TallGuyJohninBKK

6 injured in Tennessee shooting, police say At least six people were injured on Saturday night during an exchange of gunfire in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee, police said. Chattanooga Police officers were patrolling downtown at about 10:48 p.m. local time when they "observed multiple parties exchanging gunfire and numerous people fleeing the area" near 100 Cherry St. ... Police said "several" gunshot victims were transported to local hospitals. Two individuals had life-threatening injuries, police said. Most of the victims were in their teens or early 20s, police said. (more) https://abcnews.go.com/US/multiple-people-shoot-tennessee-police/story?id=85048571

Republican lawmakers on mass shootings: "Let us pray for the victims of these terrible shootings...." And then head back to Congress to vote against and block sensible gun control measures that the majority of Americans support.

Without going back and pulling up the details of each past case, I would certainly bet that handguns are NOT the weapon of choice in most mass shootings... a la Texas. But I would certainly believe that they are the most common weapon in day to day individual homicides.... Hopefully, the feds will pass expanded background checks and waiting periods laws applying to ALL weapon purchases. But with Republicans invariably opposed and the Senate evenly divided, I'm not holding my breathe. And the future of gun control legislation is only going to get worse if the Republicans end up regaining a majority in the House of Reps in this year's mid-term elections. Citizens can complain all they want about the tragedy of senseless gun violence and mass shootings. But in the end, what they get is who they vote for at each election. Votes matter!

I think that's exactly the working theory that they're contemplating.... Be curious to see where it ends up.

In fact, they're placing the blame exactly where it belongs with Trump and the Republicans, and the gun control record is clear on that. The Democrat controlled House of Reps in 2021 passed two gun control measures to expand gun purchase background checks. Both passed with mostly all Democrats voting in favor and all but a few Republicans voting NO. The bills were never taken up in the Senate because of Republican opposition, which has been a familiar and ongoing theme. "While Democratic lawmakers have at various times urged more federal gun reforms -- mostly focused on assault-style or military-grade weapons and munitions and expanding the screening process for who can and cannot have a gun -- Republicans say the focus should be elsewhere, on increasing public security and awareness of mental health and social issues." "House Democrats vote to approve the first bill along with two Republicans (and two Democrats voting no). All Democrats except for one along with eight Republicans vote yes on the second bill, which previously passed the House in 2019, also under Democratic control." https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/gun-control-efforts-congress-failed-30-years-timeline/story?id=84995465 What are HR 8 and HR 1446? Gun control bills still await Senate votes after Texas shooting "Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., signaled that he wouldn't bring a vote on gun control legislation this week, because he doesn't expect enough Republican votes." "The future of both H.R. 8 and H.R. 1446 remains uncertain, particularly because of the projected lack of Republican votes. In the House, both bills received some bipartisan support, but it's unlikely that the Senate will reach the 60 votes required to overcome a filibuster – as most Senate Republicans have historically not supported the increased gun control legislation." https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/05/25/gun-control-legislation-senate-votes/9924328002/

In Africa, where monkeypox is more endemic in certain areas, the disease is not known for spreading mostly among the gay population, but instead, most commonly from infected animals to humans. There are emerging theories of where the more recent western nation outbreaks originated from: Monkeypox outbreak likely spread by sex at 2 raves in Europe, says WHO expert "LONDON (AP) — A leading adviser to the World Health Organization described the unprecedented outbreak of the rare disease monkeypox in developed countries as “a random event” that might be explained by risky sexual behavior at two recent mass events in Europe. In an interview with The Associated Press, Dr. David Heymann, who formerly headed WHO’s emergencies department, said the leading theory to explain the spread of the disease was sexual transmission among gay and bisexual men at two raves held in Spain and Belgium. Monkeypox has not previously triggered widespread outbreaks beyond Africa, where it is endemic in animals. ... Heymann, who is also a professor of infectious diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the monkeypox outbreak was likely a random event that might be traceable to a single infection." https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/monkeypox-outbreak-likely-spread-by-sex-at-2-raves-in-europe-says-who-expert

