TallGuyJohninBKK

Most of the US FI's I deal with typically want some kind of US mobile number on your account record when you first set up and open a new account. But once the accounts are up and running, IME, most of the ones I deal with will give you the choice of them sending the 2FA online banking log-in code either to an email address or mobile number you have on file for your account.

I saw a video review a while back on YT where a tech geek guy ran a series of comparison tests on a whole series of AA rechargeable consumer batteries... Among the best performing, and I didn't even know they sold them before that, were a house brand sold by IKEA, which are available via the IKEA Thailand website. Because I then bought some there and have been using them ever since. To my surprise, the brand I'd long used, Eneloop, performed somewhat worse than the IKEA brand overall, but still better than a lot of other brands.

I recently came back to Thailand via Suvarnabhumi mid-afternoon on a weekday. The line at my Immigration counter, to my somewhat surprise and relief, was pretty short and brief. But the visa on arrival counter just outside the main Immigration section was rammed with people and long queues.... Seems like I saw a lot of Chinese and Indians there, among others.

Mutating respiratory vaccines, at least with current medical technology, are always going to be in a different category of effectiveness from the others..... Look at the flu vaccine by comparison: "While vaccine effectiveness (VE) can vary, recent studies show that flu vaccination reduces the risk of flu illness by between 40% and 60% among the overall population during seasons when most circulating flu viruses are well-matched to those used to make flu vaccines." https://www.cdc.gov/flu/vaccines-work/vaccineeffect.htm

When this becomes the "Global Now" forum, you might have a point. But as long as it remains the "Asean Now" forum, I'm gonna continue to focus on Asia region country results inclusive of Thailand, as I did. The rest of the article speaks for itself. Pertinent takeaway is: COVID cases up in Thailand, China, South Korea, Australia, Philippines and Indonesia. And for those who don't already know, this forum has a forum rule limiting the amount of article content that can be quoted in a post to more or less three sentences. So in this case, it was a matter of excerpting the most relevant details for our little corner of the world.

Reporting re the WHO's most recent global COVID report: Global COVID-19 activity remains mixed ... In the Western Pacific, Mongolia, Palau, and the Philippines reported the highest proportional rises, with cases up modestly in South Korea and Australia. ... Chinese infectious disease experts last week said the country was experiencing another surge in cases, but there are few new details, other than that deaths were up sharply over the past 4 weeks. ... Elsewhere in Asia, Thailand reported a steady rise in cases. The country is part of the WHO's Southeast Asia region, which saw an overall decrease over the most recent reporting period. Also, Indonesia reported a smaller rise in activity." (more) https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/global-covid-19-activity-remains-mixed

Seems like there's quite a bit of news media attention being given to the rising COVID case counts in Australia, not at all different from Thailand.... Local coverage just from today and recent days: Australia records 37,448 new Covid-19 cases as winter begins A winter warning for Covid-19 is under way across Australia as tens of thousands of people contract the virus. https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/australia-records-37448-new-covid19-cases-as-winter-begins/news-story/737a2b783ba14c5a7a58a323e8f4b187 Covid cases spike 28 per cent in a month as concerns rise about effect of a fifth wave of the virus on Australia's workforce Experts have warned about a fifth wave of Covid across Australia, with a rise in case numbers and hospitalisations driving many Aussie workers to take sick leave. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12154213/Coronavirus-concerns-fifth-wave-Australia-28-cent-monthly-increase-case-numbers.html ‘Now’s the time’: Australians urged to get flu and COVID shots as cases rise Australians are being urged to get their booster shots, with COVID-19 and influenza cases rising as the country heads into winter. The number of notifications of laboratory-confirmed influenza has increased across Australia in the first two weeks of May, and the week to May 23 saw an average of 5884 COVID cases reported per day – part of a steady daily increase since February. https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/2023/05/30/covid-flu-booster-winter/ China, Thailand, Australia, elsewhere.... I guess COVID isn't quite as "finished" or "done" as some people here mistakenly seem to think.

