Presnock

41 minutes ago, ottoemil said:

Even if you are willing to pay you might still not be able to enrol. This morning at 09:30 am I tried to do this at the Bangkok Hospital in Pattaya but it was already fully booked.

this strange and getting stranger.  we read on TVF for two straight days that this new program for private hospitals was for them to begin accepting prepayment of 3400 baht for two Moderna jabs, which included in what I read was 30 min of nurse observation after the jabs plus insurance to cover any side effects of the jabs.  BUT looking at those comments of people that actually had some contact with private hospitals then I guess this is all a misunderstanding by the hospitals or the private hospitals' association.  The program was to run until 31 July when they would order the number of vaccines "already" paid for and those would be here they said for 1 October 2021 jabbing.  Must just be

another lame-brain idea that someone with no power to follow through to actual fruition.  Good luck to all successful in getting jabs of sinovac.  Friends of my wife indicate that they got their free jabs from the French government already (they are French ex-pats living here) 

13 minutes ago, Guderian said:

Interesting to note that Bangkok Hospital in Pattaya posted the Thai language notice explaining how to order and pay for the Moderna vaccine at least 5 hours before it added the English language version. I wonder how this most-ethical of hospitals would explain that, maybe their English language FB guy was on a 5-hour potty break, though it does explain why very few Pattaya expats were able to make a booking before they ran out.

I personally talked with a what I guess was the nurse at reception as my wife wanted me to talk

with their English speaker in English as whenever I talk to them in Thai she says they obviously don't

understand because what I tell her they tell me never comes to fruition.  This is at Chiang Mai Bangkok Hospital and the date I chatted was 30 June 2021.  I specifically asked about the "new" program about patients paying in advance for Moderna shots.  She said no we have no more vaccines.  I said what don't you understand - the new program says that private Thai hospitals beginning on 1 July until 31 July will accept payment of 3400 baht for 2 shots, nurse care after shots and insurance.  She said oh

that must be at the main Bangkok Hospital in Bangkok because we have no infor on that but many people have been calling asking about it.  DUH?  Anyway I sent a note on TVforum asking if anyone has had any luck with this "new" program and if so at what private hospital - any here in CM?

1 hour ago, thailand49 said:

The first 5 million is sold out it will be used as BOOSTER for all government leaders, family and friends then those who are willing to pay for it.

 

What happen to the 30 million USD given to the Government?  With that money any charge should be much less?????

   In addition to that 30 million USD given to the Thai govt, the US promised easy access to the vaccines this is what I read anyway so where is the problem..I think it is getting easier to see.

I have read for two days, the advisory that the private hospital organization was beginning to accept payment of 3400 baht for two shots of Moderna vaccine beginning 1 July . 

I contacted Bangkok Hospital on 30 June and asked if this were true since their Chiang Mai Hospital is a member of the private hospitals of Thailand. 

They said "we don't have any vaccines right now!"  I then went on to explain exactly why I was calling and then she said "Oh yeah many people have called about that program but you will have to call the main office in Bangkok as we know nothing about this. 

So much for being advised of what is happening here with the covid-19 info and vaccines.  Has anyone tried the other member hospitals in Chiang Mai and had any success that we can go pay our fees for the shots in October (hopefully). 
 

Now I also read that many of the US legislators are asking the President to provide vaccines for Americans overseas. 

I will probably pay for shots if the program exists and that will ensure that free US vaccines will be provided by the US govt immediately with no waiting until later on this year.

That will not break my heart either, just so that I and my family can get a US approved vaccine soon before the next variant makes it useless.

read on TV forum day before that had a link to the Nation article about school closings in the North.  while the TV forum didn't include any schools other than in Petchabun, the link indicated that Sarasot, Monfort and the Chiang Mai Technical college were shut down due to infections. If more, then that is possible too.  My daughters' school is closed for the summer break (Chiang Mai International School).

I haven't heard of any others yet.

