rabas

I've never understood why it is seen as some sort of a priori truth that China and/or Russia would welcome the failure of the US and/or EU economies. Certainly no one would welcome the collapse of China which is well integrated into and benefits the world economy. Putin's Russia is a different story. Putin's Russia is an economically failed state where a group gangsters sell off national resources to enrich themselves and build doomsday weapons to threaten the world and protect their operation. You do remember the nuclear blast not long before the Ukraine invasion? That was a failed test of Putin's unstoppable nuclear powered dooms day cruise missile. Nuclear rocket not bomb, once turned on it can't be turned off. The Russian 'economy', once the size of Greece, is now closer to that of Chile. Listen to what Yale Professor Sonnenfeld, world expert on the real Russia economy, has to say.

Yes and no. It worked this way. COVID was the greatest shock to the human respiratory pathogen biosphere since the 1918 Spanish flu. It was so bad it nearly eliminated influenza globally. [reference]. Other diseases were also affected. There are multiple factors including reduced exposure, isolation, masks, hand washing, alcohol, and just general caution. It was then predicted that when COVID did subside, many repressed respiratory illnesses could rebound including increased cases and possibly moderately increased severity. (relevant to this thread) The main reason was that humans were not exposed to things like the flu for two years, in which time our immunity would begin to wane. So yes, there could well be a moderate bump in cases and severity. All very normal. Not related to 5G bat antenna chem trail transmissions. But here is the logical question. If combined measures to suppress COVID were so effective they nearly wiped out influenza, how bad would COVID have been had we done nothing?

Thanks, Do you mean Azithromycin?

I believe it is in Pattaya but I don't know exactly where. Perhaps someone in Pattaya will know.

Found it. The problem. 1. You state you became a nurse to help others in society. 2. Then you regretted it because you did not get treated well by bosses, co workers, patients, and relatives. So you became a nurse because you wanted something from others, but you didn't get it. That is not how selflessly helping others works. The true rewards come from the selflessly part. In your case you just failed to negotiate a deal on your terms.

Lincomycin is almost the same as Clindamycin, one atom different. Clindamycin is somewhat improved while Lincomycin is often used for injections. If it worked that well for you, you probably didn't have whooping cough, which is a gram negative bacteria. Neither Lincomycin nor Clindamycin work well on many gram negative aerobic bacteria, so the say. I'm just reporting what I am reading. Someone suggested just go see a doctor, which is often very good advice. With good background knowledge I find studying first often makes for a better doctor's visit if necessary. But it's not for everyone. A doctor's visit is highly recommended before taking strong antibiotics that you are not familiar with.

one reference 16 Feb 2024 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/england-and-wales-in-whooping-cough-epidemic-experts-warn/

Not a lot of L's to go from, likely ones might be: Lincomycin (relative of Clindamycin) Levofloxacin Lomefloxacin

Agree but do you know what the shot was?

Thanks and thanks. That's why I a started the thread, I want to know what it is and how to fight it. My niece was given Amoxy-Clavulanic acid, often a good choice for tough bacteria, but it's not clear how much better she is. There are two reasons AmoxyClav may not work, it's not a bacteria or it can't fight the bug.

Thank you for a relevant comment! So it does seem widespread. Almost certainly a pathogen.

Sorry, to old to be relevant.

Agree. Also, some but not all forms of air pollution may contribute somewhat to the transmission of existing pathogens, most likely viral. However, pollution on its own can not cause pathogenic illness. I am looking for causes and hopefully the pathogen.

Thanks, yes that sounds just like it.

Two immediate family members including my wife got sick about a week ago with a respiratory illness mostly localized to the throat. Symptoms include troublesome persistent coughing, a moderate sore throat, and little nasal involvement. I'm told there is a lot going around up country in parts of Buriram where we have relatives. I have little input from elsewhere. Has anyone heard of something like this? Is something going around? Any thoughts on if it is viral or bacterial? I'm all too aware of Thailand's air pollution issues but symptoms, locale, and timing seem the rule that out. Many thanks.

