TallGuyJohninBKK

For some time now, the U.S. daily death rate from COVID has been in the 400 to 500 deaths per day range, with the more recent daily tallies being around 420. If you annualized that current COVID death rate in the U.S., it would equal about 146,000 deaths per year... which is far and way more than any annual total the U.S. has had of flu deaths in any recent years. Even if the COVID deaths are/were all "oldsters", which they're not -- last stats I saw had about 25% of the U.S. COVID deaths being among people age 64 and younger -- that still a lot of deaths above and beyond the norms. "Going strictly by the numbers, COVID-19 is still claiming around 400 lives per day in the U.S., which is roughly 3 times as many as the flu. A recent report used death certificate data and found COVID-19 to be four times as deadly as the flu in England and Wales." https://www.goodrx.com/conditions/covid-19/flu-vs-coronavirus-mortality-and-death-rates-by-year

Per the U.S. CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7106e1.htm

That's a good way of describing it. The reality is, mask wearing does REDUCE (but not eliminate) the chances of catching COVID. There are a lot of different variables that go into how much reduction occurs. If two people who come into contact with each other are both wearing masks, the odds of spreading the virus are reduced more. If only one of the two is wearing a mask, there's a lesser level of protection. And then as Scott points out, the distance and duration of the contact also matters... the longer and closer two contacts are, the greater the risk. The shorter duration and more distance between contacts, the risk is reduced. And of course, the better quality of the mask and it being properly and tightly fit on the face, the risks go down. But with a loose fitting and poor quality masks, there's a lower level of protection. However, I've seen many medical experts and public health officials say the following in varying forms.. basically -- when it comes to protecting against COVID, any normal mask wearing is going provide more protection than wearing no mask at all.

The wife and I stopped by Dean & DeLuca in BKK this weekend, and low and behold, what did we find on their menu but whole and half Maine LOBSTERS! And at about the same prices at those from Red Lobster above. Snaps from the D&D menu:

The burger I got from them via delivery a month or so back was quite good, IMHO... I've been meaning to reorder from them.

In looking on Agoda, I'm seeing future Adelphi Suites rooms for under or above 4000b in some cases prior to tax. The Hope Land Hotel, located about halfway down the soi, has comparably sized rooms for about half the price, generally speaking... Hope Land started out as a planned condo project, but was converted along the way into a hotel. Not recommending them, but just pointing out the pricing disparity.

At those prices, a person could stay at the fancier Landmark Hotel on Suk Rd near Soi 6, just a few blocks away.

If you mean Lyf, the oldest review for them on Trip Advisor is from mid 2020... and the hotel manager there at the time says they were due to open July 31, 2020... which was during the first year of the pandemic. Though as I mentioned, for a long period thereafter, they had a sign out front saying they were only taking COVID stays. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g293916-d20237247-Reviews-or70-Lyf_Sukhumvit_8_Bangkok-Bangkok.html#REVIEWS Agoda lists them as having opened in 2022, which probably a reflection of when they transitioned from COVID stays to general tourist bookings.

There's also an oddly named new place at the very top of the soi called 'lyf Sukhumvit 8" that was built during the pandemic, then had a limited opening just for COVID quarantine guests, and then finally opened for good. I know absolutely nothing about the place, other than as it was being built, the exterior design and appearance reminded me quite a bit of prison architecture. However, Google Maps says it's a 4-star hotel and recent reviews on GM seem generally positive. The interior design and features seem to me to be, how shall I say, "quirky."

Adelphi is a decent hotel in a good, convenient location, with a good restaurant on-site... But, that price above (5K+ baht per night) IMHO is pretty excessive for what you get and relative to the broader BKK Hotel market.

The Royal Asia Lodge Hotel at the end of the soi -- one of the first places I stayed as a tourist to Thailand many years back -- has been closed for several years, and is listed on Google Maps as "permanently closed." The Promenade Hotel, about midway down the soi, is back open again lately after closing during the pandemic, but probably was past its "expire" date about a decade ago. The more active and newer hotels on the soi include the Adelphi, Hopeland, Salil and Citadines. Stable Lodge is a bit of a niche place aimed at Europeans/Nordic folks.

