TallGuyJohninBKK

The most recent week-over-week increase in new COVID hospitalizations (as shown in the first chart below) was about 250%, e.g. 2-1/2 times more new COVID hospitalizations than from the prior week, averaging 62 per day... And that's not hospital visits to see a doctor, but actual hospital inpatient admissions for COVID. Let's wait and see how big or small the current COVID uptick is in the next MoPH update due out at the end of this current week. Right now, weekly new COVID hospitalizations in Thailand are at their highest level since late January. April 9-15, 2023 https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos

The Dominion saga exposed Fox for the propaganda outlet it's always been, but accountability cannot end with the settlement ... "The trial presented a rare moment of accountability for Fox -- and perhaps the greatest threat to the network since its founding. Fox has steadily amassed power and profit over the last several decades, using virulent rhetoric, unhinged commentary, and baldfaced fabrications to create a media juggernaut with expansive influence over the conservative movement, the Republican Party, and the United States at large. ... But even without the trial, the network has been completely exposed for what critics like Media Matters have long shown that it is: a shameless Republican propaganda organ that prioritizes profit and politics over anything resembling journalistic ethics." https://www.mediamatters.org/foxdominion-lawsuit/dominion-saga-exposed-fox-propaganda-outlet-its-always-been-accountability Well and aptly said.

Perhaps Fox's settlement here was a recognition of how the court case against them was likely to fare, considering one of the recent comments by the judge in the case, as follows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5byuXpK7MNk I guess you know you're going down the drain when the judge handling the case feels the need to emphasize the extent of Fox's lies with the all-caps reference "CRYSTAL clear"! ????

A private hospital in BKK offering the Pfizer bivalent vaccine on a couple of upcoming dates:

I think you'd have to search far and wide to find such an egregious case of a major U.S. "news" source putting forward a sustained many months long campaign of endlessly repeated blatant disinformation / false information on such an important, pivotal national issue that, according to its depositions, even Fox management and the falsity spouting hosts knew was false. Good luck with that! In dollar terms, the media are describing the nearly $800 million settlement here as the largest defamation settlement in U.S. history. There's a reason for that, and it's based on the extremity of Fox's conduct here..

Unfortunately, of little help to anyone here now... It was at the government's Institute of Dermatology near Victory Monument in BKK. And it was free for both of us...And that site and its program were reasonably well-publicized here on the forum. However, AFAIK, the MoPH ended the vaccinations at IOD just before Song Kran, and isn't resuming them there. Instead, at least in Bangkok, there appears to be a shift to offering them at district health centers on Friday afternoons from 1-3 pm, and at the BMA's dozen or so public hospitals, most of which are probably little known to the average expat. I've heard little to nothing lately from the various better known private hospitals as to whether they have any offerings of the bivalent vaccines, or even the original ones for that matter. Another member posted here lately that he was able to receive a bivalent vaccine shot in Chiang Mai... but I don't believe he provided any details of how and where.

"In addition to the huge financial price, Dominion exacted a difficult admission from Fox News, which acknowledged in a statement that “certain claims” it made about Dominion were false." ... " the network was not forced to apologize — a concession that Dominion lawyers had sought, lawyers involved in the case said." https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/18/business/media/fox-dominion-defamation-settle.html

Be very interested to see/hear just what exact kind of "admitting to telling lies" admissions Fox will have to publicly make via the terms of the settlement. And even more so, whether this resolution and the likely coming resolution of the Smartmatic litigation will have any meaningful curative effect on the volumes of misinformation rubbish regularly purveyed by the Fox opinion non-news hosts such as Carlson, Hannity, and the rest.

Wife and I both recently had the newer Pfizer bivalent vaccines here in Thailand. As with all the prior vax shots we've received since the beginning, not much other than some day-after arm soreness in the area of the shot, and some minor acheyness and fatigue for a day or so. All of that is standard fare for vaccinations of all types.

