TallGuyJohninBKK

I saw the Department of Medical Services half hour long news conference today live streamed and broadcast on YouTube... all in Thai, of course, no English version or translations. Frankly, I'd be more interested in hearing better info from MoPH on why there's been a week-over-week 250% increase in Thailand COVID hospitalizations, now averaging about 62 new COVID hospitalizations per day... And those are now at Thailand's highest numbers since the end of January. What kind of age profile are those hospitalizations involving? Are they predominantly Thai or foreign/tourist driven? And what's the vaccination status of those being hospitalized.... Those kinds of details -- which the MoPH isn't providing thus far -- would be more meaningful for the general public. But going off into the weeds on the latest new COVID variant that -- at least for now -- appears no more serious, but possibly somewhat more infectious than the other primary variants circulating in Thailand and elsewhere -- seems a bit overly wonky.

The BMA doesn't seem to do a very good job of presenting an easy to find EN version with the particulars of their various hospitals... But this list seems to emcompass most of them: 1. BMA [Klang] General Hospital 2. Taksin Hospital 3. Charoen Krung Pracharak Hospital 4. Luang Phor Taweesak Chutinataro Uthit Hospital 5. Wetchakarunrat Hospital 6. BMA Lat Krabang Hospital 7. Ratchaphiphat Hospital 8. Sirindhorn Hospital 9. Bangkhuntian Geriatric Hospital http://www.msdbangkok.go.th/HOMEENG.html

That said, while I haven't seen much of anything lately from the national MoPH on COVID vaccine availability, the Bangkok local government a week or so back put out an announcement that Pfizer COVID booster vaccines, including the newer bivalent ones, would be available every Friday afternoon from 1 to 3 pm at the BMA's 69 public health centers. They also seem to be offering the same vaccines at the BMA's dozen public hospitals, though it looks like those have varying hours. Supposedly offered either on a walk-in basis or by appointment using the QueQ mobile app. Has to have been at least 4 months since your last COVID vaccination. Here's a Google Translate version of their Thai announcement: "Bangkok invites people to get vaccinated against COVID-19, a booster needle For people aged 5 years and over, all nationalities Open for walk in or book an appointment via the QueQ application. Every Friday except public holidays from 13.00 - 15.00 At 69 public health service centers or 12 hospitals under Bangkok Source: Department of Health, Bangkok" The following graphic of the announcement includes, in TH, the names and other details of the dozen BMA public hospitals involved under the green-colored entries.. Source link:

AFAIK, the vaccination program at the Institute of Dermatology ended just before Song Kran, and I've seen no indication it will be continuing there post-SK.

November 30, 2017 "The Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders on August 25 sentenced [former Commerce Minister] Boonsong and 19 others to jail terms of 24 to 48 years for their roles in executing fake government-to-government rice deals during the previous Yingluck government’s tenure, causing Bt16.9-billion in financial damage to the state. Weerawut, the third former official convicted, fled the country before the court ruling." "THE NATIONAL Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) yesterday forwarded a case to the Attorney-General regarding former Commerce Ministery secretary Weerawut Wajanaphukka for new indictments and a trial after it decided earlier this month that he should be charged for having accumulated “unusual wealth”. https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/30332914

If I recall from past news reports, a lot of money allocated to the rice pledging scheme ended up going into the pockets of various political types and their cronies serving as middlemen... There was a lot of enrichment for the rich occurring there.... It wasn't whatever subsidies actually went to low-income farmers that was deemed corruption in that episode. Rather, part of what led to the downfall was a series of falsified/fake government to government supposed rice sales where the rice actually went back to middlemen in Thailand for their enrichment at the public's expense, because the funds involved were coming from the Thai government. "In addition to cases against Yingluck and senior members of her former cabinet, the junta is investigating some 850 cases related to the rice scheme for graft, government spokesman General Sansern Kaewkamnerd told Reuters. Many of the cases involve lower ranking public officials and members of the private sector, he said." https://www.reuters.com/article/thailand-politics-yingluck/thai-junta-fines-former-pm-yingluck-orders-assets-seized-over-failed-rice-scheme-idINKCN12L0CP "Some 302 officials from the Public Warehouse Organisation and Marketing Organisation For Farmers as well as warehouse owners and surveyors have been charged with malfeasance in connection with the Yingluck government’s controversial rice pledging scheme." https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/30311029 And a lot of the low-income farmers who were promised payments under the scheme apparently didn't end up getting paid what they were promised. "Yingluck has been charged with dereliction of duty for her role in overseeing a government rice-buying scheme that has run up huge losses and left hundreds of thousands of farmers unpaid." https://www.voanews.com/a/reu-beleaguered-thai-pm-defends-herself-against-rice-charges/1882751.html That said, I wasn't making an argument that Prayut and Co. are any better or any worse than their predecessors when it comes to government corruption.

And these cases in the report are just the ones that made it into public view... Needless to say, considering Thailand, they're likely just the tip of a much larger unseen iceberg... I'd imagine, there's not much in the public record of documented corruption cases involving institutions such as the Armed Forces or the RTP (apart from the well-documented police stations construction debacle). And of course, the family behind the No. 1 corruption case in terms of cost, the rice pledging scheme, seems to have one of its members as the current leading candidate to be the next PM....

BTS and MRT and ARL are my good friends. That's part of the reason I chose to live where I live... because I knew I'd rarely need to drive anywhere (or be driven anywhere) here. Mass transit and good old fashioned walking.

But, last I heard, age isn't... And that alone is enough to potentially get someone in serious health trouble with COVID, even today's Omicron version.

