Longwood50

19 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

while dashing hopes that pubs, bars and other entertainment venues can reopen before the set D Day of January 16th.

Unless he is ready to make a decision one way or another and stick with it all that is accomplished is diminishing whatever tourists were considering coming to Thailand. 

A tourist has to make plans weeks to months in advance.  He is creating uncertainty not just about the entertainment re-opening which will diminish the appeal of Thailand but also creating fears that other mandates will similarly be changed without notice.

45 minutes ago, huangnon said:

With the opioid crisis though, they (specifically Perdue Pharma with Oxycontin) became legalized heroin dealers, citing (their own) bogus conditions like "breakthrough pain" to massively ramp up dose size. They created a dependency.

Yes there was bad behavior.  The system is suppose to rely on the pharmaceutical company being responsible, the government approving only safe drugs and monitoring their usage, and doctors who were are suppose to act solely in the best interests of the patients.  Blaming only the pharmaceutical companies is ignoring the roles the others played. 

1. Some pharmaceutical companies seeing the profits encourage the excess use of their drugs.  That really is no different than a tobacco company who seeks to increase smoke, an distiller who wants to sell more alcohol, or McDonalds who wants to sell more fattening Big Mac's and Fries.   What should have and eventually did happen is that the bad pharma companies were cited and hopefully those who deliberately engaged in harmful practices will spend some time in jail. 

2. The government approved these drugs and safe and effective.  And, for a certain group of patients they were beneficial.  However the government had computer real time records of how much of these drugs were being dispensed and in particular the amount of these drugs being prescribed by specific doctors   They did nothing. They knew the drugs were being over prescribed and they knew certain doctors and clinics were prescribing far more than would be reasonable and they sat on their hands. 

3. The doctors are suppose to be the gate keepers.  They are not suppose to prescribe medicines they know are harmful, hook patients on drugs making them dependent, or prescribe unnecessary medicines or treatments.  Guess what.  Not all of the doctors have halo's.  Again, the pharma companies made the drugs but without the doctors being complicit they could not have been sold. 

So who is at fault?  Really all three but I would lay the blame more solidly on the government.  You know their is a profit and greed motive and yet the only party in a position to stop the practice was the government and they turned a blind eye to it.  Really not any different than the financial crisis in 2008,  The government not only took a blind eye to the "non conforming loans"  they encourage it. 

Finally, while I would condemn the actions of selected pharmaceutical companies for the damage and deaths to U.S., citizens, the same government allows almost unrestricted the flow of illegals into the USA which sets up the distribution network from central and South America for the heroin, meth, cocaine and fentanyl.   So if you think the government can solve the problem.  Never put in charge of fixing a problem those primarily responsible for allowing the problem to occur in the first place. 

2 hours ago, huangnon said:

The same companies that started the opioid crisis that killed and addicted 100's of thousands in the US alone, synthesizing heroin (Oxycontin, Fentanyl, etc.)

Yes they are hardly saints but then again who is.  The biggest obstacle to controlling the drug companies is the government because the lobbyists for the drug companies control what the government rules are.  Oh, just have the government run the pharmaceutical companies.  Well if you want zero profit motivation therefore no innovation that would be great.  Also you think that "corruption" in terms of what gets produced or approved would not happen if the government controlled it. 

The drug companies did indeed invent things like Oxycontin.  However it was the government who allowed that product to be sold.  So who is at fault?  The drug does have some beneficial use to those suffering from chronic pain.  It was its misuse that caused the problem.  That is no different than those who abuse sedatives, pain relievers, alcohol, diuretics, cigarettes, or even glue.  Having big pharma controlling drug production has it negatives.  The alternative of having big government is worse since it concentrates everything under single control.  



 

On 11/30/2021 at 8:24 AM, webfact said:

Thailand's tourism minister Pipat Ratchakitprakan admitted to Thai media yesterday that he hadn't any idea why the country bans drinking from 2 pm to 5 pm in the afternoon.

This doesn't make any sense.  You think that people don't just alter when they go shopping. 

