richard_smith237

No one has said that there are no adverse effects to be concerned about or aware of with the vaccines. What is being argued is that the ‘adverse effects’ are minimal compared to the number of people who have taken the vaccines. The adverse effects are less than those adverse effects of many suffering covid. Many of the anti-vax arguments concentrate on a single facet, for example; cardio myocarditis... which sounds horrific, its scary and yields an emotional response. However, when ‘bigger picture’ thinking, observation and analysis is taken into account the incidence of vaccine related 'cardio myocarditis’ is significantly less than that induced by Covid, or influenza... and the best one.. from drinking booze... I’ve asked this already... How many of those who are anti-covid vaccine because they are scared of something such as 'cardio myocarditis’ are still perfectly happy to go out and get drunk ??? Vaccines definitely come with some risk... they always have since the beginning of vaccines - VITT for example... people only heard of that with the Covid-19 vaccines, yet it has always been risk associated with vaccines. It is only they hysteria of Anti-vaxxers which has become more prevalent. Some people don’t like being advised, told or forced what to do, they feel their rights have been imposed up. These same people would argue against crisps (potato chips) if they were ‘encouraged’ (advised, told or forced) to eat a packet by authorities / government. There is a risk of severe side effects from all vaccines - just look up any vaccine and their associated risks. There is a risk associated with putting any foreign body in our bodies. All of this discussion seems to miss balance.

Plenty of perfectly healthy people suffered from covid.... the healthy are at less risk than those in high risk groups, but they are not free of risk.

I don’t think they should be ignored... But the information should be presenting in balance with the risks of not taking the vaccine. A lot of the information is being presented from the perspective of Vaccine vs no covid... and that is an imbalanced perspective, as those who suffer covid may be at greater risk of complicates as a result of their illness than the vaccines.

Before Covid-19 VAERS was widely unknown by the public who now may be contributing far more the system. Of course VAERS reporting for Guillain-Barré syndrome is going to be low, there is no known or suspected relationship between Guillain-Barré syndrome and vaccines. IF someone comes into an emergency room with GB symptoms, are the doctors going to file a VAERS report ? I suppose they may if the patient announced that they have recently receive the vaccine - however the incidence of GB syndrome is so very low I don’t think a valid comparison can be made with VAERS reporting for the Covid vaccines.

I never said VAERS was invalid, I highlighted that the data is being used incorrectly by specific forum members.

About 6 or 7 years ago I was consulting and the contract completed. I thought I’d have to hand in the WP and leave the country within 7 days... The employer told me not worry about the work permit, they just told me it doesn’t matter, let it run out. I took a month break in the UK. The extension of Stay (based on working) expired a day after I returned. The officer initially attempted to stamp me in for one day !! I objected, got a senior immigration officer involved and was stamped in as normal (under my Thai Elite Visa). Thus: As I understand - IF you are overseas you can just let the Work Permit and Visa run out. When you return, return as normal (on a new visa or visa exempt).

As someone who clearly can identify genuine Olive Oil and recognise that the ‘expert advice’ given on this thread is misinformation... what advice do you have ???

I’ve found a new game... Find the cheapest toaster... 205 baht so far.. + 34 baht delivery.

And of course.... the ‘bait and switch’... A lot of vendors are getting quite tricky..... Lazada lets them get away with it... Search for a toaster - 25 baht... Cheap !!! Click on it... Cheap.. but there is a photo of plug !!!.. Scroll across to the toaster and its 630 baht... The problem of course is having to search through all the BS and chaff of vendors who are trying to be tricky....

When you have a shotgun (or gas gun whatever that it) and a drugged up person with a knife is coming at you... yeah... just shoot them in the leg.... You’ll of course hit your target, they’ll immediately fall over, sober up and remain still and no longer try to attack you... just like they do in the movies !!!....

I had the same thoughts.. The utter enigma that is Thailand..... on one side barbaric death sentence judgements on the other a modern and intelligently balanced outlook toward substances which have traditionally been villainized.. This moderate thinking is excellent - I would love to see this kind of developed thinking impregnate more of Thailand's political sloths.

I think this is what it is all about. No vaccine from Polio to Hepatitis, measles, tetanus etc are 100% risk free.... there is always a risk that an individual could suffer allergies to any of the Stabilisers, Adjuvants, Residual inactivating ingredients, Residual cell culture materials, Residual antibiotics etc etc... and then the antigen itself... And of course, we have this thread, a debate which has developed into the discussion of the risk of contracting myocarditis. This all has to be balanced with the risk of contracting covid and suffering allergies, VITT, myocarditis with the risk of suffering and developing worse illnesses and issues from the virus itself - thus vaccine effectiveness needs to be brought into question. Are the currently available vaccines sufficiently effective against the current strains of Covid-19 to minimise the risk of illness vs risk of side effects from the vaccines ? All this discussion involving the negative impact of the vaccine cannot be held separately from the effectiveness of vaccines and risks of negative impacts of contracting Covid-19 itself. Additionally, perspective is incredibly important. How many people will get drunk, meanwhile that same person is avoiding taking a vaccine because of a statistically proven minute risk of something negative happening ?