More from the U.S. perspective... basically, there's no longer much political will to enforce face masks mandates, since a goodly share of the public opposes them, according to polls. But the worsening COVID situation on the ground actually warrants them being worn in much of the country based on the CDC's own standards, per Johns Hopkins: "As of May 19, at least 45% of the US population lived in areas experiencing medium-to-high COVID-19 community levels, meaning people should be wearing masks or considering masking based on their personal risk. COVID-19 community levels are calculated using new COVID-19 hospital admissions and percent of inpatient beds occupied by patients with COVID-19, both lagging indicators of COVID-19 transmission. But the agency’s data on community transmission shows more than 75% of the country is experiencing high or substantial numbers of new cases, suggesting much of the nation should be wearing masks in indoor public spaces and prompting some experts to recommend localities, businesses, and other entities reinstate mask mandates." Source link

And why should people want to do their best in trying to avoid COVID, even of the Omicron variety? Also from Johns Hopkins: "Another study, published in Nature Medicine on May 23, found that 1 in 8 adults who were hospitalized with COVID-19 developed myocarditis 28 to 60 days post-discharge, and many COVID-19 survivors experienced reduced exercise capacity, lower quality of life, and persistent abnormalities in heart, lung, and kidney exams. The researchers said study participants’ post-COVID conditions were more closely correlated with the severity of their COVID-19 infection, not their underlying health condition prior to infection, and they cautioned these persistent health problems could place a substantial demand on healthcare services in the future, as more people survive COVID-19." AND "Results from a large study published this week in the US CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) estimates that ... both age groups [of COVID cases] had twice the risk of uninfected people of developing respiratory symptoms or other lung problems, including pulmonary embolism." Source link

I get that people are tired of COVID and COVID restrictions after 2+ years. And I get that wearing face masks can be unpleasant for some... But none of that changes the public health realities of the situation, and the proven best practices people can take to protect themselves and those around them as much as possible -- vaccinated and boosted, social distancing, face mask wearing. If I have to spin the COVID roulette wheel, I want to make my odds of avoiding it -- and if I happen to still get it surviving it with as little harm as possible -- the best I can make them.

But significantly less than those who don't / aren't.

And look what results from that at least in part, per Johns Hopkins: "The current average daily incidence [of new COVID cases] continues to increase, up to 104,399 on May 24 from 99,215 new cases per day on May 17." "New COVID-19 hospital admissions continue to trend upwards, with an increase of 14% over the past week." "The US recently began averaging more than 100,000 new daily COVID-19 cases for the first time since February." Source link When in enclosed public places, maintain social distancing and wear a mask. Protect yourself. Protect those around you.

The latest govt vaccination reports: Only 44% of Thailand's older population 60 and above has received their third dose COVID booster shot. https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos/a.106455480972785/570635124554816/?type=3 Only 40% of the general population has received their third dose COVID booster shot. https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos/a.106455480972785/570635097888152/?type=3 Neither share is sufficient to protect well against the Omicron variant of COVID, which really requires at least 3 doses for adequate protection. Two doses only won't do it.

When people are in close contact with non family members, especially at indoors public places, masks work TWO ways, and numerous studies and research efforts have confirmed it. 1. Wearing a mask will help prevent YOU from spreading the virus to others if you are infected, and especially with Omicron, there are significant numbers of people with no symptoms or few symptoms that they might not notice they are. 2. Wearing a mask helps prevent you from potentially catching the virus from OTHERS around you in close proximity who may be infected. No, they're not 100% effective, nothing is. But the better the mask, the better the level of protection, with properly worn and fit N95 type masks being the most effective available to consumers. But any mask properly worn and maintained is going to have more preventive effect that wearing nothing. And the protection improves if both you and those around you are both wearing masks. Whether people should wear masks and what government masking policies exist should be related to what level of COVID activity/transmission is occurring in that place. And for Thailand, I'm not convinced that COVID is not still actively spreading around the country... My guess is, it's just not being tested for and reported as much. "Consistent use of a face mask or respirator in indoor public settings was associated with lower odds of a positive SARS-CoV-2 test result (adjusted odds ratio = 0.44). Use of respirators with higher filtration capacity was associated with the most protection, compared with no mask use." https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7106e1.htm?s_cid=mm7106e1_w All the stuff many people here keep shouting about how mask wearing is some kind of government control measure to keep the public subdued or under control is nonsense. Face mask wearing in a time of COVID is a public health protection measure, period.

