TallGuyJohninBKK

A bogus new attack on COVID vaccines from Texas' least credible politician Los Angeles Times December 6, 2023 "In recent times, whenever a government lawsuit swears at common sense, at the facts and at the public interest, it has been a safe bet that Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton has his fingerprints on it. Sure enough, here comes Paxton with a lawsuit charging Pfizer Inc. with systematically misrepresenting the efficacy of its COVID-19 vaccine and attempting to censor public discussion about it. ... There's a lot of misinformation and disinformation packed into the 54 pages of Paxton's legal complaint, some of it so nonsensical as to evoke laughter, starting with the fact that the reasons the pandemic got worse after the introduction of COVID vaccines had more to do with policies promoted by Paxton and his political cronies than with Pfizer." (more) https://finance.yahoo.com/news/column-bogus-attack-covid-vaccines-110023842.html

Studies suggest even one vaccine dose may cut risk of long COVID November 29, 2023 Two new analyses from Sweden and Pakistan published in BMJ highlight the benefits of partial or full COVID-19 vaccination in preventing persistent symptoms. Vaccination tied to 58% lower risk of long COVID In Sweden, University of Gothenburg researchers led an observational evaluation of the efficacy of primary COVID-19 vaccination (two doses followed by a booster) against long COVID, or post-COVID condition (PCC), among adults whose first infections were recorded in a national registry from December 2020 to February 2022. Average follow-up was 129 days. ... Of all participants vaccinated before infection, 0.4% were diagnosed as having long COVID during follow-up, compared with 1.4% of their 290,030 unvaccinated peers, a nearly four-fold difference." (more) https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/studies-suggest-even-one-vaccine-dose-may-cut-risk-long-covid

November 22, 2023 "People vaccinated before their first case of COVID-19 are diagnosed with Long COVID almost four times less than unvaccinated people, suggests a large new study published Nov. 22 in the BMJ. ... The new study offers encouraging evidence that people who get vaccinated before their first COVID-19 case are at significantly lower risk of developing long-term symptoms like brain fog and fatigue, with each additional dose received prior to infection offering extra protection. A single pre-infection dose of one of the original COVID-19 vaccines reduced the risk of Long COVID by 21%, two doses by 59%, and three or more doses by 73%, the researchers estimated." (more) https://time.com/6338434/vaccination-long-covid-risk/

Kowa says ivermectin not effective in treating COVID-19 Oct 2, 2022 "A clinical trial was unable to prove the efficacy of the antiparasitic medicine ivermectin against coronavirus variants, according to Japanese drugmaker Kowa Co., which has indicated that it will no longer seek approval for the drug as a COVID-19 treatment. ... both the group given the drug and the one administered a placebo saw improvements in symptoms, meaning the trial did not show the drug’s efficacy over the placebo as a COVID-19 treatment." https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/10/02/national/science-health/kowa-ivermectin-covid-19/ AND No, Ivermectin Did Not Help Japan Bring Down Covid-19 Coronavirus Delta Surge Nov 27, 2021 "If you look at Japan’s Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency’s list of Approved Medical Products for Covid-19, you’ll find stuff like remdesivir and baricitinib but no ivermectin. And none of these ivermectin-touting tweets seemed to be from real scientists and other experts from Japan. ... These ivermectin claims about Japan are just the latest in what’s become a septic tank of unsupported ivermectin claims on social media." https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2021/11/27/no-ivermectin-did-not-help-japan-bring-down-covid-19-coronavirus-delta-surge/?sh=5b3d3d122938

New England Journal of Medicine editorial August 18, 2022 Time to Stop Using Ineffective Covid-19 Drugs "Ivermectin and fluvoxamine, in particular, are still widely prescribed, even though evidence has been steadily accumulating to indicate that both treatments at acceptable doses are not effective for Covid-19.3-5 ... For ivermectin, a meta-analysis of 16 trials8 involving 2407 patients with both severe and nonsevere illness showed no reliable evidence of reductions in mechanical ventilation, hospital admission, duration of hospitalization, clinical severity, or mortality; in addition, the investigators found no effect related to the dose of ivermectin. In light of this available evidence of nonefficacy for ivermectin and fluvoxamine, how much evidence of nonefficacy is enough?" https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2209017

