wadman

14 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

One question which was not asked is if people buy now more in total compared to pre-online times.

Personally, I don't buy more than before. Instead of going to shops I just buy it online.

But I guess there are lots of people who buy now more items and spend more money in total compared to previous times.

I buy roughly the same as before online shopping, maybe a touch more because some products I would not have been able to find before.  I spent less money though, as online shopping is way cheaper.

On 1/17/2022 at 4:12 PM, HexTree said:

You can just go to the right-hand side. I queued for hours with my own 'under consideration' stamp, only to be told to go back out and head to that desk.

I did that on Wednesday, and it is indeed true.  If you have your "under consideration" stamp already, no need to join the long line.  They do require you to accompany your passport with a photocopy of the photo page, and the "under consideration" stamp page now.

I was at the immigration office at:

Wednesday 8:45 am - line was enormously long, didn't quite spill out onto the street but it was close.

Thursday 9:45 am - line was enormously long again

Thursday 2:35 pm - very short line, only 7 people in the line outside.  Inside it was packed.  Risk is, if you get there late in the day, even if you make it inside, the front desk guy might tell you "no more number, come back tomolo"

20 hours ago, jacko45k said:

The right hand side was for 90 day reports previously...... did you get a plastic number? I have used that to get past the queue before, but the grumpy Thai guy tried to stop me. 

I am not there yet, will be there on Wednesday January 19.

10 hours ago, HexTree said:

You can just go to the right-hand side. I queued for hours with my own 'under consideration' stamp, only to be told to go back out and head to that desk.

Thank you for the info.  That is one thing in Thailand that absolutely baffles me: in situations with long lines, there are no clear signs posted as that what each line is for.  Same thing with the Covid vaccine lines at Central Festival mall.

I have my "visa under consideration" already.  When I go to get my actual visa stamp (covid extension), do I have to stand in that loooooong line?  Or can I hand it off to the people on the right-hand side (outside the office), where people come to collect their passports?

Yet another graph highlighting the incredible difference in deaths by age group.

2 age groups (75-84 and 85+) account for 6.9% of the total population, but they account for 55.7% of all deaths.

Children (0-17) account for 22.3% of the population, they account for a miniscule 0.07% of all deaths. (note: the 0.1% in the graph is rounded up from 0.07%, as you can see in my previous graph)

• Share of total COVID-19 deaths by age U.S. 2021 | Statista

10 minutes ago, Danderman123 said:

So you would take the Covid vaccine when it has been around for some time? 

I have had 1 dose already.  I am not in the children's age group.  My point is (and the point of the OP), should children take a fasttracked/rushed vaccine, with their risk of serious illness and death being such a minute percentage of the total?

3 hours ago, Jeffr2 said:

It is good for the kids. And even better for all of us. No reason not to vaccinate children. Even the FDA agrees with that.

Is that for the good of all, or for the good of the kids though?

Take a look at this graph of all covid deaths in the US since the pandemic began, broken down by age groups.

0-17 year olds only had 513 death (out of 712,930).  That's 0.07% of all deaths.

For the next 2 age groups, 18-29: 0.5% of all deaths, and 30-39: 1.6% of all deaths.  Not very high either.  It's the older folks that really get whacked.

I am 50. 

Hypothetically:

 - if my age group had 0.07% of the deaths

 - and the 2 age groups below me had a very low % of deaths

 - and the 2 age groups above me had a very low % of deaths

I would not get vaccinated.

• COVID-19 deaths by age U.S. 2021 | Statista

44 minutes ago, Danderman123 said:

Kids get sick and die from Covid, so vaccination is a good thing.

 

Would you get your kid vaccinated for measles or polio?

Measles and polio vaccines have been around and tested for decades.  Therein lies the difference.

53 minutes ago, Danderman123 said:

Vaccination for children helps to stop the spread of the virus to other people. We’re trying to stop the epidemic, so, stopping the spread is important.

1. Chances of the Corona virus disappearing in 10 years is virtually zero. Most likely it will stay with us for a very long time, or forever. The 1918 Spanish flu is still around (in mutated strains). So this virus will continue to spread, (some) governments have already switched the focus to preventing serious cases/hospitalization instead of preventing spread. 

2. There is the issue of what's good for the collective vs what's good for the individual. Vaccinating kids now (or soon) may be good for humanity overall. But is it good for the kids? 

Question: if you had a young child, would you vaccinate him/her ASAP? I wouldn't. 