Serious side effects actually caused by COVID vaccines are extremely rare.... But on the flip side, older people dying from COVID, especially the unvaccinated ones, has been sadly all too common. The older you are, the greater your health risk from COVID, especially if you also have also contributing health risk factor conditions, which many older Thais probably also have. Superstitions aside, getting a COVID vaccine and booster for those folks ought to be a no-brainer.

All of my phones are Android. And the models that I've been using with the T-Mobile SIM happen to be T-Mobile compatible Motorolas, since they specifically support TM wifi calling... and not all Android models do. And yes, I get text messages and calls here in TH via the TM prepaid SIM. I'm pretty sure I was still able to get text messages on that SIM regardless of whether I was on mobile data roaming or wifi mode.... It was the calls part that was a problem when in mobile roaming mode.

Thank you for providing a dose of non-stereotyping, non-stigmatizing medical reality... which is exactly what the various health authorities have been saying: "Some cases have been identified through sexual health clinics and investigations are ongoing. The disease could affect anyone According to WHO, available evidence suggests that those who are most at risk are those who have had close physical contact with someone with monkeypox, and that risk is not limited in any way, to men who have sex with men." (more) https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/05/1118762 AND "Dr. John Brooks, a CDC official, emphasized that anyone can contract monkeypox through close personal contact regardless of sexual orientation. However, Brooks said many of the people affected globally so far are men who identify as gay or bisexual. Though some groups have greater chance of exposure to monkeypox right now, the risk isn’t limited only to the gay and bisexual community, he cautioned." https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/23/cdc-officials-sound-alarm-for-gay-and-bisexual-men-as-monkeypox-spreads-in-community-.html "Though monkeypox can spread through respiratory droplets, the virus comes from infected lesions in the throat and mouth that can expel it into the air. But transmission from respiratory droplets requires prolonged face-to-face contact, according to the CDC. “This is not Covid,” McQuiston said. “Respiratory spread is not the predominant worry. It is contact and intimate contact in the current outbreak setting and population.”

"As of May 21, the World Health Organization (WHO) received reports of 92 laboratory-confirmed cases and 28 suspected cases from 12 countries not endemic for the disease. Some cases have been identified through sexual health clinics and investigations are ongoing. The disease could affect anyone According to WHO, available evidence suggests that those who are most at risk are those who have had close physical contact with someone with monkeypox, and that risk is not limited in any way, to men who have sex with men." (more) https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/05/1118762 AND "Dr. John Brooks, a CDC official, emphasized that anyone can contract monkeypox through close personal contact regardless of sexual orientation. However, Brooks said many of the people affected globally so far are men who identify as gay or bisexual. Though some groups have greater chance of exposure to monkeypox right now, the risk isn’t limited only to the gay and bisexual community, he cautioned." https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/23/cdc-officials-sound-alarm-for-gay-and-bisexual-men-as-monkeypox-spreads-in-community-.html "Though monkeypox can spread through respiratory droplets, the virus comes from infected lesions in the throat and mouth that can expel it into the air. But transmission from respiratory droplets requires prolonged face-to-face contact, according to the CDC. “This is not Covid,” McQuiston said. “Respiratory spread is not the predominant worry. It is contact and intimate contact in the current outbreak setting and population.”