When quoting the JAMA article I was well aware that someone would comment on their (ergo my) use of VAERS data... You failed to recognise that even ‘with’ the use of VAERS data, which could be submitted by anyone, that the incidence of myocarditis is incredibly low... 9 reports per 1 million people vaccinated with mRNA vaccines - and that was the point you have missed. I’ll try and make that point again - simple words. IF you take 1 million vaccinated people - the risk of developing myocarditis (according to VAERS) is 9 in 1 million. IF you take 1 million unvaccinated people the risk of contracting Covid-19 and developing myocarditis is higher than 9 in 1 million. All of the people quoting the risk of developing myocarditis after taking an mMRNA vaccine are making that comparison with unvaccinated people who would never contract Covid-19 - that is an unrealistic comparison. Stepping sideways briefly: the risk of developing myocarditis when suffering acute influenza is 10%. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/214982 Thus - all of these people who are so frightened of the mRNA vaccines should be avoiding influenza like... erm.. like the plague !!! The issue with the hysteria surrounding the mRNA vaccines and the myocarditis risk is the utter absence of intelligent balance.

These are the writings of someone who has a complete and utter disconnect with reality. Read Chalawan’s post - it makes a lot of sense where as your comment is simply virtue singling from an ivy tower... Did you ever have a beer ?? no one forced you right ?... sometimes these drugs (tobacco, alcohol, meth etc) get hold of people...

Special forces…. ???? Even Pattaya bar-stoolers can’t stretch it that far !!!

No... the ‘I know someone’ argument is anecdotal... https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2788346 [Quote Among 192 405 448 persons receiving a total of 354 100 845 mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines during the study period, there were 1991 reports of myocarditis to VAERS and 1626 of these reports met the case definition of myocarditis]. That calculates to 9 in 1 million people reported symptoms of myocarditis. The risk is far higher than that from influenza... the risk is far higher from covid. So.. IF the vaccine prevents or minimises the symptoms pf covid.... it also lowers the risk of someone developing myocarditis. IF comparing the risk of myocarditis in those who have been vaccinated with an mRNA to those who have not been vaccinated can you find enough people who are not vaccinated who will not or have not caught covid ??.... i.e. IF we take a 1,000,000 cross section of unvaccinated people from society - how many catch Covid-19 (any variant) and how many of them develop myocarditis ? less than 9 in a million ??? >> because thats the comparison....

It was a single lane in each direction... so what do you mean lucky for him it was only a scooter ? The SUV had stopped there was no room for a lorry, a truck or another car... The motorcyclist that was following the SUV decided to ride down the gutter to undertake the SUV, this endeavour itself was extremely stupid, what if the SUV was going to turn left ? I do agree, the onus is on each of us to ensure the route is clear... and it was, until another motorcyclist did something stupid.

You realise everyone who has a cold, the flu and yes, Covid, also suffer the risk of suffering myocarditis. Whenever we become unwell and a ‘viral fight’ ensues in our body, our body becomes enflamed... thats the achey feeling we get... this also happens in the heart to some extent. All type of infection can lead to myocarditis... i.e. bacteria, fungus or parasites can lead to myocardial inflammation Look up 'Influenza-myocarditis’... Thus, the singling out of the Covid vaccines as causing myocarditis while avoiding the conversation that many things that can cause the condition is to present an extremely unbalanced and bias view point. Look up Influenza-myocarditis... or Covid Myocarditis.... or Alcohol related... and especially smoking.... Why is it some, or perhaps many of those who are anti-covid vaccine perfectly fine with drinking alcohol ??? The whole picture really should be looked at, but it never is when attempting to distort the balance of common sense with hysteria.

Unfortunately.... sometimes there is no option depending on timing, routing destination.... Or, even the airline we complained about is still the best option !! - Sometimes things go wrong, but they all seem to handle these issues very poorly. We recently had a terrible experience with Emirates are still struggling to get the due compensation (and I won’t give up on principle), but, we have booked with Emirates again as other options are worse still.

