TallGuyJohninBKK

Per the Washington Post: "Newly published data on life expectancy in the United States shows a partial rebound from the worst phase of the coronavirus pandemic, but drug overdoses, homicides and chronic illnesses such as heart disease continue to drive a long-term mortality crisis that has made this country an outlier in longevity among wealthy nations. Life expectancy in 2022 rose more than a full year, to 77.5 years, in data released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than four-fifths of this positive jump was attributable to a drop in COVID-19 deaths. ... In 2019, U.S. life expectancy at birth stood at 78.8 years. That figure cratered to 76.4 in 2021, the lowest since 1996. That was due partly to the extraordinary wave of COVID deaths in January and February of that year as the United States had only begun to roll out vaccines." (more) https://www.unmc.edu/healthsecurity/transmission/2023/11/29/new-cdc-life-expectancy-data-shows-painfully-slow-rebound-from-covid/

The one other part to be clear about, from everything I've read on the subject, is that the current main armed groups fighting against the junta primarily aren't common idealist locals seeking to restore democracy, but instead, are rival ethnic militia groups that supposedly are heavily into protecting their interests in drug running, gambling, financial and cyber scams and other bad stuff. "Beijing has not changed the nature of its relationship with the ethnic armed organizations in the north, and these are not turning against China. ... To achieve those goals, China has always played all sides in Myanmar’s internal conflicts and it is therefore not, it should be remembered, in China’s interest to see the emergence of a strong, peaceful, democratic and federal Myanmar." ... "This time the rough and tumble has been caused not by drugs but by telecom fraud that is being carried out in areas controlled by ethnic armed organizations across the border in Myanmar. ... The main targets for the scams have been people and institutions in China, and Chinese officials believe that capital outflows as a result of the scams amount to at least US$40 billion. It was clear that the Chinese authorities had to take action. And they did." https://www.irrawaddy.com/opinion/guest-column/has-china-lost-control-of-ethnic-armies-in-myanmars-war-torn-borderland.html

Maybe you missed this... But Paxton's case is a civil lawsuit, not a criminal proceeding. There are no convictions in civil cases, and thus no "repeat offender status" involved. "Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued Pfizer, Inc."

Just because the NYT has a different tally/ranking than the CDC doesn't mean the CDC tally is wrong... And in fact, it's just the opposite. The CDC data is more up-to-date, more accurate, and they are the official record keeper of such things for the U.S. Specifically, for starters, as the NYT webpage clearly shows but your post failed to make clear, they stopped updating their state info in March 2023, whereas the CDC data has continued to be updated thru current time, meaning the NYT data you posted is incomplete and eight months out-of-date: And indeed, if you dig into the data, the CDC thus not surprisingly has HIGHER/LARGER COVID death count totals for the U.S. overall and Texas individually than the numbers used by the NYT, as follows: From the CDC spreadsheet file supporting their COVID deaths state rankings: versus the NYT tally for Texas: Thus, the CDC is counting 8,696 additional COVID deaths for Texas that the NYT isn't counting -- the difference between the CDC Texas number of 103,214 and the out-of-date NYT number of 94,518. Just as the CDC's cumulative COVID deaths tally for the U.S. is 1,156,484 versus the 1,135,343 tally reported by the NYT, meaning the NYT once again has an undercount of 21,141 COVID deaths nationally. In short, the CDC data is a more complete, accurate and up-to-date counting than that from the NYT... not to mention, it's also the CDC and the related National Center for Health Statistics that keep the official records of such things for the U.S. ------------------------------------- Then, as for the differences in where the two sources list Texas in the rankings of per capita COVID deaths, apart from the NYT data being eight months out of date, the following may be another factor in that particular variation. As clearly listed in my original report above of the CDC rankings and data on per capita COVID deaths by state, those rates are AGE ADJUSTED, allowing more meaningful state to state comparisons. And that is the standard and preferred method of making such comparisons. From all indications, the NYT is just using raw data and not adjusting for age differences between the different state populations. The CDC is, as the headline of their chart clearly shows: Provisional COVID-19 Death Rate per 100,000 Population (Age-Adjusted) Reported to the CDC, by State/Territory – United States From the CDC: Death Data "Rates were age-adjusted to the 2000 standard population using the direct method (see https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr70/nvsr70-08-508.pdf)." And using age adjusted data is the standard means of making such comparisons across different geographic areas such as states, as the CDC explains below: "Age-adjusted death rates also are better indicators of relative risk when comparing mortality across geographic areas or between sex or race subgroups of the population that have different age distributions." https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr70/nvsr70-08-508.pdf And from elsewhere on that point from other sources: Age-adjusted Rates "Age adjusting rates allows fairer comparisons to be made between groups with different age distributions... The age-adjusted rates are rates that would have existed if the population under study had the same age distribution as the "standard" population. Therefore, they are summary measures adjusted for differences in age distributions." https://health.mo.gov/data/documentation/crude-aarate.php --------------------------- What is age-adjustment? "Age-adjustment is a statistical process applied to rates of disease, death, injuries or other health outcomes which allows communities with different age structures to be compared. Why do we do age-adjustment? "Almost all diseases or health outcomes occur at different rates in different age groups. Most chronic diseases, including most cancers, occur more often among older people.... Age-adjustment is a statistical way to remove confounding caused by age." https://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/chronic/ageadj.htm