Last line from your referenced article. "Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, has ruled Gaza since splitting with the Palestinian Authority (PA) in 2007. The PA exercises limited governance in the West Bank." There's the problem with much of your argument.

I gave no answer but did provide reasons why I and most unbiased people can't. How did you miss all that?

Bad faith comparison. Seeks to establish a false equivalence between disparate entities using a binary view of something with a great degree of variability. Kind of like did you ever lie? So your as bad as Putin. Common tactic in support of hard line terrorists.

Where you're here long enough you may realize that Thai's social distinction between Thai and people from developed Western countries (farang) has a natural historical basis going back to Rama 4 or before. It is not negative by nature and can often be a term of respect or honor. Of course it depends on the person and situation. I'm usually treated quite respectably. But yeah, I don't go running over other people.

Where did I say anything about Russians and Ukrainians being 'different'? TBH you seem to be expressing your own anti West rhetoric rather than addressing my post. We have a few like that here. And yes, I've been to both as far back as the informative cold war. Grew up in cold war Europe and have lifelong very close Russian friends, some I've worked with for decades and still do. My views come from history and Russians. (Don't have a current Ukraine friend but my first wife was Lithuanian if that helps.) Short form: Ukrainians good, Russians good, Putin worse than it gets, and no the West didn't make Putin do all his evil things. And no, most Russians don't like him. If you think so, your'e likely suffering Putin propaganda.

Your assessments are reasonable and I can't argue against either, though I'm a bit more optimistic and like to take the side of Russian citizens. Putin is not without weakness particularly after his Ukraine blunder. Prigozhin would not have gotten so far if he wasn't. Of course, Prigozhin is now dead as Putin doesn't mind blowing innocent people like pilots and stewardesses out of the sky. You're right that there is no quick fix but I don't think Russians need or necessarily want a full Western liberal democracy. Just governance that cares about citizens and develops the economy. Even China can develop its economy. Neither the USSR or Putin ever tried. Nor did they try to develop good relations with the world. But we always come back to he same bottom line, Vladimir Putin is the most hellacious mess the world has seen in a century. Allowing him to get his way in Ukraine is not an option. If we do, the next war will be 10X more costly.

Withdrawing to legally agreed on borders would be the right thing, wouldn't it? Note, any reasonable Russian head of state, other than Putin's mafia, would have spent the last 20 years building Russia's economy and better relations with neighbors. Then Crimea wouldn't be an issue. Russia and Ukraine could use Crimea for mutual defense and benefit. Russia could even become a normal country mutually benefiting the world and its own citizens.

I don't disagree with your analysis of Budanov's motives. I assumed he views Navalny as a distraction from more noble causes. Keeping his name and his wife out of politics in case Putin loses his grip on power makes sense.

"Well it's true continuing this war is just condemning 100s or thousands of young men on both sides to their slaughter. " Got that right. Putin can end it any day of the week he wants. End of story. Meanwhile back at the Black Sea, Russia continues losing its mighty navy to a country without one along with many embarrassing defeats as Putin's undefeatable weapons goes down to superior western technology. I doubt defeating Russia is the goal, just Putin. Russian generals must be very weary watching their heavy strategic losses and their reputation sink with their ships. It was reported that Russian Military Headquarters recently discovered a spy camera, which they turned over to police to investigate. The police gave it to Putin's FSB who said it was theirs. Such is the love between Putin and his military. The military is proud of their history defending the homeland and want nothing to do with Putin's bloody war of conquest.

"It's everywhere, I saw it on the internet", he said. You so far have proven nothing. Maybe a good time to remember the wise words of Richard Feynman: “It does not matter who you are, or how smart you are, or what title you have, or how many of you there are, and certainly not how many papers your side has published, if your prediction is wrong then your hypothesis is wrong. Period.” There is no quantitative proof, even reliable data, to suggest the vaccines benefits did not far out weigh low levels of side effects, many of which are due to the virus SARS-2 not mRNA technology. [ref1,ref2,ref3] Ref3: "heart, kidney, liver, brain, and gastrointestinal tract." Richard Feynman was a master contrarian but I admire him because he was laser focused on truth.