2 minutes ago, whiteman said:

I think all the brown paper bags have stopped coming hence they stopping the supply

They are switching from Sinovac to Sinopharm.  The brown envelopes will just be coming from a slightly different source.

8 hours ago, placeholder said:

 

Thanks for your correction. It turns out that. at least in this case, I'm the numerically illiterate party. For what it's worth I misread the last 2 columns as being gross totals rather than rates. I was wrong. Absolutely wrong.

 

Here is a link to an article about the anomaly with suggestions as to why this might be the case.

https://newseu.cgtn.com/news/2021-09-11/COVID-19-vaccines-are-working-but-there-s-one-anomaly-in-UK-data-13rScGoGaxG/index.html

 

That said, obviously this statistic is far less important than hospitalization rates and mortality rates among the vaccinated vs. the unvaccinated. And there, the differences are stark and clear.: it is far more perilous to be unvaccinated than to be vaccinated.

 

 

That link says: "According to the report, 97.7 percent of the UK adult population now have antibodies to COVID-19 from either infection or vaccination."

At that time, the percentage of fully vaccinated was right around 60%.  So 37.7% got their antibodies from infection.  If you are not vaccinated but have the antibodies already, is it still worth it to get vaccinated?

11 hours ago, placeholder said:

Did you bother to look at how those numbers you underline relate to the total pools of vaccinated vs. unvaccinated subjects. In other words the numerator isn't enough. You also have to consider the denominator. Those 2 terms come from an arcane branch of mathematics known as arithmetic.

These reports for the UK, from week 36-39 2021, so very recent.  The 2 dose vaccination rate there was 60.1% at that time.

And if you cared to read the reports of the other weeks, you will find that the infection rates are quite similar to week 36-39.  i.e. that vaccinated and unvaccinated are getting infected are roughly the SAME RATE!  That is very surprising and troubling indeed.  

To be more precise: infection rates are much higher (2-3 times higher) for under 18, and 18-29 age groups.  Infection rates are slightly higher for vaccinated for the other age groups.  Overall it's not all that different, certainly nowhere near the 80-90% efficacy one would expect.

Although if you look at the other tables in the same reports, serious illness and deaths are vastly lower for the vaccinated. 

And just to get back to the OP, the death rate of those under 18 is 0.0 per 100,000 for both vaxxed and unvaxxed.

12 hours ago, John Drake said:

Yes, something there with AZ. I had two shots of Sinovac with few side effects other than some tiredness over three or four days. I received the AZ "booster" on 30 September. Almost three weeks in and I'm still constantly dizzy, tired, and have recurring bouts of nausea. I wish I had never taken the AZ.

22 minutes ago, GroveHillWanderer said:

I had recurring dizziness and nausea after my SinoVac jab for about 3 weeks. It eventually faded away. After I got my second jab (which was AstraZeneca) I had no side effects other than a sore arm.

 

People react differently to different vaccines, but hopefully your dizziness and nausea after AZ will fade, as mine after SinoVac did.

Well, according to some people here, if you still feel the side effects after 3 weeks, then these are "very atypical".  And probably not even due to the vaccine, you are just sick from something else and need to see a doctor...

Note: I have side effects 3 weeks after AZ too, luckily mine are mild. 

23 minutes ago, mommysboy said:

Looks like the standard dosing regime for all vaccines is going to 2 plus one 6 months later.

 

Sinovac is good enough.  It prevents serious illness and death- maybe not as much as AZ though.

The problem with Sinovac and Sinopharm is the lack of transparency of the medical data by the Chinese companies.  If there was one available from western countries (an inactivated vaccine, based on the same technology as flu shots), I would take that instead.

Someone earlier in this thread had already posted about a study on vaccinated people requiring intensive care due to covid: Sinovac 0.011%, Pfizer 0.002%, Astra 0.001%.  Barely a difference.

9 minutes ago, tonray said:

More likely something else than the vaccine after three weeks. After three weeks if you believe it's the vaccine...you should see a doctor as something is terribly wrong out of the ordinary range of symptoms.

3 weeks after AZ I still have some low grade headaches and dizziness. Not terrible, but just enough to be annoying. If I was trucker (which I am not), I probably shouldn't be driving 10 hours a day with it. These type of symptoms are not atypical. 