Reminds me of when I lived in Dallas.  Certain areas had old laws that prohibited the sale of alcohol in restaurants.  They were called "blue laws:  However private clubs could still sell alcohol.  So the restaurants started "clubs"  For about $1 dollar you became a member of that particular restaurants private club and you got a card as a club member.  You just showed your card to the server and then you could order alcohol.  The biggest nuisance was carrying around all those cards since each restaurant had to be its own private club. 

Whenever I go to the internet or turn on the television news, Covid isn't just one of the items discussed it is almost the only area discussed.  On one site covering Pattaya 6 of the 9 headline topics dealt with Covid.  It makes me wonder what we were so preoccupied with prior to Covid and what we possibly would be consumed with if it ever goes away. 

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Banglamung – An entertainment venue in the Banglamung district was raided by officials in the early hours of this morning, November 28th, for allegedly illegally selling alcoholic beverages and violating the Chonburi Communicable Disease Control Act.

Fools, they should have waited until this weekend and sold them at the Music Festival so people could drink and dance on the beach. 

17 hours ago, Thunglom said:

...and you point being?

mystified by the simplest foreign phrases

Why are you mystified by a simple foreign phrase? 

I live in Pattaya.  I have witnessed numerous businesses shuttered.  Venues along Jomtien Beach that use to be crowded now only have sparse traffic.   

39 minutes ago, Thunglom said:

English speaking Americans are some of the most parochial language learners I've ever come across

I would say "that dog don't hunt" 

I purchased two doses of Moderna from Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok for yet in 2021.  I also purchased two Moderna for my Thai GF who wanted either Moderna or Pfizer.  She is a dual citizen and finally was able to procure some Pfizer which she got last week.  

We want to sell two of the doses and retain two for booster shots. 

I see other people posting that they have seen these for sale and can be transferred.  Can anyone tell me where they have seen these posted for sale and if anyone is familiar with the procedure to transfer them to a different person.  

2 hours ago, webfact said:

MPs were broadly in agreement to press forward to set up legal casinos in Thailand

Lets see, we want to attract a "better class of tourists"  Thailand response - Lets start casino's.  Yep that sure attracts the "right" kind of tourist and certainly would not breed corruption, increase crime, or prostitution. 

Are these people delusional.  If they have an image of Thailand becoming a Monte Carlo they must be.  From my experience in the USA where they have legalized gambling they do not just attract "tourists".  They attract the locals and typically those with the least ability to lose money. 

I guess using "Thai logic"  alcohol and prostitution is bad but the alternative vice of gambling is good.  

 

You should be able to have him if he is a merchant charge your credit card in Australia.  Otherwise just open a Paypal account.  They are free and only take a few minutes to set up.  

9 hours ago, webfact said:

It’s nothing more than pure politics

When is anything in the USA not done out of "pure politics"  I suspect the same is true throughout the world.  From what I can see, not any  different here in Thailand.  

2 hours ago, BananaGuy said:

Still curious how the multifocal implanted lens works though

Really the same as multi focal contact lenses.  The lens in the case of contacts just sits on the pupil and your brain focuses through the lens finding the sharpest image. 

Just like monovision.  You have one eye for close up reading and one eye for distance.  Your brain will take the images from both eyes but will select whatever is giving you the sharpest focus whether that is far away or up close.  

They have even done tests where contacts made the world appear upside down.  Within a short period of time, the brain adjusted the image received to reverse the effects of the contacts and turning the world back to its correct top side up. 

I don't know who can legally purchase these fully automatic rifles but even in the USA they would be illegal.  Any fully automatic rifle or pistol is sold strictly through special licensed dealers by the Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms department.  These dealers sell to law enforcement.  

Semi Automatics which is what an AR-15, AK47, Mini 14 etc are require a pull of the trigger for each time the gun is fired.  

I am considering cataract surgery.  My cataracts are small but the one in the right eye is dead center in the pupil.  I have noticeable astigmatism.  So between the cataracts and the astigmatism +1.75 in both eyes, I get blinded at night from oncoming headlights. 

