Why we make this call

The provenance marks on every page grade individual facts. This page grades the reasoning instead — a few of Thailand, Covered.’s calls, with what they depend on, what we still don’t know, and the case that would flip them. Nothing here is new content; it’s the same editorial record the book already keeps, made readable before you buy.

Why we don't score the islands

The call: Four separately reported measures — airstrip, medical tier, legs to reach it, ground transport — are placed side by side on one page. No single 1-5 score is given.
What it depends on: The four axes are tracked by different industries that never consult each other (aviation, healthcare, ferry/flight scheduling, local transport) — collapsing them into one number would be our arithmetic, not a reported fact.
What we don’t know: Which axis matters most is a function of YOUR trip — a diver and a family with young kids would reasonably rank the same four islands in opposite order.
What would flip it: Taking a diving certification course flips medical tier to the top of the list: Koh Tao's hyperbaric chamber matters more there than its lack of an airstrip.
What we refused: A single "island safety score." Publishing one would hide exactly the trade-off a reader needs to see, and would go stale the day a clinic adds a doctor.

Last changed: 2026-10-10 — a third-round fact audit found "medical tier" still read as permanent in three places; all three were corrected to say capacity changes over time and should be verified before relying on it.