Now the spread of vaccinations in the US has dropped almost to a trickle.  In about 15 of the 50 states there is a 70% vaccinated populace whereas in the rest, some only have around 15-20% and those don't seem to want to get vaccinated.  Thus some vaccines must be getting close to being outdated and useless so they should be shipping those overseas.  Thailand has indicated that they have

ordered some of the US vaccines but that they won't arrive until the end of this year (maybe).  I am more than willing to pay for my and my family jabs in Chiang Mai but the Hospital still has not

vaccines available.  I noted that yesterday there was a report of 2 people vaccinated with the

Chinese vaccine are now infected with the virus.  As a note, if you have been following the US

news about the collapsed building, there were many from S. America, some that had come to the

US just to get vaccinated, now they seem to be lost.  I only go out to get food/water, wear my mask

all the time when out of the house, wash my hands often when outside, am healthy and my family

follows the same practices so hopefully we can avoid the virus until such time that we can get needled.  Just hope the variant D+ doesn't zoom into Thailand.  Hope all stay safe and survive this pandemic in a sane manner, unlike some of the news stories.

22 minutes ago, sandyf said:

Because the affluent nations that invested in the vaccine development withheld their support for a waiver on the intellectual property rights. Seven months down the line and they are still arguing the toss.

If it wasn't for Chinese donations many countries wouldn't have had any vaccine till much later, if at all.

 

"As of November 2020, Eswatini, Kenya, Mozambique and Pakistan officially co-sponsored the proposal, which approximately 100 countries have now welcomed or fully supported.³ However, several of the WTO’s larger members, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, the EU, Japan, Norway, Switzerland, the UK and the US had withheld their support. Following the US’s decision to reverse their decision on the proposal, these other countries have come under pressure to lend their support to the temporary waiver also."

 

"In September 2020, Oxfam reported that wealthy nations representing just 13 percent of the world’s population had bought up 51 percent of the promised doses of leading COVID-19 vaccine candidates."

https://www.europeanpharmaceuticalreview.com/article/156412/waiving-covid-19-vaccine-intellectual-property-rights/

21 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

 

I think the only real issues driving on the opposite side of the road are:

1. Looking the wrong way when pulling out onto a not so busy road from a parking lot/side road. 

2. Using the windshield wipers rather than the turn-signals .

 

It was much easier to get used to than I thought it would be...

 

I too thought it would be more difficult to drive on the "wrong" side of the road but after living around the world in many countries that do that, and the fact that most of their vehicles were manual transmissions I found that even that wasn't any problem at all.  As mentioned above, the turn-signals and windshield wipers still (after 50 years) occasionally cause a problem.

while all this is still just dreams and who really knows what will finally come out.  But what I would be the most concerned with seeing what the initial proposals are, is one will be granted a 10-year visa, can own property - what happens after the visa expires?  Will the individual still own the property? would the individual be allowed to sell the property to another foreigner?  Until those are clarified, I

don't think I would consider buying a house or land in Thailand.  Would think that if they can find 

enough "super-rich" people willing to buy the land, I am sure they would want some guarantees.

My opinion anyway.

my foreign insurance company said they will pay for the shot no matter where I get it.  Then yesterday I got a message from the company that they will give me a $50.00USD gift if I get a vaccine shot.  On a different note, the US is now advising people that get the 1st AZ shot, the second shot should be from

pfizer!  Don't know about that.

Muang Thai Life.  I have accident insurance with them which is cheap but I and my family members have had absolutely no problems with any hospital visits and everything taken care of for more than 10 years.  I did have life insurance with them too but decided it wasn't really necessary as my pension will continue with my wife and is more than enough for her to live comfortably the rest of her life.  Life insurance with them and probably any other Thai insurer must be done prior to age 65 and pre-conditions may not be included.

20 hours ago, connda said:

Antivaxxers is a pejorative the purpose of which is to shut down conversation.  I'd wager that most of those who you'd refer to as "antivaxxers" are in fact pro-safety, pro-caution, and have legitimate questions and concerns regarding the EUA vaccines many of which are still in live-trials being rushed and in some cases mandated for the public before being FDA approved and licensed for general use.
Having concerns about safety is not being "antivax" regardless of how you may wish to spin it.

The data is concerning imho but I've taken the time to look at it as have other.  Being concerned about adverse reactions to Covid vaccines does not make one an "antivaxxer" either.

US Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VEARS)
https://vaers.hhs.gov/data.html

UK Yellow Card Vaccine Adverse Reaction Reporting
Summary
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-vaccine-adverse-reactions/coronavirus-vaccine-summary-of-yellow-card-reporting
Detailed
https://coronavirus-yellowcard.mhra.gov.uk/

For those people who do not wish to investigate for themselves and simply accept that Covid-19 vaccines are completely safe, more power to you.  Sign the consent and take the shot. 
Me personally?  I want to see 5 years of study data before even considering an androvirus vector or mRNA vaccine. 
Caution does not make an "antivaxxer."  

In the meantime I wish Peterw42 the best and would like to keep abreast of his experiences as well as others who are stepping up to take the vaccines. 

there was a recent post with the above links - quite a few adverse reactions to the vaccines.  In addition to that was a report from the US that 50% of those that have had Covid-19 still have major health problems from the virus 6 months on.  Just saying.

1 hour ago, Udox said:

As the saying famously goes: 'Money #1'

Well, not that I regularly believe newspaper articles, but I did read that the recent visit by a senior US diplomat resulted in a $30 million USD donation to fight the COVID-19 and access to US vaccines.  Wonder where the money went>

surprised that some private hospitals didn't have the vaccines and were not doing vaccinations?  suggest someone on his staff read the newspapers and let him know what the story is.  I contact Bangkok Hospital daily and they have a notice that they don't have the vaccines and are not vaccinating at this time.  They along with several other hospitals in Chiang Mai are in the same

situation.  I also notice that the govt message for ex-pats to register indicates that currently the only two vaccines they are giving are AstraZeneca and Chinese vaccines and that expats have "no choice" of said vaccines.  My choice is one that the US has approved and is here for sure and I will gladly pay for it!

On 6/6/2021 at 3:36 PM, Raphael Hythlodaeus said:

Same here. In my case I think Zimbabwe would suit me. Beautiful place, nice climate, English speakers, no problem with overseas fund income.

I take it you must be black!  Zimbabwe used to be Rhodesia and change in 1980 with Mugabe becoming president.  White land owners immediately had their properties taken over by the govt and split among blacks.  White bank accounts were frozen and one could not transfer the money outside the country.  It used to be the bread basket for the south sudan area - I had many friends there who had bought lands and retired there - biggest mistake of their lives.  I was in Lusaka for a while and heard many local stories.

2 hours ago, pizzachang said:

I think most retirees spend about this much EVERY YEAR right now!  I know I do.

I spend a lot more than that each and every year.  but then again, as we have noticed over the period of the pandemic and fleeing of tourists plus lockdowns, TAT continues to come up with the strangest and most ridiculous IDEAs that we all know just will not pass muster with the current govt and this only lasts for 10 years and by then who knows how many govts will be in power here and change all the better parts of these dream ideas.  If they would begin by wiping out the 90-day reports, then I really wouldn't have a whole to complain about.  Immigration a half hour once a year and drought conditions changing with the climate but utility bills even with very high temps many months are still much cheaper than in the US.  I don't like the "burning" season at all but am now well used to wearing a mask regularly so that I can suffer through too.  I still love it here and guess I always will.

On 5/31/2021 at 9:02 PM, wasabi said:

I don't think the tones are mythological; they can help clarify meaning, but their distinction in isolation is less helpful than some say as you demonstrated. Another issue is the fact ร ror rua is often pronounced ล law ling. So even if you pronounce the word right using the R sound many from Issan won't recognize it unless you replace it with an l due to "lazy tongues" 

 the biggest problem with most foreign languages and native English speakers is that we "hear" the consonants while many other native language speakers "hear" the vowels.  I have studied more than 10 languages.  As for Thai tones, my daughter (17) listened to my wife and I for her first 4 years in Thai only and then we decided that for a better future she should have English also so from then on I spoke only English to my daughter and Thai wife who spoke no English.  Now my daughter speaks fluently in Thai, English, fully understands and speaks and has taught basic Mandarin in a high school, and has tested the international Korean proficiency test two phases at the III level and has taught some Korean too.  She indicates that Thais can easily learn Chinese because Thais are used to tones and she does really well in Chinese but she says that Chinese can learn Thai and Korean easily but that Koreans have a

difficult time trying to speak Thai and/or Chinese because of the tones.  I myself just speak Thai very quickly and only use what I feel  is the correct tone on specific phrases and have no problems holding a conversation with Thais.  But, many time my wife and daughter catch me and make me pronounce a particular word with the correct tone.  The older one gets the more difficult it is to learn a foreign language.  The US State Dept. foreign language school says the number one indicator on how well an American will do learning a foreign language is the student's college English grade.  I guess one should be fluent in one's native language in order to properly translate.    Sorry it is so long but just thought I would share my experiences with Thai tones.