Has anyone done cataract surgery and done limbal relaxing incisions  to correct their astigmatism and if so were you happy with that. I know the other option is to get a toric lens but I understand that if those are not placed absolutely perfect or if they shift after surgery that the outcome can be not so great. 

Yes, I did experience that.  Within two hours of my first injection I got severe lower back pain.  I just thought it was from sitting poorly on the trip to Bangkok.  It lasted about 4 weeks.  I got a second instance of lower back pain following the second injection but it was not as quickly noticeable and not as severe as the first injection.  Again, I dismissed it as being something still recovering from my first back episode. 

I was alerted to it only after a man who is about 50 and in excellent physical shape said he had a severe back ache following his astra zeneca shot.  I started to do some research and did find their was a connection to what is termed gullain-barre syndrome.  It is caused when the sciatic nerve is damaged and it radiates pain starting in the lower back and it can radiate to your legs and even arms.  Mine did extend down to my legs.   It is an auto immune response and can be caused by any vaccine that triggers the immune system.  It is now about 5 weeks from my second shot and my back is fine.  I took daily doses morning, noon, and night of ibuprophen which did mitigate the pain.  

 

 

Autoimmune disorders occur when the immune system malfunctions and attacks the body's own tissues and organs. In Guillain-Barré syndrome, the immune response damages peripheral nerves, which are the nerves that connect the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord) to the limbs and organs.

1 hour ago, Ohyesuare said:

You're talking about illegal money lenders. I'm pretty sure credit card companies don't sell their debt to these kinds of people.

I am not sure that the credit card company vett anyone who buys their debt.  They auction off the debt and whoever pays the most for it gets it.  Now who those companies employ and what tactics they use to collect  I am not sure about the two year statute of limitations.  If that is true, then she can tell them to take a long walk off a short pier because the debt is uncollectible. 

It is not unusual for a third party to acquire debt from an institution like a bank, credit card company or even taxes owed in the USA.  They usually acquire that for only a small fraction of what is owed and then they can legally pursue the collection. 

First off, I would be very careful to "settle" with any third party without full and complete knowledge that they can settle the debt.  Anyone can obtain information on unpaid loans and then claim to be the authorized owner of that debt and settle it.  You could find that you pay off the debt and then find that the credit card company is still coming after you and that they never assigned the debt to a third party. 

58 minutes ago, Danderman123 said:

In all cases, hospitals see many unvaccinated patients. It’s the unvaccinated keeping the epidemic alive.

For every highly vaccinated country there is one with a high rate of covid infection and one with a low rate of covid infection.   There is no evidence that it is only the unvaccinated that are spreading it.  If that correlation was true, Belgium and the Netherlands would have a lower rate of covid infection than neighboring Germany.  Yet just the opposite is true. 

 

16 hours ago, Danderman123 said:

The US is suffering an epidemic of the unvaccinated. Counties with low vaccination rates are suffering higher infections. 
 

Even if an area is 90% vaccinated, that’s still 10% who can easily be infected. Until that 10% recovers from infection, gets vaccinated, or dies, there are indeed going to be infection

The peril of seeing a correlation and think it is causation. 

You have areas with lower rates of inoculation such as Germany adjacent to areas such as the Netherlands, and Belgium with high rates of inoculation yet Germany's covid infection rate is significantly less.  You have Portugal with the highest rate of covid vaccination and Spain the third highest rate of covid vaccination with both countries being among the highest rates of covid infection for any EU countries. 

For every factor "thought" to be a contributor there are numerous examples that are contrary.  Population density.  Washington DC is the most densely populated area with almost 12,000 people per square mile while Alaska is the least densely population area with 1 person per square mile.  Both have populations of approximately 3.4 of a million people.  Washington DC has one of the lowest covid infection rates and Alaska one of the highest.  You can pick any factor whether that is age, race, covid vaccination rate, population density, mask mandate, quarantine etc and for every example shown to have a correlation you can find numerous regions with exactly the opposite.  

So as the study showed, there is no strong correlation between vaccination rates and covid infection rates.  If vaccine rates were highly correlated then Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal would be among the lowest covid infection rates.  They are not.