Interesting study below from the U.S., in that the Thai officials have in part publicly blamed the return of Thai students to classes for the local surge in COVID cases that began in April: More than 70% of US household COVID spread started with a child, study suggests A study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open suggests that 70.4% of nearly 850,000 US household COVID-19 transmissions originated with a child. ... "Once US schools reopened in fall 2020, children contributed more to inferred within-household transmission when they were in school, and less during summer and winter breaks, a pattern consistent for 2 consecutive school years." ... The authors concluded that children had an important role in the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and that in-person school also resulted in substantial spread." (more) https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/more-70-us-household-covid-spread-started-child-study-suggests

This is from a past BKK Bank brochure on foreigners opening accounts with them via a tourist visa... (Note, I can't say whether or not they've changed their policy since this was published): https://www.bangkokbank.com/-/media/Files/Personal/Other-Services/Branch-Services/International-Branches/ExpatBooklet_Jan2017.ashx?la=en&hash=15587776FB3E6C04F9DE10BC2742AFE153E20D44

When the BMA doesn't even know/can't decide what district office is responsible for a particular location, you know things aren't going in a good direction. Welcome to Thailand and its stifling government bureaucracy.

Chinese government official reporting about their COVID cases is just about as believable and reliable as most of your COVID posts. For example, relative to your supposed 100 million cumulative COVID cases figure posted above: Leaked notes from Chinese health officials estimate 250 million Covid-19 infections in December: reports "Hong Kong CNN — Almost 250 million people in China may have caught Covid-19 in the first 20 days of December, according to an internal estimate from the nation’s top health officials, Bloomberg News and the Financial Times reported Friday." https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/23/china/china-covid-infections-250-million-intl-hnk/index.html

Another obscure study authored, not surprisingly, by a Russian doctor from anti-vax Florida in the USA whose listed affiliation is with the school's Alzheimer's Research Institute. Ya right.....

"For the second wave since April, Zhong’s modeling revealed that the XBB variant is expected to cause 40 million infections weekly by May, going up to 65 million in June. This goes against the grain of Chinese health officials’ estimate that the wave had peaked in April. In Beijing, the number of new infections recorded between May 15 and 21 grew four times in four weeks." And, in one illustration of how government policies increasingly are making COVID data reporting unreliable on the undercounting side, virtually none of those Chinese COVID cases are officially being reported by China to the World Health Organization for use in their global COVID tallies.... Just like Thailand last fall stopped actually publicly counting and reporting COVID infections / positive tests, and now only reports COVID hospitalizations as "cases."

COVID vaccinations don't cause COVID. Perhaps you should look at your own behaviors, as to why you supposedly kept coming down with the virus, when others such as myself didn't. "MYTH: A COVID-19 vaccine can make me sick with COVID-19. FACT: Because none of the authorized COVID-19 vaccines in the United States contain the live virus that causes COVID-19, the vaccine cannot make you sick with COVID-19." https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/facts.html "Myth: You can get COVID-19 from the vaccines. This is FALSE. “There’s no live virus in the vaccines, so they can’t infect you,” says Dr. Cunningham. “Basically, the vaccines make our bodies produce one single protein from the virus—the protein that infects our cells. By making that protein, we prevent infection. You might have side effects like a headache or chills, but that’s because your body is creating an immune response, not because you have an infection.” https://www.henryford.com/blog/2021/08/vaccine-myths

The time is greater now than any time thus far in 2023: Thailand weekly new COVID hospitalizations and deaths: March 26 to April 1: May 21 to 27: https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/posts/pfbid02tXUeEnaX7KySm7i7jAyPCUYaMemoQEPccFeAgjfANwb55nUWFzRphFuHWPp1o99Cl -- New weekly COVID hospitalizations in Thailand (2,970) are at the highest level thus far for 2023. --COVID patients hospitalized in serious condition (425) are at the highest level thus far for 2023. --COVID hospitalized patients requiring intubation in order to breathe (253) are at the highest level thus far for 2023.