Worth noting: F.D.A. Authorizes Another Covid Booster Shot for People Over 65 April 18, 2023 The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday authorized an additional round of bivalent booster shots for adults who are 65 and over as well as people with compromised immune systems. The effort is to ensure ongoing protection against Covid, which is still claiming more than 1,300 lives each week. ... The agency said people who are 65 and older who have not had a bivalent booster shot in at least four months may get another one. For those who are immunocompromised, additional doses of the bivalent vaccine can be given two months after the last shot. Those who are unvaccinated can get a single dose of the bivalent booster, the agency said." https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/18/health/covid-booster-shots-seniors.html It's interesting that Thailand's current policy on the bivalent boosters is actually broader than the one in the U.S. Here, you don't need to be 65+ in order to qualify for the bivalent booster. You just need to have gone at least 4 months since your last prior shot. Here, you just need to be able to FIND the newer vaccine....

See the following thread:

It's not the governments or public health agencies that are putting forward false narratives to, in your view, exercise "control" and promote "fear..." It's private party social media whack jobs... Thai language ones at that. Your conspiracy theory-tinged post above (as quoted below) implies it was some kind of government or medical establishment based campaign. It was NOT!

COVID, even the current Omicron variants, have worse health impacts than the flu. They're not the same in terms of their impact, contrary to your, as usual, entirely unsourced claims. COVID Omicron variant infection deadlier than flu, studies suggest April 8, 2023 "Two new studies suggest that COVID-19 Omicron variant infection is deadlier than influenza, with one finding that US veterans hospitalized with Omicron in fall and winter 2022-23 died at a 61% higher rate than hospitalized flu patients, and the other revealing that Israeli adults hospitalized with flu were 55% less likely to die within 30 days than those admitted for Omicron in the 2021-22 flu season." https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/covid-omicron-variant-infection-deadlier-flu-studies-suggest Omicron hospital illness 54% deadlier than flu hospital cases, study finds February 17, 2023 Adults hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron infections in Switzerland died at 1.5 times the rate of those diagnosed as having influenza A or B, shows a multicenter study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/omicron-hospital-illness-54-deadlier-flu-hospital-cases-study-finds

from the Thai government posted a day ago: "Fake news, don't share!!!! “Omicron XBB is 5 times more powerful than Delta. and higher mortality rate.” Source: Department of Disease Control, Ministry of Public Health" https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/posts/pfbid06qaXEND6D6fWgM3dTUEsanmwnzcT9KifCvWtLWjdrKgtJJthBxF5ud6jhTRfBHccl

There was some Thai language fake news social media posts in Thailand making the false claim that the latest Omicron variant is as bad as or worse that Delta... To their credit, the Thai government/medical establishment promptly denounced that social media posting as FALSE... No one is the Thailand government medical establishment is pushing that kind of false info.... sorry to disappoint you.

I'd challenge you to present any credible source that says each successive COVID variant is getting "weaker and weaker." I think you'd be hard pressed to credibly make a case for that -- other than you just making the claim as you often do, with absolutely no credible sourcing to support it. What you would find are two main themes: 1. Omicron variants in general are different than their predecessor Delta variants, in that the former tend to have greater impact on the upper respiratory areas, while the latter had greater impact on the lower respiratory areas. 2. To the extent death and hospitalization rates have been falling in various places, but not all places, in addition to the impact of No. 1 above, it's also believed related to the combined protective effects of mass COVID vaccinations along with the fact that much of the world's population has already had some prior COVID infection. In general, the experts in the COVID field have generally assessed thus far that all the various Omicron variants thus far have been pretty similar in their health effects... The one area where the newer Omicron variants may be getting worse is, at least in the lab testing, the newer Omicron variants have elements that suggest they'll have somewhat greater ability to avoid the protections of vaccines.