Same as the WHO and U.S. FDA's ongoing guidance re ivermectin: "The update also includes a strong recommendation against the use of ivermectin for patients with non-severe COVID-19. WHO continues to advise that in patients with severe or critical COVID-19, ivermectin should only be used in clinical trials." https://www.who.int/news/item/10-11-2023-who-updates-guidelines-on-treatments-for-covid-19 Why You Should Not Use Ivermectin to Treat or Prevent COVID-19 "The FDA has not authorized or approved ivermectin for use in preventing or treating COVID-19 in humans or animals." ... Currently available data do not show ivermectin is effective against COVID-19. ... There’s a lot of misinformation around, and you may have heard that it’s okay to take large doses of ivermectin. It is not okay." https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/why-you-should-not-use-ivermectin-treat-or-prevent-covid-19

If the COVID vaccines prevent 10 or 20 or 30% of recipients from contracting COVID for some months post vaccination, that's 10 or 20 or 30% fewer people to potentially become infected / sick and capable of spreading the virus to others.... Any reduction is better than no reduction. Though the prevention levels for serious COVID illness/hospitalization from the vaccines are considerably higher than the example figures I used above for merely preventing any infection. For the recent bivalent COVID vaccines from fall 2022 to spring 2023 in the U.S.: "In this multistate analysis of 85,075 hospitalizations of persons with COVID-19–like illness, bivalent doses were 62% effective among adults without immunocompromising conditions...in preventing COVID-19–associated hospitalization during the first 7–59 days after vaccination. Waning was evident in adults without immunocompromising conditions from 60–179 days (2–6 months) after vaccination. VE was more sustained against critical illness (50% at 120–179 days after vaccination) in adults without immunocompromising conditions, which suggests that bivalent vaccines provide durable protection against the most severe outcomes from COVID-19." https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7221a3.htm

Maybe you should catch up on just what the current differences are between what you've previously called the mild version of COVID and the current version of the flu. In general, you're far far far better off to catch the flu -- and always have been -- than to catch COVID, even the current version, as illustrated below: https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/data-research/dashboard/illness-severity.html

The current COVID vaccines REDUCE the likelihood of a vaccinated person contracting the virus and thus spreading the virus... especially in the couple months post-vaccination. But they do a much better job of keeping people out of the hospital with COVID illness, and do so on a more enduring basis. Just like the flu vaccine reduces the risks of catching the flu, but doesn't provide 100% protection.

The original report I wrote to start this thread made it clear that the current levels of new COVID hospitalizations -- 500+ per week -- remain well below the 3,000+ per week peak in the wake of this year's Song Kran period. Context is important. But the original report also made it clear that the current numbers are the highest in the past 4+ months, and now have risen for 6 of the past 7 weeks... So there's definitely an upward trend occurring that warrants monitoring, and taking precautions as warranted.

You can find all the one death here and one death there vaccine-related cases the internet can provide... But add them all together, and they don't come up to a fraction of the lives saved by COVID vaccines. COVID vaccines saved at least 1 million lives in Europe, experts estimate April 18, 2023 "COVID-19 vaccination directly saved at least 1,004,927 lives across Europe from December 2020 to March 2023, according to new research presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) annual meeting this week in Copenhagen, Denmark. The study was based on weekly reported deaths and vaccination doses from 26 countries in Europe collected by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control." https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/covid-vaccines-saved-least-1-million-lives-europe-experts-estimate

N95 masks are readily available to the public, not especially expensive, and are far more effective than the routine masks doctors wear in surgery. (Though doctors DO wear N95s when dealing with infectious patients or procedures likely to aerosolize stuff.) The regular surgical masks aren't designed or needed to prevent inhalation of viruses. They're intended, as you note, to protect the wearer against things like blood splatter and also to reduce the risk of the wearer spreading any germs they may have in the operating theater.

