TallGuyJohninBKK

Let's see...and this one is not a hard one to decide... On one hand, we've got the Thai MoPH, US CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics among others (as cited and sourced above) telling us COVID vaccinations for children, even young children, is a good and needed thing. And even the WHO confirming that childhood COVID vaccinations are safe and effective. And on the other hand, we've got a bunch of posters here with, from all appearances, no medical or public health background / expertise at all throwing up their hands in protest, and usually offering few credible sources or attributions for their multitudes of vaccine related claims. Not hard to decide whatsoever.

How do you value the estimated 3 million+ lives saved just in the U.S. thru Nov. 2022 because of COVID vaccinations? $1.1 TRILLION saved is "measly"?

The BKK Post and the Thai PBS report here both quote MoPH officials as saying thus far in 2023, the group of children under age 1 in Thailand has the highest per capita rate of COVID infections (the Post says "illness") among all age groups in Thailand, by a wide margin. The Post also quoted a local pediatrician as saying COVID vaccination cuts the risks of long Covid symptoms and multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C).

Except of course, for the fact that Thailand just recorded its highest number of weekly COVID deaths for all of 2023 thus far -- 68 just in the past week. Along with another year-high tally of 3,085 new COVID hospitalizations for the week.... So it's not so "non severe" as you'd attempt to have people believe, especially for the older age groups and those of any age group with health vulnerabilities.

Thai MoPH, US CDC, American Academy of Pediatrics and others say otherwise.

You're entitled to your opinion. It's not mine. COVID vaccinations saving lives and preventing illness is a pertinent topic no matter what age group or territory is involved. But it would be better of the authorities in Thailand made public more detailed COVID and vaccine related info as occurs in places like the U.S. and U.K., so everyone can clearly understand the benefits involved.

You mean like this: or this: or this:

A few dozen COVID vaccine related deaths in the UK, less in the U.S. (not to diminish those...) But millions of lives saved by COVID vaccinations overall. The math is not hard to figure out. COVID vaccines saved 20M lives in 1st year, scientists say June 24, 2022 "Nearly 20 million lives 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." ... “Catastrophic would be the first word that comes to mind,” Watson said of the outcome if vaccines hadn’t been available to fight the coronavirus. The findings “quantify just how much worse the pandemic could have been if we did not have these vaccines.” 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." https://apnews.com/article/covid-science-health-england-54d29ae3af5c700f15d704c14ee224b5

Saving lives and reducing illness thru COVID vaccinations is exactly what the thread is about. The Thai MoPH is offering prudent advice to the public: Children under 12 months old should be vaccinated against COVID-19 They've already and previously made it very clear in numerous pronouncements that older age groups should get their COVID vaccines and stay up to date with boosters as well. Seems very smart advice, especially on a day when MoPH updates that new COVID hospitalizations and new COVID deaths in Thailand both reached their highest levels of 2023.

Not to mention, the vast majority of COVID vaccinations done here in Thailand are done thru government-run or sponsored vaccination centers. I think I've had 7 shots since the beginning of the pandemic, and never once been injected by a doctor or been seen by a doctor for that purpose. It's just more conspiracy theory nonsense.

Report: COVID-19 vaccines saved US $1.15 trillion, 3 million lives December 14, 2022 " A Commonwealth Fund study estimates that, through November 2022, COVID-19 vaccines prevented more than 18.5 million US hospitalizations and 3.2 million deaths and saved the country $1.15 trillion. The modeling study estimated hospitalizations and deaths averted through the end of November 2022, at a time when 80% of the US population had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine." https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/report-covid-19-vaccines-saved-us-115-trillion-3-million-lives

More than 13 billion COVID vaccine doses have been administered worldwide since the end of 2020.... The U.S. CDC has recorded something like 9 confirmed COVID-vaccine related fatalities. The UK has recorded 50+, mainly because of the AZ vaccines that have largely been halted in favor of mRNA....and were never used in the U.S. Serious health outcomes confirmed to be related to COVID vaccinations are exceedingly rare, and vastly outnumbered by the risk of COVID illness related complications. That's the collective judgment of the WHO, CDC and pretty much every other major public health organization. 13 January 2023 "...research about England by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) published in February 2022 says: “Estimates suggest that 127,500 deaths and 24,144,000 infections have been prevented as a result of the Covid-19 vaccination programme, up to 24 September.”" "The British Heart Foundation said last month that the evidence shows “the benefits of receiving the Covid-19 vaccine greatly outweigh the risk of extremely rare side effects for the vast majority of people”. https://fullfact.org/health/bbc-malhotra-vaccines-excess-deaths/

WHO data appears to show about 91 officially reported COVID deaths for youngsters below 5 years of age since the start of 2023 -- a number about 4 times the comparable number for the age group 5-9. https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiYWRiZWVkNWUtNmM0Ni00MDAwLTljYWMtN2EwNTM3YjQzYmRmIiwidCI6ImY2MTBjMGI3LWJkMjQtNGIzOS04MTBiLTNkYzI4MGFmYjU5MCIsImMiOjh9 Of course, deaths aren't the only COVID outcome to be concerned about. Hospitalizations and potential ongoing health complications also belong on the list. https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiYWRiZWVkNWUtNmM0Ni00MDAwLTljYWMtN2EwNTM3YjQzYmRmIiwidCI6ImY2MTBjMGI3LWJkMjQtNGIzOS04MTBiLTNkYzI4MGFmYjU5MCIsImMiOjh9 The same graphic above also shows officially reported COVID infections in the age group under 5 outnumbering infections in the age 5-9 age group.