US CDC on Monkeypox: Transmission "Human-to-human transmission is thought to occur primarily through large respiratory droplets. Respiratory droplets generally cannot travel more than a few feet, so prolonged face-to-face contact is required. Other human-to-human methods of transmission include direct contact with body fluids or lesion material, and indirect contact with lesion material, such as through contaminated clothing or linens." Prevention "JYNNEOSTM (also known as Imvamune or Imvanex) is an attenuated live virus vaccine which has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the prevention of monkeypox." https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/transmission.html

One of the advantages of using standalone streaming dongles or boxes (vs. relying on the so-called Smart TVs) is that the streaming devices are relatively cheap, easily upgraded/replaced when the need arises, and typically rely on the Google Play store for their apps, meaning they're kept up-to-date. Smart TVs, in contrast, often have their own separate manufacturer app stores where the apps often are not regularly updated, only a relatively small share of apps are actually available, and the underlying OS on the smart part of the TV itself also is often not updated. And also the smart parts of the TV are often underpowered compared to the separate streaming devices. So, when it comes time to upgrade with streaming and tech advances, I'd rather handle that by getting a newer model of a $30 to $100 standalone streaming devices as opposed to buying an entirely new smart TV that's gonna cost $500 to $1000 or more. Let the TV just be a TV, and look elsewhere for the rest.

FYI, I have Bluestacks on my laptop and have long used it for various Android streaming apps when I didn't want to use my TV streaming devices for whatever reason. But I had a surprise lately when I added a couple new apps that I wanted to use... can't recall now if it was Tubi, or Xumo or Crackle...one of those... And it wouldn't play any content from that app and gave an error message... I checked around a bit, and found an item on the Bluestacks support site indicating that it doesn't support video DRM (Digital Rights Management), which is an encoding technique that some streaming services use on their content. Windows devices can handle DRM, but apparently Bluestacks installations on Windows devices cannot.

The issue of fees associated with over-the-counter cash advances has gotten a bit muddier over time... 1. In the past, I don't think any Thai banks used to charge their OWN fee for someone wanting to use a foreign debit or credit card to do a cash advance/counter withdrawal. But in more recent times, some of the Thai banks (not all or probably not even most) HAVE started adding a fee for that service. So you have to pay attention and/or check with the bank you want to use to be safe and sure. 2. Then on the home country bank end of things, it really depends on whether you're wanting to use a credit card or a debit card. Most of the time, a debit card is going to be the better bet... because.... In the U.S. and probably the UK too, most credit cards have a specific extra fee for using them to obtain cash advances, regardless of whether domestic or foreign. For U.S. credit cards, that often can be something like $10 minimum and 3 or 4% of the amount withdrawn, whichever is larger. That's even if you pay off the advance balance right away... Now, there are a relatively few U.S. credit cards that DO NOT have any cash advance fees, but those are relatively rare. And most of the credit cards issued by the U.S. mega banks like BofA, Citi, Wells Fargo, etc. are going to have specific cash advance fees. Check your card's fees disclosure. Then on the debit card side of things, AFAIK, most U.S. issued VISA or MC debit cards DO NOT have any specific added fees associated with doing a counter withdrawal/cash advance, whether foreign or domestic. But just the same as with credit cards, you still need to check and be aware of whether your bank is separately charging a foreign currency conversion fee on any/all transactions done outside your home country... Again, most U.S. major banks do charge FCFs of anywhere from 1 to 3 percent or more... A few -- such as Schwab, Fidelity and certain Capital One debit cards -- don't charge any. So in general, the best bet overall is likely be a cash advance here done with a VISA or MC debit card that has no cash advance fee and no foreign currency fee (or at most 1%) done at a Thai bank branch that doesn't charge its own fee for cash advances. PS- Over time, I've noticed that some U.S. banks tend to play a bit of a game of semantics when it comes to discussing whether their cards have foreign currency conversion fees. You ask the bank, and they will swear, no, WE don't charge any FCF... or maybe they do... But then you press, and check further, and you discover that while the bank may not charge their own fee, they do pass along the 1% FCF that VISA and MC have made a standard part of their cards. So there's the potential to be easily misled by your bank.

