TallGuyJohninBKK

Ongoing advice from the Thai MoPH: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02dhEXfxZtaeKFZ7ZwKWFspRZvMuDf2nRA8emu8nUJAixR5CNMPwtp7kfNVAdqKQ9ul&id=100068069971811

New weekly update from the Thai Ministry of Public Health:

New weekly update today from the Thai Ministry of Public Health:

Thailand's spring COVID surge has showed signs of easing for the first time since the beginning of April, as the Thai Ministry of Public Health reported Monday that new COVID hospitalizations, serious condition patients and those requiring intubation to breathe all declined last week. The latest weekly COVID update broke a trend, at least for the most recent week, in which new COVID hospitalizations in Thailand had increased for nine of the past ten weeks since the beginning of April. The only increase in Thailand's key publicly reported COVID stats last week was in COVID deaths, which rose by one to 69 for the week versus 68 the week before, a new weekly high for 2023. Elsewhere, the COVID news was all good. New COVID hospitalizations for June 4-10 declined 12.2% from 3,085 two weeks ago to 2,709 last week. COVID patients hospitalized in serious condition declined 1% from 386 two weeks ago to 382 last week, the second consecutive weekly decline in that category. And COVID patients requiring intubation in order to breathe declined 4.9% from 243 to 231, also a second consecutive weekly decline. At last week's rates, Thailand was averaging 387 new COVID hospitalizations per day and nine new COVID deaths per day. For 2023 thus far, Thailand now has reported 563 total COVID deaths and 23,833 COVID hospitalizations. Thailand's seasonal COVID surge began at the beginning of April in the lead-up to the country's annual Song Kran holidays and its spike in domestic and international travel. Both the 3,085 new COVID hospitalizations and 68 new COVID deaths reported two weeks ago were year-high totals for Thailand. So while last week's death tally increased slightly, last week's drop in new hospitalizations was a significant retreat from the yearly high. Still, last week's total of 2,709 new COVID hospitalizations remained 16 times higher than the 167 weekly total reported at the beginning of April. And last week's total of 69 new COVID deaths remained 23 times higher than the three weekly deaths reported at the beginning of April. The Thai government last fall stopped publicly reporting regular COVID infections and positive tests, and since then has only counted and reported new COVID hospitalizations as the country's tally of new COVID "cases."

"Trump has been charged with 37 counts: 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information; one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice; one count of withholding a document or record; one count of corruptly concealing a document or record; one count of concealing a document in a federal investigation; one count of scheme to conceal; and one count of false statements and representations." https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/live-updates/trump-indictment/?id=99913217 AND "Former President Donald Trump has vowed to stay in the 2024 presidential race even if he is convicted on the wide-ranging 37-count indictment. In an interview with a Politico reporter who went on Trump Force One on Saturday, Trump reportedly said he will continue to run for president even if he's convicted by a federal grand jury, his spokesperson confirmed. "I'll never leave," Trump said. "Look, if I would have left, I would have left prior to the original race in 2016. That was a rough one. In theory, that was not doable." https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/live-updates/trump-indictment/trump-vows-to-stay-in-the-race-even-if-convicted-99989081?id=99913217 And now introducing, our would-be "Criminal in Chief"!

The latest WHO report on COVID worldwide shows continuing downward trends, amid the caveats about those numbers of much reduced COVID testing and reporting. But against those trends: --"Australia's cases were up modestly, and with the onset of cooler weather in the Southern Hemisphere, the country is reporting rises of both COVID and flu. COVID-19 cases have doubled since March, and most people haven't had a COVID booster in more than 6 months, Australia's SBS News reported." --"In China, the government is no longer releasing weekly data, but health officials have said the country is in the midst of an XBB wave, which isn't expected to reach the level of the country's late-winter surge, the South China Morning Post reported today." --"Elsewhere in the Western Pacific, the WHO said 13 of 35 reporting countries have noted increases over the past 4 weeks, with the highest proportional increases coming from Mongolia, Cambodia, and Laos." https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/covid-cases-trend-down-all-world-regions And by comparison, based on the latest report from the Thai Ministry of Public Health, current new COVID hospitalizations and deaths in Thailand are at their highest levels of 2023, with new hospitalizations having increased for nine of the past 10 weeks. https://aseannow.com/topic/1296929-covid-new-hospitalizations-and-deaths-rise-again-to-new-weekly-highs-for-2023-serious-condition-hospitalizations-and-intubations-decline/

