TallGuyJohninBKK

So, if the Thai MoPH can report this kind of COVID infection rate data above for different age groups for 2023 thus far, does that suggest they in fact are continuing to internally / privately track the country's numbers of COVID infections / positive tests -- even though they've ceased publicly reporting that data???

U.S. FDA authorizes Pfizer bivalent COVID booster for kids 6 months through age 4 March 16, 2023 The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced yesterday that it authorized the emergency use of Pfizer-BioNTech's bivalent (two-strain) booster in children ages 6 months through 4 years who have had their primary Pfizer vaccine series, which is three doses. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/fda-authorizes-pfizer-bivalent-covid-booster-kids-6-months-through-age-4

U.S. CDC policy: "CDC recommends COVID-19 vaccines for everyone ages 6 months and older, and boosters for everyone 5 years and older, if eligible." https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/planning/children/equity.html And from the WHO: "A WHO advisory group released new guidance that suggests countries prioritize continued COVID-19 vaccinations for those most at risk, such as older people and those with underlying health conditions. The group said countries should consider prioritizing vaccines against more threatening diseases for healthy young people, but it did not recommend against COVID-19 shots, which it said are safe and effective." https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-who-guidance-2023-covid-vaccines-children-teens-418558787448

Here's a more complete look at just what is being reported in the lastest MoPH COVID update -- year-high new COVID hospitalizations and deaths for 2023:

A Thai PBS report today adds the following details: Regarding the new deaths: "97% of whom were over 60 or had underlying diseases." "It was also discovered that 45.6% of those who perished had not received a vaccine booster shot for over three months or had not received two vaccine shots." https://www.thaipbsworld.com/children-under-12-months-old-should-be-vaccinated-against-covid-19/ https://aseannow.com/topic/1296927-children-under-12-months-old-should-be-vaccinated-against-covid-19/

Latest MoPH update for last week:

Latest MoPH update for last week:

Thailand's recent COVID resurgence continued to worsen last week, with new weekly COVID hospitalizations and new COVID deaths for the week rising to set new highs for the year, despite some good news of declines in the numbers of serious condition hospitalizations and intubations. The Thai Ministry of Health on Monday reported 3,085 new COVID hospitalizations for the week of May 28 to June 3, up 3.9% from the 2,970 reported the week before. New COVID deaths for the latest week hit 68, up 62% from the 42 reported the week before, and slightly higher than the 64 reported two weeks ago. The latest weekly new hospitalization and new deaths figures are the highest thus far in 2023. For last week, new COVID hospitalizations were averaging 440 per day, while COVID deaths were averaging nine per day. With Monday's update, new weekly COVID hospitalizations in Thailand have now increased for nine of the past 10 weeks since the country'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. The latest new hospitalizations tally is 18 times higher than the 167 reported at the beginning of April. The latest new deaths tally is nearly 23 times the 3 weekly deaths reported at the beginning of April. There were several glimmers of good news in the latest data, meanwhile. The latest 3.9% weekly increase in new COVID hospitalizations represents a smaller increase than the nearly 13% increase of two weeks ago, perhaps suggesting a slowing upward trend if that pattern holds in the coming weeks. Also, the tally of COVID hospitalized patients listed in serious condition declined 9.2% from 425 two weeks ago, which was a year-high, to 386 last week. Though the latest number is still nearly 13 times higher than the 30 serious COVID hospitalizations reported at the beginning of April. Likewise, the tally of COVID hospitalized patients requiring intubation in order to breath fell by 4% from 253 two weeks ago, also a year-high, to 243 last week. Though the latest number also is nearly 12 times higher than the 21 COVID intubations reported at the beginning of April. Monday's update represented the first time in 2023 that new weekly COVID hospitalizations in Thailand surpassed the 3,000 threshold. The Thai government last fall stopped officially counting and reporting regular COVID infections and positive tests, and since then has only counted COVID hospitalizations as the country's tally of COVID "cases." According to the latest MoPH update, cumulative COVID hospitalizations in 2023 have now totaled 21,124, while total COVID deaths for the year have now reached 494. As has been their practice of late, the Thai MoPH in their posted update provided no demographic details -- ages, vaccination status, nationalities, etc. -- about the latest COVID hospitalizations and deaths. https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/

I wouldn't buy that, nor would I eat it!

Ha!! I used to LOVE eating the former Urban Pizza New York style pizzas that were an offshoot of Pizza Company. They had a pepperoni, sausage and jalapenos version that was really tasty, and what I didn't finish the first night, I'd end up having for breakfast or snacks in ensuing days.... Surprisingly good for a local Thai operation. And then, poof!, they were gone. https://www.facebook.com/Urbanpizzathailand/

I'd wager virtually no one alive who eats food in Thailand is suffering from a lack/shortage of salt in their food. In the vast majority of cases, it's just the opposite.... Same with sugar... Hence the huge numbers of Thais with high blood pressure and/or diabetes.

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