TallGuyJohninBKK

BTW, this issue above seems to have been clarified some in recent weeks amid the current Song Kran surge of new COVID cases and hospitalizations. Various reports from the Thai MoPH lately have been talking about their newly adopted policy to widely offer an ANNUAL COVID vaccine at least this year and next year, ideally ahead of the rainy season each year. MoPH has been much more active the past couple weeks in publicizing, mostly in Thai language materials, the various government hospitals in BKK and various other provinces where the COVID vaccines are being offered right now... At some locations, those seem to be the original versions of the COVID vaccines, whereas at other locations, they've specified that they also have the newer bivalent vaccines on offer.

"Covid booster shots will be available at the CentralWorld shopping complex in downtown Bangkok until May 28. The vaccination unit was set up on Saturday on the 5th floor of the complex’s Atrium Zone. The unit provides jabs every Friday, Saturday and Sunday until May 28 (closed on May 13-14 for the general election). ... People can walk in between noon and 6pm to get a free jab of the Moderna bivalent vaccine, which is effective against both the original Wuhan strain and the Omicron subvariants. ... The city administration has also set up a vaccination unit on the 6th floor in Zone D of the MBK Centre shopping mall. This unit opens from 9am to 3pm daily until May 12 and then again on the weekends of May 20-21 and May 27-28. (more) https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/general/40027093

My point was, whatever info that's been reported by the BKK Post can NOT be cited or linked to here on the forum.... so not really a big help to anyone reading here trying to figure out what's going on.

Can't quote from or link to the BKK Post here...under forum rules...

Can you provide an English language translation of the above comment??? ????

This is now the fourth or fifth article on this case that I've read here on the forum... And unless I've missed something, none of them have.... --said anything about exactly HOW these people may have been poisoned. --said anything about what the motive may have been for this woman poisoning the victims. Did she gain financially somehow from all the deaths? --said anything about how this woman had come into contact with all the various supposed victims who were located in various different provinces.

Likewise, the OP article makes it hard to tell whether the case at hand before the court now is a CIVIL or a CRIMINAL one... I'm thinking it's a civil one of the mother suing those on the boat with Tangmo, but the OP article is pretty vague! So I'm not entirely sure on that point!

By comparison, the Bell Travel Service VIP buses between Suvarnabhumi and Pattaya run more often, run every day, and probably are roomier as their seating is 3-across, not 4 as with the mall buses. But the fare is 300 baht. For its part, the mall bus service appears to run only 5 days per week and much fewer trips per day, and the seating is 4 across. But the fare is only 190b, and the Pattaya drop off is convenient at the Central Festival Mall, and the pickup in BKK is at CentralWorld, equally convenient once you're already in the city. Whereas the Bell drop-off is at the North Pattaya bus station, which typically is going to require a song theaw or other paid onward travel to one's ultimate destination. https://belltravelservice.com/shared-transfer/

The details ARE mostly all there on the Klook booking website, but they don't make them especially clear or easy to find. For example, until you go to actually make a booking, you won't see on their schedule that apparently there's no service at all on Wednesdays and Thursdays! And, as best as I can tell, the option to stop at the Central Outlet Mall near Suvarnabhumi apparently only exists on a separate trip running only from Pattaya to BKK -- and not on the outbound BKK to Pattaya routes. However, despite the emphasis on the three Central Malls in their promotional material, there's absolutely no requirement that anyone making the trip have anything whatsoever to do with the malls. You can just use the bus service as a regular BKK-Pattaya route and ignore the malls entirely if you want to. It's nice and convenient that the Pattaya drop off point appears to be the Central Festival Mall at Soi 9 along the Beach Road, which is pretty much right in the middle of things and convenient to many surrounding hotels.

Keep going down that road, and see where it lands the Republican Party... Republican Party Loses One Of Its Biggest Donors: Billionaire Peter Thiel Says 'I'm Out' ... "A business associate of Thiel's said that the Republican Party's recent focus on "culture war" issues drew him away from the party, citing the party’s position on abortion and transgender people's rights as examples. The GOP should be more focused on how the U.S. can innovate and compete with China on the global market, said the source." https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/republican-party-loses-one-of-its-biggest-donors-billionaire-peter-thiel-says-i-m-out/

That's a convenient retort typically heard from people who want to ignore or dismiss the factual lessons and realities learned from the past.

Tell that to the Republican Party in Montana, USA. They didn't get the message: Montana transgender lawmaker barred by GOP from House floor Republicans barred Zooey Zephyr from the House floor for the rest of the 2023 session, acting in retribution for protests against a previous decision to silence her. "HELENA, Mont. — Republicans in Montana barred transgender lawmaker Zooey Zephyr from the House floor for the rest of the 2023 session on Wednesday, in retribution for protests against a decision to silence her for telling colleagues they’d have blood on their hands for voting to ban gender-affirming medical care for children. The punishment of the freshman lawmaker caps a weeklong standoff between House Republican leaders and Zephyr which concluded that she will still be able to vote remotely under terms of the punishment. She will be unable though to discuss proposals and amendments under consideration with the 99 other members of the Montana House." https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/26/montana-transgender-lawmaker-barred-by-gop-from-house-floor-00094057

The Republicans really know what side their backwoods bread is buttered on. ???? If you ask me, it's a very peculiar, somewhat perverse obsession they seem to have developed... The common-thinking American might think they have bigger, more important issues to concern themselves with.

Maybe you're associating in the wrong circles... I can't speak for a whole country... But for myself, my high school and university education in the U.S. was filled with plenty of both domestic and international history and geography... Admittedly back in the 1970s, my classes were more focused on U.S. and European issues, and not so much on the places that have emerged in more recent years such as China and the Middle East. But it was a somewhat different, more western-focused world back then.