England and Wales, in the years since COVID vaccines were launched, have recorded a few dozen deaths confirmed as related to COVID vaccination out of tens of millions of doses given there... And the UK did worse than most because of its use of the AZ vaccine, which had rare, unexpected blood clotting problems and ultimately was discontinued in the UK (and never approved in the U.S.) https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/deathscausedbyvaccinesintheukin2023 But as balanced against that: "Work by the UK Health Security Agency and the University of Cambridge Medical Research Council Biostatistics Unit suggests that roughly 127,500 deaths were prevented by the Covid vaccination programme in England, up to 24 September 2021." https://fullfact.org/health/covid-vaccines-saved-many-lives/ The research and results are clear -- the benefits from and lives saved by COVID vaccines VASTLY dwarfed the very rare instances of deaths or injuries related to vaccination.

You're talking about cheap drugstore paper masks... not the recommended and proven effective N95 and similar effective masks cited above. The cheap drugstore masks do help prevent people from spreading COVID by catching the particles from someone exhaling/coughing... But the N95 respirator masks, meanwhile, do the same in preventing spread but also are very effective in protecting the wearer from catching the virus by inhaling virus particles, since they provide a mostly air-tight seal around the face.

Proud of you for bravely ignoring the COVID vaccine guidance of virtually every major public health and medical organization around the world... “Given that COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths continue to impact the U.S. population and an increase in infections is expected this fall and winter, the updated COVID-19 vaccines increase the immune response against the currently circulating variants,” said Sandra Fryhofer, MD, an Atlanta general internist and immediate past chair of the AMA Board of Trustees." https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/updated-covid-19-vaccine-here-what-physicians-need-know

Regardless of the above report, numerous studies have shown that the actual official counts of deaths due to COVID around the world have been UNDER counted.... not overcounted. Global COVID-19 Death Toll May Be Triple the Reported Deaths April 19, 2022 "More than 3 times as many people may have died around the world due to direct and indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic than officially reported, according to an estimate of excess mortality by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington." https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2791213 AND Actual death figures are likely to be higher than confirmed deaths "What we know is the number of confirmed deaths due to COVID-19 to date. Limited testing and challenges in the attribution of the cause of death means that the number of confirmed deaths may not be an accurate count of the actual number of deaths from COVID-19." https://ourworldindata.org/covid-deaths

The key to the above report is the phrase at the end of the first paragraph -- "until an investigation is completed." And if you read the ensuing report, you'll see it explains: ""We will be now publicly reporting confirmed deaths as those where the death documents or an investigation has shown that the cause was COVID-19, and we will report other deaths where the cause of death is not certain but the person has COVID-19. We will report them separately, and the latter group will be classified as 'under investigation' while we await further information from clinicians or a coroner's follow-up." So, the article doesn't actually report how the man's death was classified in the end at the conclusion of the inquiry..... But given he died of a gunshot wound, it seems pretty clear that's where the end finding would have gone.

The documented injuries associated with COVID vaccines -- as opposed to loads of documented false info on the subject spread on the internet -- have been extraordinarily tiny, considering more than 12 BILLION doses have been administered worldwide... The lives saved and illnesses averted, on the other hand, have been huge: COVID vaccines saved 20M lives in 1st year, scientists say June 24, 2022 "Nearly 20 million lives were saved by COVID-19 vaccines during their first year, but even more deaths could have been prevented if international targets for the shots had been reached, researchers reported Thursday. ... The researchers used data from 185 countries to estimate that vaccines prevented 4.2 million COVID-19 deaths in India, 1.9 million in the United States, 1 million in Brazil, 631,000 in France and 507,000 in the United Kingdom. An additional 600,000 deaths would have been prevented if the World Health Organization target of 40% vaccination coverage by the end of 2021 had been met, according to the study published Thursday in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases." https://apnews.com/article/covid-science-health-england-54d29ae3af5c700f15d704c14ee224b5

"The central region will experience partly cloudy weather with 30% of the area expected to encounter thunderstorms. The temperature will fluctuate between 23 and 25 degrees Celsius at the lowest and 32 and 35 degrees Celsius at the highest." WOW, with high temperatures dropping to between 32 and 35 C in central areas like BKK, I guess I'm gonna have to break out the snow parkas for this supposed cold streak.

