A different strategy
Re: “Shots off target,” (PostBag, July 20). The always good-hearted Khun Burin
Kantabutra writes, “Prayut/Anutin did an excellent job fighting off the first wave, but have lost their way”. Alas, good-heartedness is not what is required to understand what to do in a crisis. The government is doing the same as they did when the pandemic began plus they have added vaccinations into the mix. Results should be better, right? But clearly they are not. It is not just Thailand that is suffering.
A third wave of infections is well under way in Israel, the US and the UK, three of the nations with the highest vaccination rates, severe restrictions on public behaviour and mask mandates. Yet a good-hearted trusting public imagine these measures will work and just need to be enforced more strongly.
A blind reliance on something which is ineffective, has proven ineffective multiple times, and continues to demonstrate ineffectiveness is the definition of mass hysteria via selective amnesia. This collective behaviour of the public when combined with the propaganda, censorship and control wielded by the government only perpetuates suffering and prevents necessary measures from being implemented.
It is extremely obvious that drastic changes from the present scheme must be enacted immediately. Treatment, rather than exclusive reliance on scarce and not-so-effective vaccinations and insufficient and unreliable PCR and rapid home testing, is necessary. Preventive measures such as mass free administration of Vitamin D3 and ivermectin will reduce suffering immeasurably. Proven treatment protocols, (which are not approved or being used in Thailand) will reduce death and suffering to a large extent. These measures are the least expensive yet most effective options available to us.
Why not become truly expert in treating Covid on a national scale, something doctors are taught to do, (as opposed to being jabber puppets)? This message is, in short, “Wake up and do something different” for the sake of others. MICHAEL SETTER