Agreed - Qatar Airways are particularly poor for this. I have booked Q-Suites in the past only to be seated in the standard seat after the air craft was changed (Qatar have 3 types of business class seat and and Q-suites are a world apart). Two months ago Qatar Airways changed the time of my DOH-BKK flight. A week before travel it was as scheduled. Two days before I double checked and found that instead of departing at 2am, it departed at 8am - this meant I had an 8 hour lay over instead of a 2 hour layover. I was lucky, I was able to book a ’sleep pod’ in Doha Airport for 6 hours.... But they were busy and I saw people being turned away. The Onyx Airport hotel was already fully booked. I’d been up nearly 24 hrs so would have been quite annoyed had I not been able to book a sleep pod or hotel. --------- I accept that Airlines have issues and can’t always make schedule, however, they perform terribly when something goes wrong. What I particularly object to is: - Its impossible to speak to a person of decision making power to solve complaints or compensation issues. - The atrocious or absent communication (Qatar) - The terrible hotel they put me up in (Turkish) - The response from a ’no reply’ e-mail so its difficult to follow up on a claim (Emirates) - The time it takes from ‘cancelled flight to actually leaving the airport to a hotel’ (Turkish / Emirates - both tool 4 hours of messing around).

Yawn... the ‘gone native’ reply defending any perceived sleight against Thailand is getting boring... Do you try and virtue signal against Thai’s who have the same criticisms ???? Utterly irrelevant and dumb response... what has this go to do with people crossing the road without looking ??? Its your imagination... The op clearly highlighted that the woman was endangering the her life and those of the children by crossing without looking.

I think a lot of this is just face... i.e. the person refuse to even entertain the possibility that they could be the ones doing something wrong... I’ve seen it so many times: Someone turning out of side soi without looking... IF I stop and shout, they look at me with a degree of incredulity that I’d some how be upset with them.... in turn they become upset with me... its just not worth it.. its just different here and we can’t change that, we just have to look out for it and be careful (as the Op did in this case when he was aware they were probably going to cross in front of him without looking) I’ve been in the car stationary at a T-junction.. my car turning left into the main road. A car turning right cuts the corner but is forced to stop as they were going to drive into me... their look implies I am wrong... The amusing part of all this for me is the idiots who pull these stunts are so cock-sure I have to double check that I haven't stuffed up, am in a one-way street or something similar !!..

I do agree that there is an almost absent minded approach to self preservation of many on and around Thailands roads. I too have seen pedestrians walk out into the road without looking, crossing without looking both ways..... and the most common, people walking down the road without a care as to what is behind them.... This same absent minded approach to self preservation can be applied to many of the nations motorcyclists. I suspect its borne somewhat of innocence whereby children and youngsters are simply not taught to consider consequences. ------- There is another facet of this story I want to address. The Op papping his horn at people crossing the road in front him. That is a very quick way to anger people. I’m sure there are many on this forum who if ‘papped at’ while crossing the road are inclined to places a nice big dent on the bonnet (hood) of the offending vehicle.... or if its a motorcyclist tip ‘em over... ... in this scenario pressing the horn is somewhat aggressive and offensive..... I’m not surprised both those crossing and bystanders started shouting - had it been a male the situation may well have escalated.

I think this is part of the issue when riding in Thailand. When we used the roads we are forced to adopt to some of the ‘local techniques’ just to be able to get somewhere. It may actually be safer not following the law to a T because doing so could place us at greater risk. There are many examples of this, but I’ll use one... following the car in-front which is going through the traffic light on Amber (legally we should stop)... We know the car behind us is also trying to ‘push’ to get through the lights, so if we stop we are at risk of that car hitting us. OR, if there is no vehicle immediately behind us and we do stop, we are then first at the lights and positioned vulnerably if a truck of car doesn’t see the lights (i.e. has break failure !).... So... what do we do ?... we follow the car in front going through on Amber, or maybe even red... Why? its safer... But then we have the other motorcyclists waiting for the green light... Some will count down or even predict the lights and go early.... then there is a risk of collision... Who is in the wrong ?.... Both of course - but thats the chance. In the case of the OP.... he was permitted right of way by the SUV... the lady undertook the SUV. Lady was in the wrong... its not really a grey area as described above.

And then some ayhole drives into the back of you because you are stopped in the road waiting to turn... Its sometimes better to deal with whats in front of you than what may or may not be behind you. With the benefit of 20:20 hind-sight - the Op turned in front of the SUV which gave way to him which is fine... the Op should have ‘also’ slowed right down to check nothing was squeezing up the inside (left side) of the SUV. This is an issue with drivers / riders in Thailand - a major unwillingness to slow, slop or give way. We see this at so many pedestrian crossings, junctions, traffic lights etc... Cars stop when others want to accelerate through. We see it at crossings when one vehicle has stopped and motorcyclists scream through the middle without any idea or consideration as to why the car stopped.