Probably when so many people around the world, admittedly mostly elderly, cease being hospitalized and dying from COVID.... and Thailand isn't headed for having 5,000 to 10,000 new COVID infections per day. Worldwide, per the WHO: "Globally, over 2.8 million new cases and almost 18 000 deaths were reported in the last 28 days (20 March to 16 April 2023)" https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/weekly-epidemiological-update-on-covid-19---20-april-2023 And in the U.S., COVID is still causing about 190 new deaths per day and nearly 1,900 new hospitalizations per day. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html And in Thailand.... where new COVID hospitalizations are running more than 1,000 per week: Temporary Covid-19 surge may result in 10,000 daily cases A new wave of Covid-19 infections is expected to bring daily cases to 5,000-10,000, but a swift decline in numbers is predicted thereafter, according to Dr Nitipatana Chierakul, Head of the Respiratory Disease and Tuberculosis Division at the Faculty of Medicine in Siriraj Hospital." https://thethaiger.com/news/national/temporary-surge-may-result-in-10000-daily-cases-for-a-brief-period

My Thai wife got her formal education in the upcountry Thai public schools up thru a public university degree. And based on years of exposure, I'd certainly say either... 1. -- they weren't much on teaching either regional or world history or geography there, or 2. -- my wife managed to miss / not absorb whatever they did teach on those subjects... entirely! But they did have quite nifty classes on learning Thai dance and cooking... so she tells me. ????

The website you're quoting from has nothing to do with the Thai government, contrary to what you claim in your post. And if you look at the top of the webpage you linked to, you'll see the snippet -- "This website is managed by Siam Legal International - a law firm in Thailand" Another giveaway would be the fact that the "HTTPS://www.thaiembassy.com" website you're quoting from has a "dot-com" domain, which means it's hosted by a commercial entity like a law firm, instead of the typical "go.th" domain for a Thai government agency. Of course, it also says at the very bottom of the webpage -- "This is NOT the official website of the Thai Embassy."

Weird... I was by the Soi 5 Foodland mid-afternoon today... When I came in, the large U-shaped Took Lae Dee counter there was almost empty of customers. When I departed a half hour or so later, there was a group of a half dozen 30ish/40ish African males all hanging around just inside the door, not shopping, not sitting at TLD, not sure what exactly they were doing....

The WaPo reported that, in one of the redacted Tucker messages filed in connection with the Dominion lawsuit, Tucker had referred to Fox's senior communications exec, who's a woman, with the four-letter "c---" vulgarity. This is the same Fox exec, according to various news reports, who supposedly kept/keeps personal "gotcha" dossiers on their various on-air talent just in case they and their employer ever end up at odds. "And while Carlson leveled plenty of critiques of Fox top brass in documents that were made public, some of the most sensitive and damaging material remains hidden, these people said. In one redacted exchange, according to people familiar with the documents, he referred to a woman who is a senior communications executive for Fox as a “c---.” (Carlson used the same sexist vulgarity to describe a female Trump-affiliated lawyer in an message previously made public by the court.)" https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/04/26/tucker-carlson-rupert-murdoch-fired/ Of course, that supposedly wasn't the first time he had used that epithet against a woman: "More recently, Carlson’s staff culture had come under scrutiny, after a former booker for his show sued Fox News for discrimination, claiming that she endured sexist treatment while working for him, and messages revealed in the lawsuit showed Carlson referring to Sidney Powell, a female attorney affiliated with Donald Trump, as a “c---.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/04/24/tucker-carlson-leaves-fox-news/

I understand the appeal (electoral and otherwise) of what you're saying... But really, I'm totally and excessively sick and disgusted with hearing anything about that guy. Wish he'd just disappear off the face of the planet, or off to Russia instead, and never be heard from again!

And none of this off-topic diversion on U.S. government agency funding sources that you have drawn this discussion into has anything to do with the thread topic here, which is: Daily Covid-19 cases in Bangkok spike

Because Congress many years back passed a law to specifically set up that source of additional user fee funding... back before when it typically was taking the FDA 10 years or so to make approval decisions on new drugs/devices. The added user fee funding allowed the FDA to substantially shorten those timeframes, helping save many lives. "Federal law authorizes the FDA to collect user fees to supplement the annual funding that Congress provides for the agency. User fees help the FDA fulfill its mission of protecting the public health and also facilitate timely availability of innovative FDA-regulated products without compromising the agency’s commitment to scientific integrity, public health, regulatory standards, patient safety, and transparency." ... Importantly, there is no direct connection between a fee paid for an application and the review outcome for that application. Rather, the user fees, including application fees, are pooled, and used to help fund the payroll and related costs to deliver on program goals. " https://www.fda.gov/industry/fda-user-fee-programs/fda-user-fees-explained Funding to help expedite a slow process "Since the FDA's inception after the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act, taxpayer dollars were the principal source of the agency's funding. But this all changed with the emergence of HIV in the 1980s, when the demand for experimental medicines clashed with the agency's sluggish approval process. This process – due to being underfunded and understaffed – typically took 10 years at this point." https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/08/27/fact-check-some-fdas-budget-does-come-industry-funding/5572076001/

The only people who ever seem to think about, or talk about, FEAR in relation to COVID are the predictable COVID deniers, who keep trying to ignore the fact that COVID has claimed 7 million lives "officially" since the start of the pandemic, with numerous estimates that the real number is closer to 15 to 20 million COVID deaths. The rest of us are just trying to get on with our mostly normal lives, heeding the guidance from public health agencies and experts, and trying to do the smart and prudent things that will minimize our risks of ending up in the hospital or dead, like the unfortunates in the OP here. I have no COVID fear, only knowledge and awareness.

And yet here you are...