Dogmatix

A 40% positive rate is clearly absurd. Actual daily infections must several times more than reported. Since the official numbers are meaningless, the fact they are rolling over may also be meaningless. A team of Chula academics who set themselves the unviable task of taking samples from sewage in various parts of Bangkok last year found that the virus was continuously present in Bangkok crappers for all the months last year with zero cases. So it was circulating at a low level causing unreported cases and then resurfaced. Just before it resurfaced they detected a massive increase of viral load in the crappers. I imagin the crappers are going beserk now but the lead researcher, who presented at the FCCT said the MoPH showed no interest whatsoever in their project which could be an early warning system for outbreaks. Only Phuket was interested for the sandbox.

Din Daeng seems an unlikely place for a resort, like alone a swanky one.

A friend in Pattaya just tried to book a vaccination through the Intervac website. He says there is a choice of vaccies, probably necessary to stop people stomping out of vaccination centres when offered SV. This is what he reported finding on the website: AZ + AZ = FULL SV + AZ = HALF FULL SV + SV = lots of spots available Pfizer doesn't seem to be on the menu despite the 150,000 doses supposedly reserved for foreigners. Given the lack of demand there seems to be no need to import the additional 12m SV doses, despite the obvious incentives, but perhaps it can be used for at risk farm animals, zoo animals that have not been eaten yet in the tourist drought and domesic pets.

I went for a long time only knowing one person who had died of COVID. Sadly he was in London before the vaccine roll out. Now I am hearing of quite a few in Thailand, including one expat and a 12 year old girl who was an international school student. Also a friend's 37 year old daughter just died of it in Manila. It feels like it is gettting closer. Stay safe all.

He appointed himself COVID czar several months ago. So why does he have to wait for other people to come up with a plan?

Given that the air force was caught sending a letter to the Red Cross demanding Moderna for officers and families and this is the air force hospital, this is highly suspicious.

Presumably ATK tests done by a third party not at home. Those are all unreported. No point in reporting them as they get no help.

Popular Filipino politician Benigno Acquino pictured at Manila Airport during his triumphant return to the Philippines on 2 August 1983 after three years of political self-exile. Like Thaksin he hoped to make a political comeback, taking advantage of Marcos' illness and weaking ;political position, but Marcos had other ideas.

I think what they want is to impose half-hearted lock down measures to make it look like they are doing something without being accused of destroying the economy with a full lock down. This gives them an excuse not to pay unemployment benefits and compensation to businesses. Because they are imposing in partial lock downs, they can also accuse the public of not following the half measures properly and for making COVID worse. They always want a whipping dog and blaming the victims for their misfortune is the line of least resistance.

He said he came up from behind and got her in a choke hold. How would she not resist with someone choking her? It is not as if he stook in front of her and politely gave her the choice of handing over her valuables, which apparently amounted to 300 baht or being murdered.

Not surprising that she resisted and may have panicked. He said she was sitting naked from the waist down and grabbed her in a choke hold from behind. But his confession confirms he was in the presence of his girlfriend and his lawyer, not that an unemployed lawn mower would have a regular lawyer, so the police must have called one in for him to avoid the accusation that he wasn't represented when he confessed. I wonder what the girlfriend was thinking. If there are too many inconsistencies he might be overcome with remorse and take his own life in the cells.

The approval is needed for companies, schools, government deparments etc to be able to impose vaccine mandates on the anti-vax idiots in the US who are putting everyone at risk. They can't force people to take an experimental vaccine. Thailand's anti-vaxxers are also a very significant group but not yet considered a problem while there are shortages.