Reputable studies, and organizations such as the U.S. National Institutes of Health, have found insufficient evidence that Vitamin D actually helps prevent or treats COVID. Vitamin D doesn't prevent COVID-19, other respiratory infections, studies find https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/vitamin-d-doesnt-prevent-covid-19-other-respiratory-infections-studies-find AND "NIH COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Although multiple observational cohort studies suggest that people with low vitamin D levels are at increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and worse clinical outcomes after infection (e.g., higher mortality rates), clear evidence that vitamin D supplementation provides protection against infection or improves outcomes in patients with COVID-19 is still lacking.1,2 Recommendation There is insufficient evidence for the Panel to recommend either for or against the use of vitamin D for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19." https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/therapies/supplements/vitamin-d/ As the NIH document above explains, the various studies that have found benefit from Vitamin D tend to have been poorly done or have other limitations that make their findings suspect.

Perhaps that's because... --In Thailand, new COVID hospitalizations are at a year-high level for 2023, more than 400 new per day on average, and have been steadily rising since April. --Whereas in the U.S. for example, COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths have been declining pretty steadily for months now. Some people here seem to have geographic confusion... This is Thailand, not the U.S. or the U.K. The COVID situation here should be judged on what's occurring here...not in some other countries with entirely different COVID situations. Back in March when new COVID hospitalizations in Thailand were running 150-170 per week, no one was much talking about COVID here, myself included. But now, new COVID hospitalizations in Thailand have steadily risen for the past two months to now nearly 3,000 per week, and people are rightfully talking.

No, you take the Thai Ministry of Public Health's word for it, when they count them as "COVID deaths" and "COVID hospitalizations."

The source is the Thai Ministry of Public Health, which compiles and reports the COVID deaths and hospitalizations data. If you don't believe them, I'm sure they'd be happy to hear from you.

The vaccines DO prevent infections, just not 100%. More earlier in the pandemic. Less more recently amid Omicron. That's absolutely true. As for your quoted comments, you mean to tell me politicians mis-speak? Really! Surely, it's never happened before.

Thailand doesn't follow the same reporting rules as the UK, nor does the U.S. for that matter. And the UK had different COVID death counting policies among different agencies. Read again what I wrote above regarding Thailand. It was clear and specific as to what are reflected in Thailand's COVID death statistics, though I don't have a breakdown for the shares of deaths with COVID as the main cause vs. COVID as a contributing cause. Background on the UK: "Claims that COVID-19 deaths are lower than reported have been common throughout the pandemic from critics who argue the virus is not as serious as we are being led to believe. In fact, however, researchers have found evidence that overall deaths from COVID-19 have been undercounted, not overcounted, since the start of the pandemic." https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/jan/24/youtube-videos/no-death-totals-covid-19-england-have-not-been-ove/

Thailand counts them as COVID deaths, which under their system, means the death was either caused by COVID or COVID was a contributing factor.

Yes they are, but not as effective as they had been against prior variants. No, that isn't "best." Thailand had nearly 3,000 new COVID hospitalizations in the past week, a new weekly high for 2023, and 42 new COVID deaths. Don't wish for the pandemic here to get any worse than it already is.

It was a tiny blip on what now is a 3-1/2 year long COVID pandemic. If her comments encouraged more people to get vaccinated and thus in reality actually ended up reducing their chances of getting sick from or dying from COVID, thus saving lives, I'll forgive her the momentary, one-off misspeak.

What vaccines have been able to do against the COVID virus have changed regularly since the outbreak of the pandemic right up thru today, not because public figures were intentionally misleading, but because the virus has evolved and mutated into new and different forms -- Alpha, Delta, Omicron, etc. At the very beginning of the pandemic, the research was clear at that time, against the original version of the virus, that the mRNA vaccines had a very high impact in preventing infections. But that didn't last as the pandemic continued and the virus mutated. Pfizer and BioNTech Conclude Phase 3 Study of COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate, Meeting All Primary Efficacy Endpoints Wednesday, November 18, 2020 "Primary efficacy analysis demonstrates BNT162b2 to be 95% effective against COVID-19 beginning 28 days after the first dose... ... Efficacy was consistent across age, gender, race and ethnicity demographics; observed efficacy in adults over 65 years of age was over 94%" https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-and-biontech-conclude-phase-3-study-covid-19-vaccine