Not as rare as you seem to think... From the U.S. CDC: "During the period of Omicron predominance (December 19, 2021–February 28, 2022), COVID-19–associated hospitalization rates in children aged 5–11 years were approximately twice as high among unvaccinated as among vaccinated children. ... Thirty percent of hospitalized children had no underlying medical conditions, and 19% were admitted to an intensive care unit. Children with diabetes and obesity were more likely to experience severe COVID-19." https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7116e1.htm

That may be the law of averages, but being young and without health problems is not some kind of absolute guarantee that COVID, even Omicron, won't cause them health problems. The cases below involved the current Omicron variants. Mothers passed COVID to babies through placenta, possibly causing brain damage, death April 12, 2023 "Two mothers who gave birth at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida, passed along the COVID-19 infection to their newborns through the placenta, researchers at the University of Miami Health System and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have found. In both cases, the infection caused brain damage in the babies, according to a press release summarizing the findings from the study, which was published in the journal Pediatrics on April 6. Although both babies tested negative for the COVID-19 virus at birth, they experienced "seizures, small head sizes and developmental delays," the press release said. (more) https://www.foxnews.com/health/mothers-passed-covid-babies-placenta-possibly-causing-brain-damage-death One of the babies involved later died at age 13 months.

[responding to a now removed comment regarding non-mRNA vaccines from China vs mRNA vaccines...] The mRNA vaccines have been shown to be more effective against COVID than the non-mRNA ones originally produced by China... Now recently, China is increasingly moving toward using mRNA COVID vaccines for its own population. Even the Chinese know that's the way forward. China Approves an mRNA Covid Vaccine, Its First March 22, 2023 China has for the first time approved a Covid-19 vaccine based on mRNA technology, greenlighting a homegrown shot months after the ruling Communist Party eliminated its strict pandemic restrictions. ... Among the vaccines currently available in China, the most widely known are made by the companies Sinopharm and Sinovac. Like other traditional vaccines, they rely on a century-old method for inoculation, which use an inactivated virus to trigger a response by the immune system, and have since proven to be less effective in protecting against symptomatic disease. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/22/business/china-mrna-covid-vaccine.html

I'd certainly like to know..... as I mentioned in my post above.. But thus far... TH MoPH isn't providing those kinds of details....

I'd certainly like to know..... as I mentioned in my post above.. But thus far... TH MoPH isn't providing those kinds of details.... But FWIW, IMO, the COVID deaths of people in their 60s, 70s or 80s are no less sad or meaningful than the less common COVID deaths of younger aged folks.

It may be mild... except for those who end up hospitalized or dead.... The newer bivalent COVID booster shots are particularly being recommended for people who are older (often age 65 and up) and/or those with a range of pre-existing health conditions that could make them more vulnerable to illness from COVID.

Throughout the COVID pandemic, the Thai MoPH had a somewhat consistent pattern of providing English versions of their updates in various forms... So it's nothing new for them. But those companion English versions ceased when Thailand downgraded its COVID response some months back. They provided the EN versions as an information resource to the large English speaking expat community in Thailand, as well as for the international news media who previously covered COVID issues in Thailand.... and mainly were EN speakers.

Yes death... 273 official COVID deaths in Thailand since the start of 2023, including two new deaths in the past week, fortunately a small number compared to those from prior years of the pandemic here. MoPH Weekly report for April 9 - 15 (new COVID hospitalizations in red, COVID deaths in black). The bottom section shows totals of each thus far for the calendar year. https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/posts/pfbid09Zw4rzwCWPiRC48qsYFk6rne1Y32i3ZqQKQtzzgCGWd3zEbFEW7uckC1SYGu9Nfcl And yes, lung infections and pneumonia from Omicron COVID: "Department director-general Tharet Krutnairawiwong said 435 patients were admitted to hospital for treatment of Covid-19 between April 9 and 15, about 62 cases per day. Of the number, 30 had lung inflammation and 19 were put on ventilators, up 58% and 36% respectively, from the previous week." https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/general/40026704

The newer bivalent version of the Pfizer vaccine has been available in Thailand, especially Bangkok, the past couple months -- though not especially well publicized. Under TH MoPH policy, to get that bivalent booster, you need to have had at least 4 months since your last prior vaccination. Those vaxes are free to long-term expats, and possible would involve a fee for tourists or people on tourist status.