Hopefully they have got the right man this time. It seems coincidental that it could all be wrapped up so quickly while the police cheif is still in Phuket after the Post reported that he had assigned the same dream team that 'solved' the Koh Tao double murder in 2014, although there has been no further confirmation of this. Initial reports said the accused felt aroused when he spotted the victim, which was the same wording used in the confessions of the 2B in Koh Tao. Now the arousal aspect seems to have been dropped out of the narrative since then, although the initial reports may have been inaccurate as they have not been repeated. Things that would be interesting to have further clarification about to my mind are as follows. 1. "...saw the foreigner, who was naked from the waist down, sitting beside the waterfall..." It is not in the least bit credible that she was sitting naked from the waist down admiring a waterfall, unless she was answering a call of nature but that seems unlikely. It was only about 100 metres from the road. She wouldn't relieve herself in the open next to the waterfall and women doing this in the open will normally not remove their shorts and underwear completely. But the police said they found her body naked from the waist down and there was no mention of finding her underwear at the scene. Could she have been assaulted elesewhere first and the underwear lost at that time? 2. He said he spotted her sitting naked from the waist down and was able to get her in a choke hold from behind, which suggested he approached from behind and she might not even have seen him. He said he saw a backpck near her which he assumed had things of significant value to him in it and implied that was his sole objective. So why didn't he just creep up to her, grab the backpack and run? Did he fear that she would run after him naked from the waist down and overpower him, a former kick boxer. Why did he have to assault her at all? 3. He said he held her in a choke hold until she fell unconscious and didn't intend to murder her. So why didn't he just leave it at that and run off. Why did he have to drag her to the water and leave her face down in the water, if that is what he says happened, and then cover her with a tarpaulin and rocks? 4. It seems remarkable that a tarpaulin had been left so conveniently near by. In the photograph I saw somewhere it looked new and in good condition. Why would someone leave a tarpaulin in good condition there? Why would they bring it there in the first place? If it was used for a picnic or something, the owners would have taken it away with them. Similar tarpaulins have been used for removing and dumping bodies in other crimes. We all know that confessions and DNA tests, which police are allowed to do for themselves without an independent pathologist, are unreliable in Thailand. But given the quick confession and the DNA results to follow, we will probably never get any clarification on the above.

But the 5,000 doses reserved for research will use unusually hi-so guinea pigs. As the 40,000 waiting for new variants, who knows?

He has been known as a sleaze in a business for decades but nevertheless he poked a sensitive spot and got a reaction.

You're kidding me. You mean that no one will face charges of mass murder or genocide?

He has said something sensible for once, although others are saying 90% is necessary for delta. Since Thailand has been polled as having the one of the highets vaccine hesitancy rates in Asia at about 30%, it might be hard to reach that, even if the government is willing to pay for it. But vaccine hesitancy at the moment is only a rich country problem.

Yes, but, even if he spends the full year in Thailand, he still has to pay full Swedish tax on his income arising in Sweden. So, if he has a Swedish pension, rent from property, dividends or interest from brokerage or bank accounts in Sweden, he pays full Swedish tax on them. Same in the UK and other European countries. The only income exempt from Swedish tax would be any income he may have from investments outside Sweden and he may not have any at all.

They all got COVID.

I guess Mrs Dog's friend was just unlucky. Five people in his family who had had their first shots of AZ 3 weeks earlier got sick enough to be hospitalised and one of them died and another was in the ICU. The deceased and the ICU patient had diabetes, but and were overweight even so, it seems a fairly poor record. (Two young unvaccinated kids in the household also had to be hospitalised for good measure.)

If you recall, Big Joke was flying all over the country when he was head of Immigration dealing with things like casinos that had nothing to do with foreigners or Immigration. Apparently his capabilities were too stellar to confine him to his desk at the Immigration Bureau and he was entrusted with many important and delicate tasks that needed his special skills. He was very close to a DPM who allegedly pleaded for lenient punishment when he was caught committing an unmentionable offence which allegedly involved straying into someone else's jurisdiction. I didn't hear anything about the girlfriend but I am sure it was much more important than a that.

This is just what Thailand needs to get back on its feet and finish the excellent job being done over the past 7 years to restore happiness to the Thai people. Revenues from exports of flour would go through the roof. State visits to Australia and other anally retentive farang countries might not be on the cards but who needs them?

Thailand has very high rape and murder rates and most rape survivors don't even bother to report the crime as they know what to expect from Thai police. So how are they going to improve the odds for foreigners, unless they improve the situation for everyone? Just BS for PR purposes.

If there any evidence that it works? I haven't seen any.

One of the issues with central bank digital currencies is whether it will be safer to hold them rather than bank deposits. So, if the Bank of Thailand issues a digital baht guaranteed by the full faith and credit of the Thai government, there will be an unlimited guarantee and banks could be drained of liquidity, especially in times of crisis. No doubt there will be ways to get interest on CBDCs through swaps and buying coin based fixed interest instruments, maybe even relending it to the governmnet. Governments will love the idea that they can trace every transaction you do too. They could probably send you a tax assessment without requiring any filing from you.