Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting.
blahblah777 wrote: "How did delta get to Thailand in the first place when they were so strict with testing and ASQ?"
I'm not a virologist, but my understanding is that viruses mutate constantly to aid replication. They just do. COVID-19 has mutated thousands of times already, just like flu viruses. When you get a flu shot (which is a good practice BTW), it contains killed-virus samples of the most-prevalent flu viruses around at the time. It's a best-guess type of thing. Many medical decisions are simply guesses based on science, observation, and whatever tools we have at the moment.
Viruses need hosts to mutate. And they need a suitable environment for transmission. During the winter season, some flu viruses simply died off because general populations protecting themselves against COVID practiced basic hygiene: distancing, masks, hand-washing. The flu viruses couldn't infect enough hosts, so they...became extinct.
The only variants we hear about are the rare " psuccess stories" like Delta. We know about that one because it's more contagious. It's taken root in places like Taiwan and Australia that sealed their borders early. Here in Thailand, a single employee of the now-notorious Krystal Club went to a concert in Hua Hin and turned it into a superspreader event. At least 26 people were infected in that one instance.
So the answer is: viruses increase their contagion with successful mutations. How to stop said mutations? Reduce the number of hosts. Vaccination is the best way to do this as far as we humans are concerned.
Thanks for the tips--fiwfans is up again, as is dek-sideline. It's roughly the same talent pool and I don't think ever goes away, but circumstances are not ideal. Anyway, let me see what I can manage.
JtB
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