16 hours ago, SmokeandIce said:

I thought this might be the case.  Many thanks for your input.

Besides having the bank statement of the deposits, and that it is solely your acct letter, I also include the "credit advise" (this is the name by Bangkok Bank) but believe that any bank has the same messages available including my stateside bank.  These are provided monthly and you can get your bank to send them to your email acct each month - they clearly state from what bank where  ever and to which Thai bank the funds were sent.  I also provide the yearly payment by my former office showing that I do get a pension and the amount each month.  Sometimes the IO wants too much documentation so I usually give them a tome to read.  Hope it works out for you.  I have done it this way since they changed a in 2018 and both extensions were done in less than half an hour at immigration.  But, I also do mine at ChiangMai.

6 hours ago, upu2 said:

Probably not as all scenarios have not been fully tested

earlier there is a quite comprehensive test of 4 vaccines in Europe with very many side effects and deaths attributed to the vaccines.  I can't vouch for the accuracy but it looks like they are being transparent with possible side effects.

On 6/3/2021 at 10:33 AM, wwest5829 said:

No, doesn’t sound about right. It sounds more like conspiracy fodder, made up based on not knowing what will happen. Me? I am pushing for Medicare benefits, earned and paid for by civilian employment be extended on the same basis as earned and paid for military benefits. The retired military gets global coverage, Medicare = zip out of US territory.

saw a bit this week that govt says they pay too much to help govt employees and retirees pay for their health insurance especially with the zooming pharma and hospital costs.  Therefore they are trying to come up with a plan to force all govt employees and I guess retirees go 100% Medicare instead of the private insurance companies which I am sure will have those insurance companies screaming as they won't have millions that can afford the same coverage.  I have had the same insurance co for 40+ years and now that I am old, I can only imagine what it will cost me if this comes to fruition since Medicare can only be used in the US, wonder how they will handle all the foreign service people that are stationed overseas and us retirees since that was all part of our retirement package back in the day.  Usually changes to any benefits due in retirement, it begins with the new employees but this is a semi-official benefit I guess.  Hopefully it won't happen for a few years.  I am getting to the age that it would be just about impossible to afford local insurance with the same benefits.  Hmm will definitely consider leaving if this does happen.

We have 2 Siberian Huskies (long haired type) that would prefer cold weather too but if they did not

want to eat then I would have the vet check them quickly as I would assume that they were dead!  If one has cats, they can leave the cat in the house with 2-5 days of food and the cat won't suffer at all as it only eats till it is full while dogs if you did the same might have their stomach explode as they will try to eat all the food a once.  Our dogs eat in the AM and every time anyone goes toward the kitchen they run for their bowls because they think the get to eat again.  They seem hungry all the time!  Just saying.

13 hours ago, BenDeCosta said:

Surely you're joking? I've never met a Thai who wants to even try Indian food. Let's see a photo please.

 

EDIT: sorry I just saw it online. Now need to find an excuse to go to Bangkok.

well if I am not mistaken from what I know, this is known in Thailand as KhawMawkGai and it is sold almost everywhere and locals eat it too!

2 minutes ago, Mike k said:

I am an American and I live in Thailand but I still pay income tax to the US so yes if the US can give vaccines to the south Korean army, Thailand, and other countries then they should be able to provide vaccines to Expats no matter what country they live in 

yeah I pay well over 10 grand of USD a year in taxes to the US, plus I need to maintain a quality health insurance so that even if I get sick here it will cover the total cost with no limits, plus in order to insure that my daughter can get into a US college and proper there I have to pay well over 15K USD a year for proper education.  I am not complaining about the costs of anything here, only that my tax dollars are not being used for me in the scheme of the vaccines.  If China can have the local govt assist them in supplying the Chinese here (I think I saw an estimate of 100K while Americans here are no where near that number so why shouldn't the govt assist).  There is also a regular US assistance in other fields on a yearly basis while a civilian govt is in power due to US laws.