Your unsourced and unsubstantiated anti-masking claim notwithstanding, the science and research shows you're wrong: Face mask effectiveness: What science knows now October 29, 2023 "Linsey Marr, a Virginia Tech university professor specializing in aerosol science. "They are very helpful in reducing the chances that the person will get COVID because it's reducing the amount of virus that you would inhale from the air around you," Marr said about masks. No mask is 100% effective. An N95, for example, is named as such because it is at least 95% efficient at blocking airborne particles when used properly. But even if a mask has an 80% efficiency, Marr said, it still offers meaningful protection." https://www.cbsnews.com/news/face-mask-effectiveness-what-science-knows-now-60-minutes/ AND Masks During Pandemics Caused by Respiratory Pathogens—Evidence and Implications for Action October 31, 2023 " Well-designed observational studies have demonstrated the association of mask use with reduced transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in community settings, and rigorous evaluations of mask mandates have found substantial protection." ... Conclusions and Relevance During the next epidemic or pandemic caused by a respiratory pathogen, decision-makers will need to rely on existing evidence as they implement interventions. High-quality studies have shown that use of face masks in the community is associated with reduced transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and is likely to be an important component of an effective response to a future respiratory threat." https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2811136

MoPH: "The DDC is working relentlessly to bring the situation under control, relying heavily on public cooperation in following the recommended preventative measures and getting vaccinated." Oh ya?? Then why has there been almost total silence from the Thai government on plans for making available the newer COVID vaccines designed to better protect against the latest circulating COVID virus variants? And, short of that, why lately has there been basically no public information available from MoPH at all about how / where these days to obtain even the older bivalent versions of the COVID vaccines for those who have no other option in Thailand? If anyone is "working relentlessly" at MoPH and DDC, they don't seem to be doing so for anything relating to the COVID vaccines that they're recommending the public get!

Thaiger notwithstanding, the latest news re rising COVID hospitalizations in Thailand (not just cases, per se, which they no longer report) is not a "sudden surge." It's a trend that's been growing and rising steadily for almost the past two months.

The U.S. tax returns have a section for "foreign taxes" paid. Every year, I enter into that section the Thai taxes that are deducted from my Thai bank accounts for interest earned here.... And that amount is then a credit on my U.S. return. If the Thai authorities were somehow to conclude that I owed them taxes on other funds I bring into Thailand each year, even though the U.S. and Thailand have a tax agreement against double taxation, presumably I'd enter any Thai tax paid there as well. and fyi, that done via doing my annual taxes via TurboTax online.

Email suggesting discharging hospital patients into residential care as Covid unfolded has prompted furious response "The head of the UK Heath Security Agency is facing a growing backlash after it emerged she suggested that discharging Covid-infected hospital patients to care homes would be “clinically appropriate” to protect the NHS from collapse. Care home providers and the families of those who died after contracting Covid while in residential care said the revelations confirmed their suspicions at the time, adding that it disproved the claim of ministers to have thrown a “protective ring” around the homes. ... Appearing at the inquiry last week, Harries – who has since been promoted to run the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and given a damehood – conceded that the email “sounded awful”. However, she had been taking “a very, very high-level view” of what would need to happen if the NHS was overwhelmed with an “enormous explosion of cases”. (more) https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/dec/02/she-sacrificed-care-home-residents-health-chief-jenny-harries-under-fire-after-uk-covid-inquiry-revelations

I'm sure the 536 Thai COVID cases newly hospitalized last week, and the 1,100+ COVID deaths and nearly 20,000 new COVID hospitalizations in the U.S. in a recent weekly tally, much appreciate you sentiments. For me, I've never yet been hospitalized in Thailand, and I'm continuing to do my best to keep it that way, especially being among the age 60+ more COVID vulnerable crowd.