ground and do what they have to do. Ensuring that people can achieve a dignified existence through work. And that the media should stop with this disproportionate sensational reporting on just one subject. And what is most important to get through such a hype is the confidence that life does not end with physical death. It is not without reason that people say that he or she has given up the ghost. And so it is.

So if you do not test, you have no official deaths. I think there are more than 2 zeros missing from the real number of covid deaths in Thailand.

Let me give an example.
Suppose there is a major economic crisis that spreads all over the world via China. To prevent worse and collapse of the entire system, most countries prohibit the payment of salaries and other benefits (such as pensions); otherwise even more companies and institutions will collapse. The companies where employees want to work without payment remain open. The rest close the doors. The population is being urged to move en masse to the countryside and to live with family and friends who can take care of their own food supply as much as possible. There is a threat of a shortage of food (not to mention alcohol) but also of accessibility because many markets and supermarkets are closing. Doctors are screaming bloody murder because part of the population (first the weak) are in danger of dying of malnutrition. The economists, the only advisers to the government, don't care. They hold the view that if the economy goes to hell, there will be no one left to eat. No income is a severe measure, but there is no escaping it. And it may take a while, because a second economic crisis can easily follow the first if there are people who still get money.
Would we take this?