The air quality levels in the CM region aren't so bad right now... just at the lower end of the 'unhealthy for sensitive groups range" colored orange (100+ AQI) ...but were a lot worse and in the red / unhealthy range (150+ AQI) last night and earlier today. https://aqicn.org/station/thailand-chiang-mai-อาคารกิจกรรมนักศึกษา-อมช.-มช.-ต.สุเทพ-อ.เมือง-จ.เชียงใหม่/#/z/13 Just wait till the seasonal burning gets going in full swing....

Interesting how the political history of Myanmar as laid out above somewhat resembles that of Thailand -- long-time military rule, relatively brief turns into local forms of democracy, and then more military coups and back into junta rule. Basically, Myanmar is in the midst of an ongoing civil war, with the government junta being opposed by a range of armed factions with their own interests. The ordinary citizens I believe generally favor democracy, but thru the years, many have been arrested, imprisoned and otherwise persecuted. The general consensus seems to be that the current ruling junta likely isn't going to last much longer. But what's going to follow their exit seems pretty unclear, and China seems to be playing a considerable role there as well. And it's not like China is any kind of protector and advocate of democratic governance. BTW, one of the most striking things there that's easily visible is how the current junta there can't even keep the lights on in big cities such as Yangon, forcing many businesses to rely on generators to be able to stay in operation. Blackouts Lengthen in Yangon as Power Crisis Worsens in Myanmar October 2, 2023 "Power outages in Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon, including in its once thriving industrial zones, are worsening, with residents and business owners saying the length of blackouts has at least doubled since mid-August. Blackouts are normally rare in the rainy season, usually from June to October, when hydropower dams fill and electricity production increases. Forty percent of Myanmar’s electricity is generated by hydropower. ... In Yangon, the duration of planned electricity cuts varies from one township to another. However, on average, electricity cuts have doubled in duration from four hours a day in residential areas to a minimum of eight hours a day. Blackouts in some neighborhoods are much longer, residents say." https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/blackouts-lengthen-in-yangon-as-power-crisis-worsens-in-myanmar.html

And just to give some voice to Paxton's accused: "In a statement, Pfizer said its representations about its vaccine have been "accurate and science-based," and that it believed Paxton's lawsuit had no merit. Pfizer also said its vaccine has "demonstrated a favorable safety profile in all age groups, and helped protect against severe COVID-19 outcomes, including hospitalization and death." Infectious disease experts have said relative risk reduction is a more meaningful way to judge a vaccine's efficacy than absolute risk reduction. Relative risk shows how well a vaccine protects recipients relative to a study's control group." https://www.reuters.com/legal/pfizer-is-sued-by-texas-over-covid-19-vaccine-claims-2023-11-30/ AND "A Pfizer spokesperson told Forbes “the company believes that the state’s case has no merit and will respond to the petition in court in due course.” Contra The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the vaccine effectiveness at reducing symptomatic cases was around 92.4%, and around 94.3% for preventing hospitalization, according to a 2021 assessment. Efficacy did drop from the original 95% figure given by Pfizer, but largely after more variants of Covid that the vaccine wasn’t created to protect against began to circulate. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have continued to recommend Pfizer’s vaccine and call it effective, and the World Health Organization has said Pfzier’s vaccine has “very high efficacy against severe disease and moderate efficacy against symptomatic” cases." https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/11/30/texas-ag-sues-pfizer-over-covid-vaccine-effectiveness/?sh=6db52ea514fb

