Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, well it might not even suggest; it might be difficult to glean what we are going for in this video from the title. Long story short, “Credit where Credit is due”, what I am saying here is I think some folks have thought I have been a little bit critical of policy thinking over the last six or eight weeks on this channel and I think that is maybe an accurate assessment or an accurate description of how I felt. Now I have been careful to be clear that I am not really interested in the blame game. I really think that is just a terrible waste of time; it doesn't get anything done; it just results in a lot of issues. At the same time, I do think positive reinforcement is a very good thing in the sense that it just kind of the notion of “credit where credit is due”. What am I talking about here? 

Specifically in a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: CCSA to Debate Reopening Plan. Quoting directly: "The Government's plan to reopen the country before the end of the year is seemingly still on track as Thailand's COVID-19 outbreak is showing signs of slowing down." Quoting further: "In light of this, the National Communicable Disease Committee will ask the CCSA to consider reopening some areas of the country in line with the pledge made in June by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha to do so in 120 days." And then we are quoting directly and this is from Opas Karnkawinpong, "We will now have to learn to live with COVID-19 with the knowledge that COVID-19 will be an endemic disease confined to a particular country, Dr. Opas said." By confined, I think it is not contained; it has gotten out in the country and it is running loose if you will. The reason for this video is, when I saw that usage of the term "endemic disease" we have been talking about that for some months now, it has definitely been at least eight weeks on this channel about for example Singapore started using this terminology saying look this is an “endemic disease” as opposed to a "pandemic disease" insofar as containment measures were being used but Singapore started talking about "hey that is probably not going to work now, we need to start shifting our paradigm and looking at dealing with this in a different way most notably so that economically we can get things at least economically back on track with an eye toward getting things fully back on track after we put this thing behind us". 

Long story short and the reason for the video, “credit where credit is due”. It looks like policy makers here in Thailand have started taking another look at the overall paradigm that they have had especially in the last few months, again this is not a blame thing, it takes in my opinion real Integrity to self-assess and look at oneself; look at one's policies to determine whether or not they are working, whether or not they are achieving their goal and in the case of folks that are working in the Government, whether or not they are helping society as a whole. As we have noted in other videos, there really does need to be a cost benefit analysis especially with these lockdowns which are just devastating to the economy which we know for a fact. They are devastating to the economy. 

Now whether or not they have any benefit, I think reasonable people can disagree and in fact I think there is a lot of evidence that at least argues strongly against and I won't come out and say I know the answer for sure, but that perhaps this hasn't been the best methodology of dealing with this particular situation. Again this is not about blame. I have mentioned many times, I love the saying in the film Rising Sun, "Fix the problem, not the blame. Find out what is messed up and fix it. That way nobody gets blamed." This looks like policy makers here in Thailand are taking an initiative to that end. Let's just figure out how to get through this as best we can and try to deal with this in such a way that it is best for Thailand and the Thai economy and under that sort of rubric, that change in mindset maybe we will start to see things turn around for the better here and hopefully as I said we can put this behind us. We will definitely keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.