12 minutes ago, overherebc said:

Only side effect I had was a flair up of my psoriasis. Usually I get a couple of small patches but after my first AZ I got much larger patches with a bit of swelling I've never had before. It was something I had never heard of and a bit of searching showed it's uncommon but is being reported elsewhere and studied.  My usual cream did clear it but it took much longer than usual to do so. Interested to know if anyone else has had a similar experience.

10 hours after my first AZ shot, my body got cold, lasted for about 12 hours. That's a fairly typical experience for AZ. But for me, my feet was the coldest part of my body. To the point, where I turned off the aircon, turned off the fan, and was still cold (and this is in Thailand). Covered my feet with a blanket, put socks on, still cold! Before, my feet were the least coldest part of my body. Usually, when I cover myself with a blanket, my feet stick out from underneath it. 

3 weeks later my feet don't feel as cold, but some of it is still there. The skin on my feet has a dry, slightly wrinkly feeling to it. 

This is in addition to some other side effects. 

3 hours ago, wensiensheng said:

Define “significant”.
 

A bit oftiredness and/or sore arm for a couple of days isn’t significant. Of all the people I know in the UK, Singapore and Thailand, only one had “significant” side effects and that was over in a couple of days. They did feel bad for those two days though.

 

so based on my little study, your statement “AZ and Pfizer likely to result in significant side effects,” is entirely false.

 

agreed, sinovac seems even less likely to have significant side effects, but don’t play up what isn’t there on the others.

First, you say that AZ and Pfizer aren't likely to have significant side effects. In the very next sentence, you say that sinovac seems to have even less significant side effects! Lol! 

You are just playing with the wording here. How about this: sinovac and sinopharm's side effects are significantly less than those of AZ and Pfizer. 

1 minute ago, jacko45k said:

And I have had 2 Pfizer shots without reaction bar a little tiredness. Individual results are not really worth mention....

Protection from Covid is what is important and  AZ and Pfizer have better results. Thais I know are unhappy with receiving Sinovax... and would have liked the Pfizer, so I do not know why you perceive different. 

It's not just individual results. Generally speaking, the picture is quite consistent: AZ and Pfizer likely to result in significant side effects, sinopharm (or even sinovac) a lot less so. 

7 hours ago, Bruno123 said:

What happens when you try?

If you really cannot, then use a Seedbox service that downloads the Torrent for you; paid if you can afford it. 

No cost example: https://www.torrentsafe.com

 

I use my phone as a Hotspot, connect my laptop to that connection. When I start up my bittorrent program on my laptop, it just doesn't download anything. It downloads fine if I connect to my condo's wifi. 

Edit: same thing happens if I try to download torrents directly on my phone, torrent program just sits there, nothing downloads. 

Thanks for the seedbox tip. 

14 hours ago, RoninTech said:

Found it.

Can you use torrents on that sim? I have a 10 Mbps dtac sim, and unfortunately it doesn't allow torrenting. 

6 hours ago, placeholder said:

You raised the issue of effects from vaccination arising years later, not me. As I pointed out, if it's the possibility of latent effects that concerns you, it makes more sense to be concerned about contracting covid rather than about being vaccinated.

Governments clearly agree too, that the risk vs rewards of the vaccines are not cut and dried.  That's why the approval for children has taken much longer, and even now it's only for those aged 12 and above.  In a country like the US, anyone who wanted a vaccine has had that opportunity, so it's not a case of prioritizing for the old anymore.

Fact remains that these vaccines have been fast tracked greatly, and we just don't know all the risks that come with them.  If you are in the 70+ age group, run (don't walk) to get a vaccine.  For children at 0.2% of the risk...hmmmm...

12 hours ago, placeholder said:

There's never been a case of a vaccine giving rise to a latent disease. Whereas that's not true of viral diseases, is it. So if it's somewhere in the not so distant or distant future you're concerned about, clearly it makes a long more sense to fear the long term consequences of not being vaccinated.

There are reasons why vaccines go through a lengthy approval process.  If Covid wasn't so contagious, with so many people dying, covid vaccines would never have been approved so quickly.  It would have taken years and years.

Now with Covid causing this many deaths, it makes sense to fast track the vaccines.  The reasoning being that whatever risks you are taking with fast tracking the vaccines is (easily) being outweighted by the benefits. 

This is true for adults.  The point of the OP and my point also is, does that still hold for children?  Most studies have shown that children suffer only about 0.2% of all covid deaths.  As I have said before, if I had a child, I wouldn't vaccinate him/her (not yet).