The Republican elected officials in Texas (Paxton included) should be proud of themselves.... They've succeeded admirably in helping Texas have one of the highest per capita COVID death rates (top 10) among all states since the start of the pandemic... While at the same time, leaving Texas with among the lowest rates of COVID vaccination with the new monovalent COVID vaccines. Per the U.S. CDC: Provisional COVID-19 Death Rate per 100,000 Population (Age-Adjusted) Reported to the CDC, by State/Territory – United States "This shows the number of deaths since January 1, 2020 for every 100,000 people, allowing for comparisons between areas with different population sizes and age distributions." The chart excerpt below shows states ranked from highest to lowest for per capita COVID deaths, with the graphic showing just the top end of the full chart listing 50 states. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#maps_deaths-rate-total And regarding vaccination rates with the newest COVID vaccine, compared to the latest nationwide rate for adults of 15.7%: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/imz-managers/coverage/covidvaxview/interactive/adult-coverage-vaccination.html Compared to other states from the same source above: TOP: Vermont -- 33.2% Dist of Columbia -- 30.1% Minnesota -- 26.8% Massachusetts -- 26.7% Colorado -- 23.1% BOTTOM: Mississippi - 5.4% Louisiana -- 8.2% Florida -- 8.3% Alabama -- 10% West Virginia -- 10.4% https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/imz-managers/coverage/covidvaxview/interactive/adult-coverage-vaccination.html

Texas and Florida... leading the political right-wing anti-vax movement in the U.S.: How lawmakers in Texas and Florida undermine Covid vaccination efforts State legislatures and politicians are pressuring public health officials to keep quiet about Covid vaccines. Nov. 7, 2023 ... "A rule added to Texas’ budget that went into effect Sept. 1 forbids health departments and other organizations funded by the state government to advertise, recommend, or even list covid vaccines alone. “Clinics may inform patients that COVID-19 vaccinations are available,” the rule allows, “if it is not being singled out from other vaccines.” ... As in Florida, the Texas health department initially promoted Covid vaccines, warning that Texans who weren’t vaccinated were about 20 times as likely to suffer a Covid-associated death. Such sentiments faded last year, as state leaders passed policies to block vaccine mandates and other public health measures. The latest is a prohibition against the use of government funds to promote Covid vaccines." https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/lawmakers-texas-florida-undermine-covid-vaccination-efforts-rcna123866

Well, I guess they'll have to go up against findings like these: Two Years of U.S. COVID-19 Vaccines Have Prevented Millions of Hospitalizations and Deaths "From December 2020 through November 2022, we estimate that the COVID-19 vaccination program in the U.S. prevented more than 18.5 million additional hospitalizations and 3.2 million additional deaths. Without vaccination, there would have been nearly 120 million more COVID-19 infections. The vaccination program also saved the U.S. $1.15 trillion (Credible Interval: $1.10 trillion–$1.19 trillion) (data not shown) in medical costs that would otherwise have been incurred." https://www.commonwealthfund.org/blog/2022/two-years-covid-vaccines-prevented-millions-deaths-hospitalizations And this: COVID vaccines saved 20M lives in 1st year, scientists say June 24, 2022 "Nearly 20 million lives [worldwide] 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

Readers deserve to be informed of the character and credibility (which is virtually nil) of the person bringing these allegations...

A dedicated public servant ( ), let off the hook (for now) by his fellow Republican elected officials... Republican Texas AG Ken Paxton is acquitted of corruption charges at historic impeachment trial September 17, 2023 "AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was fully acquitted Saturday of corruption charges in a historic impeachment trial, a resounding verdict that reaffirms the power of the GOP’s hard right and puts an indicted incumbent who remains under FBI investigation back into office. The outcome demonstrated Paxton’s lasting durability in America’s biggest red state after years of criminal charges and scandal. ... The outcome far from ends Paxton’s troubles. He still faces trial on felony securities fraud charges, remains under a separate FBI investigation and is in jeopardy of losing his ability to practice law in Texas because of his baseless attempts to overturn the 2020 election." https://apnews.com/article/ken-paxton-impeachment-texas-871fb9c57b38fbda5bec5c2e5f280755

Apparently, other that posting the one chart above, you didn't bother to read what the report actually says about the data you posted: "COVID-19 vaccines are very effective in preventing the severe impacts of infections with the virus. Over 95 per cent of people aged 16 and over in NSW have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, while more than 70 per cent of people eligible for their third dose have received it. With such high vaccination coverage in the community, a high proportion of people admitted to hospital or intensive care unit (ICU) with COVID-19 are now vaccinated with two or three doses. However, people who are not vaccinated remain more likely to suffer severe COVID-19. Note that some people with COVID-19 who are admitted to hospital or ICU are admitted for conditions unrelated to their COVID-19 infection, and these admissions will not be prevented by vaccination." There have been numerous reports and studies throughout the pandemic that have showed the COVID death rates of the unvaccinated have been multiple times higher than the COVID death rates of the vaccinated. For example, from Feb. 2023 per the U.S. CDC: The chart you posted above does nothing to change that, since it isn't comparing the COVID death rates of a vaccinated population group vs an unvaccinated population group.