And yet here you are in the thread... again and again.... It's a rather strange way of showing your disinterest...

Age, 60-65 plus, and various other conditions often associated with age (overweight, high blood pressure, diabetes, etc.) have clearly been shown to be major elevated risk factors for bad COVID outcomes. Considering the primary demographic of this forum, you'd think that members here would be more mindful of the risks they face, and more attentive to doing the things within their control to minimize those risks. Yes, people can also die from things like the flu... But the death rate from COVID, even under Omicron, has far exceeded that from the flu, just as one example. 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

Strange thing.... America has more than its fair share of people very much opposed to receiving COVID vaccines and wearing face masks.... and indeed, look what happened to the U.S. COVID death rate. Whereas, people in Thailand were more willing to be vaccinated and continue wearing face masks as recommended by their government, and didn't end up with as bad a COVID death rate as the U.S. Hard to say just what exactly drove what in each situation, but it's at least an interesting contrast. And one that has been noted lately. Traditional values closely linked to following COVID-19 precautions, except in US "A new study from researchers at the University of California-Los Angeles shows the US population's response to COVID-19 precautions stood in sharp contrast to other countries. Worldwide, people who professed to have more traditional or socially conservative values were more likely to adhere to COVID-19 recommendations, but in the United States people with those values were more likely to dismiss such recommendations. ... "In countries where the discourse around science and trust was less polarized, traditionalists were more willing to embrace precautions than their more socially liberal counterparts," study co-author Daniel Fessler, PhD said. "The U.S., where these topics were highly politicized, suffered more COVID-19 deaths per capita than any other highly developed nation." (more) https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/traditional-values-closely-linked-following-covid-19-precautions-except-us

Mask wear etiquette advised by public health agencies is that people should wash their hands or use alcohol gel whenever putting on or taking off a facemask. Lots of folks wear masks exactly in order to be able to "get on" with their lives (and out of consideration to others)... as opposed to ending up in a hospital or worse.

The point that's mainly been debated here on this thread is the BTS Skytrain policy advising people to wear facemasks while on BTS to help reduce the risk of COVID. That's exactly the kind of confined space, crowded setting that face masks would be most recommended for... just as the Thai Ministry of Public Health has done.

The thread here is about COVID in Thailand, not PM2.5. Masks work best when everyone in the room has one on, but you’ll still benefit from masking up even when those around you aren’t ... "A study from Tokyo tested how well different types of masks protected the wearer from actual coronavirus particles. The study showed that even a simple cotton mask offered some protection (17 percent to 27 percent) to the wearer. Medical masks performed better, including a surgical mask (47 percent to 50 percent protection), a loosefitting N95 (57 percent to 86 percent protection) and a tightly sealed N95 (79 percent to 90 percent protection)." https://www.nytimes.com/article/covid-masks-protection-stats.html

And you know that how? You have some source that tells you that? Thais in Bangkok and elsewhere have been wearing face masks long before the relatively recent outbreak of very bad seasonal air pollution.

The chart and statistics were specific to deaths in the U.S. Are large numbers of Americans dying in a war somewhere in the U.S. right now?

And yet, your speculation about how deaths are counted, undercounted, or overcounted here is largely fact-free.... and filled with your own largely unsourced speculations.

In the U.S., as a general rule, a case only gets counted as a COVID related death if COVID either directly caused or contributed to the person's death. That's why doctors there fill out causes on the death certificates. And, there's wide agreement among COVID scientists and researchers that the various official COVID death counts tallied by governments are in fact undercounts to the actual deaths that have occurred.

COVID-19 leading cause of death ranking November 10, 2022 "At the time of this brief, COVID-19 is on track to be the third leading cause of death in the U.S. for the third year in a row. COVID-19 claimed 340,000 lives in 2020, 475,000 lives in 2021, and so far, has taken 230,000 lives in 2022 through September." https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/covid-19-leading-cause-of-death-ranking/

I'm not worried. But I do object to those here who falsely claim nothing is occurring with COVID these days either here in Thailand or elsewhere in the world.... when many people are still getting stick and some still are dying from COVID. "Dr Thares advised all high-risk groups to promptly obtain a new booster shot of the Covid-19 vaccine, particularly focusing on the elderly and those with chronic illnesses. To adapt to the escalating number of new infections, the Ministry of Public Health will revise its vaccination strategy. From next month, booster shots will be administered as they would for seasonal flu vaccinations." https://thethaiger.com/news/national/adapting-ddcs-vaccination-strategy-to-address-increasing-cases

A 250% week over week increase in Thailand COVID hospitalizations is your version of "tiny"?

All the info you want is available at the website you linked to above... but you obviously don't want to acknowledge it... Not to mention that I've previously posted it here in this thread. From the U.S. CDC, all relating to Omicron: "New Hospital Admissions The current 7-day daily average for April 4–11, 2023, was 1,870. Deaths The current 7-day average of new deaths (190) decreased 25.4% compared with the previous 7-day average (254)." PS - surgical nurses don't usually get involved in treating COVID cases.

The official world death count from COVID is approaching 7 million, and the real estimates based on excess deaths data has been put more in the 15-20 million range. How much of an UNDER reaction to that do you want?

190 people per day are dying of COVID on average each and every day in the U.S., per the U.S. CDC. Thailand COVID new hospitalizations are running 60+ per day. We can't talk about actual Thailand COVID cases, because the government doesn't publicly count and report them anymore. And all the major public health agencies -- for our purposes here, WHO, CDC and Thai MoPH, continue to recommend mask wearing to help prevent COVID.