AFAIK, at least presently, a person (Thai or farang) can transfer quite large sums of baht via ATM transactions....

It's a North Korean public health official.... not Kim. "The North Korean Ministry of Public Health's Dr. Jong Min Pak has been seated on the WHO's executive board with a term set to last until 2026." https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-congratulates-kim-jong-un-north-korean-election-who-executive-board

Dunno about "majority," but in-house bank theft and fraud against customers is certainly a big business among certain bank staff here.

Or what about ATM transactions. The machines have security cameras, but not facial recognition capability AFAIK.

On a recent trip back to the U.S., I was somewhat shocked when I arrived at the CBP (Customs and Border Protection) checkpoint at my arriving airport, and the officer there didn't even ask for or want to examine my U.S. passport. Rather, he pointed a handheld camera/scanner at my face, and then a couple seconds later simply said.... "Thanks Mr. Tallguy. Welcome back to the U.S." That was a new one for me... Likewise, when at the airport in the U.S. preparing to board the flight back to BKK, the final entry gate before boarding the plane was controlled by facial scanning instead of presenting or scanning my printed boarding pass. The times are a changin'...

American Academy of Pediatrics Applauds CDC Approval of Safe, Effective COVID-19 Vaccines for Children Ages 6 Months and Older 6/18/2022 "Speaking at the ACIP meeting, pediatrician Yvonne “Bonnie” Maldonado, MD, FAAP, chair of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases, emphasized the importance of these vaccines for the youngest members of our community, who have waited the longest for this protection. “Pediatricians know the power of vaccines to protect infants, children, adolescents and entire communities against deadly and debilitating infectious diseases,” Dr. Maldonado said. “We’ve successfully immunized millions of children and adolescents to protect them from COVID-19. Families with infants and toddlers need and deserve the same chance to protect their children against this virus.” https://www.aap.org/en/news-room/news-releases/aap/2022/american-academy-of-pediatrics-applauds-cdc-approval-of-safe-effective-covid-19-vaccines-for-children-ages-6-months-and-older/

The point is to keep healthy babies healthy, and not have them become ill with COVID... But, of course, you know that. "Vaccine safety Over 1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses (either Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines) have been administered to children aged 6 months to 5 years in the United States of America (US) since June 2022 (reference 7). Post-marketing surveillance in this population indicates that the most commonly reported adverse events are local and systemic reactions. There have been no new or unexpected concerns." source link:

All of this, meanwhile, is an interesting diversion from the fact that the latest MoPH weekly update showed Thailand's new weekly COVID hospitalizations and COVID deaths at new year-high levels for 2023. It's almost like MoPH doesn't really want to talk about or focus on those facts, and Thai PBS certainly didn't report them.

Part of the WHO's guidance to countries in dealing with their COVID vaccinations policy is that each country should be responsive to the particular local conditions / circumstances in their locale. It appears that's exactly what the Thai MoPH is doing here, as explained in the OP article: "Dr, Tares Krassanairawiwong, director-general of the Disease Control Department, said that, from January 1st to May 20th, the COVID-19 infection rate among under children less than a year old was 1,581 for every 100,000 of the population, followed by 647 for 100,000 of the population among people aged over 70." MoPH seems to be saying infants thus far in 2023 in Thailand have the highest per capita COVID infection rate of any age group, hence the vaccinations recommendation.

AFAIK, the UK is continuing to make COVID vaccines available to children who are deemed in high-risk groups for other reasons: COVID-19 vaccination of children aged 6 months to 4 years: JCVI advice, 9 December 2022 (updated 26 April 2023) Updated 3 May 2023 "Regarding children aged 6 months to 4 years, JCVI advises that: children aged 6 months to 4 years in a clinical risk group (as defined in the Green Book) should be offered two 3-microgram doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine (Comirnaty®) with an interval of at least 8 weeks between the first and second doses ... JCVI does not currently advise COVID-19 vaccination of children aged 6 months to 4 years who are not in a clinical risk group" https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-vaccination-of-children-aged-6-months-to-4-years-jcvi-advice-9-december-2022/covid-19-vaccination-of-children-aged-6-months-to-4-years-jcvi-advice-9-december-2022

The public health recommendation in Thailand is to get BOTH, even together at the same time.

The Pfizer vaccine started out at 95% efficacy against symptomatic COVID infection in the main clinical trial against the original version of the COVID virus.... It was the virus and ensuing variants that changed after that. 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