A couple of things about this OP reported study. 1. Antibody levels are not entirely synonymous with protection from either infection or developing serious illness death. The body's immune response to viral infections is more complicated and involved, as some posts above have alluded to. So you can't really rely on antibody level readings alone to determine a vaccine's effectiveness. That's why the experts actually do studies that track and compare the percentages of people who get infected and develop illness post vaccination, and compare those rates with infection and illness among the unvaccinated. (The vaccinated do much better than the unvaccinated in all regards). Most of those kinds of studies I've seen show that the mRNA vaccines provide significant, though gradually declining, benefits out to about four months post vaccination. And that's why the current recommendations for booster shots target them four to five months after second shots. 2. As far as I saw in the Forbes writeup, there was no mention whatsoever about the issue of protection against "any" COVID infection vs. protection against serious illness and death from COVID -- again, because the study was only looking at antibody levels. The good studies that actually track such things in the real world have shown that the current mRNA vaccines are quite effective months post vaccination at preventing serious illness and death from the Omicron variant especially with a third shot booster dose. They are, however, less effective since the advent of Omicron at preventing infections in general, compared to how they did with prior variants. That's the reason many health authorities continue to recommend that people wear face masks and follow social distancing protocols in confined indoor spaces.... Because while the current mRNA vaccines especially with a third shot booster dose do a pretty good job at preventing you from getting sick or dying from COVID, they do a less good job at preventing you from becoming infected and potentially spreading the virus to others. The Forbes article, BTW, finally alludes to the limitations of only looking at antibody levels toward the very end... "Neutralizing antibodies have been the primary focus of studies evaluating vaccines—they are much easier to study—but they are not the only part of the immune system protecting humans against disease. Other parts of the immune system, such as T cells, might be less effective at preventing infection but they are more durable than antibodies and can reduce the chance of serious illness if infected." And contrary to what the above quote claims, there have been plenty of credible, peer reviewed scientific studies evaluating the performance of COVID vaccines based on real world performance, and not merely on measuring antibody levels. The U.S. CDC and the UK Health Services agencies, among others, regularly track and publicly report on the mRNA vaccines' real-world performance.

He and his minions certainly should know it!!! ????

fyi, I've had further developments with this in the ensuing months since my original post above, as someone who's been stuck here in Thailand for almost 3 years now, and unable / unwilling to travel back to the U.S. amid COVID. Basically, these days, if I try to use my valid, topped up prepaid TM SIM via regular mobile roaming here, I still get the blocking of incoming calls to my TM number. However!!!.... if I disconnect from the roaming mobile network and just rely on the TM-compatible wifi-calling feature that is functional on that particular mobile phone, then it receives incoming calls to my TM number just fine still.

FDA authorizes first COVID booster for children ages 5 to 11 "The [U.S.] Food and Drug Administration Tuesday authorized the first COVID-19 vaccine booster for children ages 5 to 11. The authorization makes all children in that age group who received their second shot at least five months ago eligible to receive a third shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. ... "While it has largely been the case that COVID-19 tends to be less severe in children than adults, the omicron wave has seen more kids getting sick with the disease and being hospitalized, and children may also experience longer term effects, even following initially mild disease," said FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf in a statement. (more) https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/05/17/1099442330/fda-authorizes-first-covid-booster-for-children-ages-5-to-11 AND "The FDA authorized the primary two-dose series of the vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 last fall. Each dose is 10 micrograms, as is the booster, which is one-third the dose for adults.” ... The CDC has said only 28 percent of children 5 to 11 have been fully vaccinated." https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/05/16/fda-pfizer-booster-kids/