From the above CDC website, as of mid-Nov., also has the new monovalent COVID vaccination rates by state/district. From my perusing the list, the following appear to be the top and bottom vaccination rate states among all adults: TOP: Vermont -- 33.2% Dist of Columbia -- 30.1% Minnesota -- 26.8% Massachusetts -- 26.7% Colorado -- 23.1% BOTTOM: Mississippi - 5.4% Louisiana -- 8.2% Florida -- 8.3% Alabama -- 10% West Virginia -- 10.4% https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/imz-managers/coverage/covidvaxview/interactive/adult-coverage-vaccination.html

From the U.S. CDC: COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake and CDC’s Commitment to Vaccine Equity November 22, 2023, 9:00 AM EDT "COVID-19 is still an important cause of hospitalization and death, especially for older adults and people with certain underlying medical conditions. COVID-19 vaccines don’t prevent every infection – that’s true of lots of vaccines – but they can reduce illness severity in people who get vaccinated but still get sick, helping to save lives, reduce hospitalizations, and prevent trips to the doctor." https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/whats-new/vaccine-equity.html U.S. Vaccination Rate Estimates for New Monovalent COVID Vaccines: "As of November 18, 2023, 15.7% (95% Confidence Interval: 14.9%-16.5%) of adults reported having received an updated 2023-24 COVID-19 vaccine since September 14, 2023." "Vaccination coverage increased by age and was highest among adults 75 years and older [34.2%, (30.4%-38.1%)]." "As of November 18, 2023, 6.3% (95% Confidence Interval: 5.3%-7.4%) of children were reported to be up to date with the 2023-24 COVID-19 vaccine." https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/imz-managers/coverage/covidvaxview/interactive/vaccination-dashboard.html On the following website, the CDC also has charts that break down the vaccination rates by varying groups and geographies, including: --a 33.4% vaccination rate for all adults age 65 and older. --a 17% rate for adults age 50 to 64 --a 10.9% rate for adults age 40 to 49 --a 10.8% rate for adults age 30 to 39, and --a 4.5% rate for adults age 18 to 29 https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/imz-managers/coverage/covidvaxview/interactive/adult-coverage-vaccination.html

Thailand MoPH Weekly COVID report for Nov. 19 - 25: --480 new COVID hospitalizations, up 90 from the prior week --2 new COVID deaths, up from 1 the prior week --82 COVID patients hospitalized in serious condition, down 1 from the prior week --45 COVID patients hospitalized requiring intubation to breathe, up 5 from the prior week https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main

More than 1,000 Americans have been dying from COVID every week since late August until the latest complete weekly reports shown below in BLUE, according to the CDC's tally. A good reminder that Americans who have access to the latest COVID vaccines, and especially the most vulnerable being older people and those with chronic health issues, ought to get vaccinated and greatly reduce their risks of serious COVID health issues. "Provisional data are non-final counts of deaths based on the flow of mortality data in NVSS. Deaths include those with COVID-19, coded to ICD–10 code U07.1, as an underlying or contributing cause of death on the death certificate. Death data are displayed by date of death (event)." "Data during recent periods are incomplete because of the lag in time between when a death occurs and when a death certificate is completed, submitted to NCHS, and processed for reporting. This delay can range from 1 week to 8 weeks or more, depending on the jurisdiction. The most recent 3 weeks of mortality counts are shaded grey and mortality rates shown as dotted lines because NVSS reporting is <95% during this period." https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_weeklydeaths_select_00 AND https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#maps_new-admissions-rate-county https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_weeklyhospitaladmissions_select_00

Sheryl, I've never heard that they do... But on a related issue, they have recently expanded to serving several other sending countries beyond the U.S., and their roster now, I believe, includes Germany, France, Australia and the U.K. https://www.facebook.com/WeShippingUSA/photos People can see their rate cards for the different sending countries in their Facebook photos catalog. One difference, though, is that with the U.S., they offer BOTH the inexpensive and slower sea shipping method and the more expensive and quicker air shipping method. Whereas with the other non-U.S. sending countries, they appear to only be offering the quicker and more expensive air shipping method (plus/minus 1,000 baht per kilo), but NOT the cheaper and slower sea shipping method. This is a video they posted to their FB page recently showing the volume of packages they're handling via their Virginia sea shipping warehouse: https://www.facebook.com/WeShippingUSA/videos/1109180083401769/ Lotta Amazon, Walmart and Target on display there... :-)