I see the loony anti-vaxers here have evolved, much like a virus... Before, they were busy denying that COVID was/is killing people. Now they're evolved to deny that the COVID vaccines saved many millions of lives... (As usual, with no credible sources or documented justification for their claims). Despite overwhelming evidence this is true from numerous published studies involving both scientific projections and examinations of actual death rates between the vaccinated vs the unvaccinated. Peter Hotez, the widely respected dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor University, calls it "The Deadly Rise of Anti-science." "In this eyewitness story of how the anti-vaccine movement grew into a dangerous and prominent anti-science element in American politics, Hotez describes the devastating impacts it has had on Americans' health and lives." ... "By weaving his personal experiences together with information on how the anti-vaccine movement became a tool of far-right political figures around the world, Hotez opens readers' eyes to the dangers of anti-science. He explains how anti-science became a major societal and lethal force: in the first years of the pandemic, more than 200,000 unvaccinated Americans needlessly died despite the widespread availability of COVID-19 vaccines." https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/33293/deadly-rise-anti-science

Thanks, never heard of this place/name before... Looked at their website, via Google Translate (they also have an EN version for some pages): Deluxe Balcony Room: "Service rate: 5,500 baht/day Click to inquire about the June 2023 promotion starting at 3,600 baht/day* from 1 - 30 June 2023 only." "Doctors and nurses take care 24 hours a day. Relatives can visit 24 hours a day."

Look here for Pfizer and Moderna locations in BKK for June:

What's "Koon"?

It's what she looked like before her series of cosmetic plastic surgeries! ????

That the woman in question here has any Thai police officer rank is pretty rank!

Are you suggesting there's some subliminal messaging going on in that photo? ????

I just want to know...have both of them earned their paratrooper wings! ????

So the blue CABB service in Bangkok is non-approved??? https://cabb.business.site/ https://www.facebook.com/cabbofficial/

Another in a long series... Whatever happened to this one... Lt. Viking?

Your BIL got his MS... Some folks get their BS.... In this case, it appears the young lady in question earned her rank by having achieved a BQ degree -- beauty queen!

I know an acquaintance here whose landlord each cycle provides him with two different leases.... one the real one, and the other at a much reduced rental rate that is only used to show an income source to the local tax/revenue authorities. This is Thailand. The landlord and the tenant can do pretty much whatever terms they want upon mutual agreement.

Both Pfizer and Moderna currently have a bivalent COVID vaccine. Both are somewhat available in Thailand, though the available locations can be hard to find, especially outside of Bangkok. Where are you located?

I'm all for QUALIFIED, talented women serving in the Thai police force or elsewhere in law enforcement anywhere. Women are certainly underrepresented in the Thai police force... But PLEASE!!!! From nothing to lieutenant to Lt. Col in less than two years???? That kind of ridiculous advancement tells you everything bad you need to know about the "old boys club" that is the RTP.

Large study shows safety of COVID mRNA vaccines in young children "Messenger RNA vaccines for COVID-19 pose little risk to young children, with no myocarditis (inflammation of heart muscle) or pericarditis (inflammation around the heart) observed in vaccine recipients age 0 to 4. The reassuring findings were published today in Pediatrics. ... "Parents can be assured that this large study found no serious side effects from the mRNA vaccines," said senior author Nicola Klein, MD, PhD, director of the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center in a press release. "Parents can protect their young children from COVID-19 in the same way they vaccinate their children to protect from other serious childhood diseases." https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/large-study-shows-safety-covid-mrna-vaccines-young-children

European groups green-light COVID-19 vaccine strain change "The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) today issued a joint statement that agrees with a recent World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation that COVID-19 vaccines be switched for the fall to a monovalent (single-strain) vaccine that contains an XBB lineage strain. ... Also, the ECDC and EMA recommended simplified recommendations for immunization campaigns in the fall, including a single dose for people older than 5 years, that revaccinations stick with a 3-month minimum interval, and that people with weakened immune systems may need extra doses based on national recommendations." https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/european-groups-green-light-covid-19-vaccine-strain-change https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/ema-ecdc-statement-updating-covid-19-vaccines-target-new-sars-cov-2-virus-variants

The US has since ceased providing those letters, and announced the change on the Embassy's website.

Excellent info and post, Sheryl.... One question, re the Bangkok Hospital doctors you mention above, are they only going to be willing to provide palliative care for people with cancer, or, they'll do regardless of the underlying illness?

Not a good look for Bangkok, and a daunting reminder to those of us living here. Perpetually snarled traffic and Thai public unwillingness to make way for emergency vehicles doesn't help in terms of excessively long response times. Meanwhile, no mention at all of the city's or country's total lack of a professionally trained and certified public paramedic service. Instead, we have warring tribes of private accident chasers who somewhat help those in distress when they're not too busy attacking and fighting rival groups.