Science fact checking says this author's conclusions are flawed and wrong. Read the full article linked below that explains why, as I'm limited in how much of it I can quote here. Scientific evidence shows that mask-wearing is effective at limiting community transmission; claims that face masks increase mortality are based on flawed correlation studies ... "Well-designed studies that account for confounding have reported that widespread mask-wearing reduces the spread of COVID-19 in the community. ... More importantly, Spira and Foegen’s analyses are fundamentally flawed and don’t support their own conclusions. ... In their current form, the studies aren’t equipped to tell us whether there is a causal relationship between mask-wearing and a higher risk of death from COVID-19. The failure to recognize this limitation is known as the ecological fallacy." https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/scientific-evidence-shows-mask-wearing-effective-at-limiting-community-transmission-claims-face-masks-increase-mortality-based-on-flawed-correlation-studies/

I recall there being past cases of widely advertised and promoted Botox "doctors" here who, after being in business for a long while, finally end up being arrested and found to not be MD doctors at all, but instead, former clinic staff who went into business for themselves.... and had been treating and injecting patients with no license or qualifications whatsoever. Regulation and enforcement here are non-existent!

Re your use of the term "contracts," are you talking about fixed term deposit accounts where you commit to keep the deposit in place for X years? Kind of like the Thai version of certificates of deposit? As opposed to regular liquid savings accounts?

That seems like that kind of approach should not run afoul of Immigration. Anyone have any personal experience with doing it that way?

I think the OP has a good question... I've always wondered...if I ever needed to relocate my current 800K deposit account associated with my retirement extension, the question of HOW and WHEN to do it in a way that doesn't end up causing some grief from TH Immigration.

It depends on what kind and size of living space the person needs to protect... People should shop for a unit or units based on the room size, or open space living area, they have, and then see how the various brands/models fit that need. But as I mentioned in a prior post here, I think Sharp, Xiaomi, and Hatari all have good consumer priced options available with units sized to a single room or Thai condo type living space. Reasonably priced and relatively easy access here to replacement filters. When I was shopping, that was always one of the first questions I would ask -- where and how can I buy replacement HEPA filters for this unit...and then see if the source really keeps them available and in stock...as opposed to being perpetually sold out (as sometimes can be the case here).

For the few above who are poo pooing Red Lobster, if you have better value suggestions for where to find/eat imported Maine Lobster in Bangkok, please do tell....

I think IHOP, which I really liked during its tenure here, was a victim of unfortunate timing just as they were getting going, i.e. the pandemic killing tourism and the related COVID lockdowns and operating restrictions. Interesting to read in past news clippings, the Thai company that had, probably still has, the franchise rights here had public plans back in 2019 to open 10 Thailand locations by 2021. I think they got up to 3 or 4 before things went south. https://qsrmedia.asia/franchising/news/ihop-franchisee-in-thailand-plans-open-10-sites-2021 I'm hoping they'll resurface here at some point.... I can say from personal experience, they were not just popular with farangs/Americans but a lot of Thais liked their pancakes as well.

The problem with these kinds of reports is what works on viruses in lab dishes may be entirely different than how the same substance operates in the human body... There have been prior supposed treatments for COVID that worked just fine at killing the COVID virus in lab dishes, but could not be used at those levels or were ineffective against the virus when used in the human body. Let's wait and see what the further research ends up showing. Also note from the summary announcement of the research: "Researchers warn the public they should not consume the plants as a means of self-treatment against coronavirus as they can be toxic."

"Please remember that Xiaomi filters have a built-in RFID chip, so buying third-party replacement filters is not an option." https://www.airpurifierfirst.com/comparison/xiaomi-mi-3h-vs-levoit-core-400s/

One downside to the Xiaomi approach to purifiers, from my perspective, is that they combine the pre-filters and HEPA-type filters all into a single cartridge type unit... as opposed to being separate in most other purifiers. So, on the Xiaomis, when the prefilter gets clogged up, you're likely going to need to replace the whole cartridge unit... as opposed to just cleaning or changing an inexpensive pre-filter on other units while keeping the same HEPA filter in place. My sense is, everything else being equal, that Xiaomi's approach is likely to result in more frequent filter unit replacements, which of course is primarily the way they make money off the units.... which probably is the case with most purifier manufacturers.

JD's soon bailing out of Thailand and dropping their online presence here entirely.

When I was shopping for purifiers several years back, I spent some time researching the Xiaomi models... And I believe I read at the time that their machines supposedly had incorporated some kind of checking component to only work with original OEM Xiaomi filters... However, that said, I didn't end up buying their units.... So I don't have any personal experience on whether 3rd party filters actually will or won't work in their units.

I tried the 3M filtrete sheets over my room air con's own filters in the past. And found the Filtrete sheets got very dirty very fast and began blocking the air con's airflow. They also helped a little bit in lowering PM2.5 levels, but nothing close to the effect of a standalone HEPA purifier.