1. Also per the AP: "Halderman told The Associated Press in a phone interview that while he’s seen no evidence the vulnerabilities were exploited to change the outcome of the 2020 election..." https://apnews.com/article/technology-business-science-voting-election-2020-6755cf1c409f4aab613df8891b84272d You want an insecure voting system. Try this one that was hatched and carried out by allies of the former president and allegedly with his knowledge: "It also led to the exposure of a breach of election equipment in a rural south Georgia county, which has resulted in criminal charges for several people as part of the sprawling Fulton County indictment against former President Donald Trump and 18 others." ... "Halderman ... has said the risks presented by those vulnerabilities were exacerbated when a computer forensics team hired by Trump allies copied data and software from election equipment in rural Coffee County in January 2021 and distributed it to an unknown number of people." https://apnews.com/article/voting-machines-georgia-lawsuit-cybersecurity-d8a4653211bf19c21d3b9dc2d59a7a61 "The plot to breach voting systems in Coffee County, coordinated by members of Trump’s legal team including Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, is part of a broader criminal investigation into 2020 election interference led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis." On January 7, 2021, the day after rioters stormed the US Capitol, two people walked into an elections office in Coffee County, Georgia, a rural part of the state that voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2020. A local election official helped them gain access to sensitive voting data which they downloaded onto a portable hard drive.     ... Last year, a former Trump official testified under oath to the House January 6 committee that plans to access voting systems in Georgia were discussed in meetings at the White House, including during a now infamous Oval Office meeting on December 18, 2020,  that included Trump.  https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/21/politics/trump-georgia-senate-breached-voting-data/index.html Which led to criminal charges against the aforementioned Georgia county elections official: MISTY HAMPTON "She was the elections director in Coffee County. Hampton was present in the county elections office on Jan. 7, 2021, when a computer forensics team copied software and data from the county’s election equipment. She also allowed two other men who had been active in efforts to question the 2020 election results to access the elections office later that month and to spend hours inside with the equipment." https://apnews.com/article/trump-georgia-fraud-defendants-201d73d2a6b165d06230961af9f21b61

Hmm... what could the reason be? Nothing particular comes to mind, except perhaps:

Rishi Sunak denies saying it was ‘OK’ to ‘just let people die’ of Covid "Rishi Sunak has denied saying it was “OK” to let people die of coronavirus. The Prime Minister was asked about a diary entry by Sir Patrick Vallance, who was the UK Government’s chief scientific adviser during the pandemic, that was shared with the UK Covid-19 Inquiry. The extract from October 25 2020 read that Boris Johnson, when he was prime minister, had argued for “letting” Covid “rip” through the population as ministers debated a second lockdown in England. The same entry has Sir Patrick recording that Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s most senior adviser at the time, as having said: “Rishi thinks just let people die and that’s OK.” (more) https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/rishi-sunak-denies-saying-it-was-ok-to-just-let-people-die-of-covid/ar-AA1kIQSZ?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=2024619585b148dedfa2d12263e5b394&ei=5

Now the only question will be... are the balls found to be on offer made of pork and beef, or horse meat or something else? From 2013: Horsemeat scandal: Ikea withdraws all meatballs from UK stores Furniture company stops sales of meatballs in more than 20 European countries after batch tests positive for horse DNA https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/feb/25/horsemeat-scandal-ikea-meatballs-uk

"...provisional statistics show there have been about 3,000 registered COVID-19 deaths in Australia from January to July 2023. Older people and those with weaker immune systems are expected to remain at greatest risk of developing severe COVID during this current wave. ... ...by the end of October 2023, it was estimated only one-quarter of Australians aged 65-74, one-third of people aged 75 or over and fewer than half (45 per cent) of people in aged care had received a COVID vaccine in the past six months." https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/a-new-covid-19-wave-has-hit-australia-heres-what-you-can-expect-this-time/86sr64u7r

The Australia COVID stats in the OP covered the period thru Oct. 24... Below is a more recent update thru mid Nov. just for New South Wales (NSW): November 23, 2023 "NSW is in the grip of its eighth COVID-19 wave as the latest NSW Health data reveals that infection rates have doubled since the beginning of October. Released on Thursday, the data shows a 16 per cent increase in community infections in the fortnight to November 18, compared with the previous reporting period, for those who have tested positive for COVID-19 via PCR testing. ... The total number of people presenting at emergency departments in the past fortnight was also higher than for the previous two weeks, NSW Health said, but the proportion who required admission remained stable, indicating that the severity of the virus circulating in the community remained unchanged. https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/what-you-need-to-know-about-covid-and-vaccines-now-20231123-p5em8v.html

Hey, there's no longer an official "pandemic" and COVID isn't an issue any more, so some people keep saying.... (sarcasm alert!)