TallGuyJohninBKK

But, last I heard, age isn't... And that alone is enough to potentially get someone in serious health trouble with COVID, even today's Omicron version.

And yet here you are in the thread... again and again.... It's a rather strange way of showing your disinterest...

Age, 60-65 plus, and various other conditions often associated with age (overweight, high blood pressure, diabetes, etc.) have clearly been shown to be major elevated risk factors for bad COVID outcomes. Considering the primary demographic of this forum, you'd think that members here would be more mindful of the risks they face, and more attentive to doing the things within their control to minimize those risks. Yes, people can also die from things like the flu... But the death rate from COVID, even under Omicron, has far exceeded that from the flu, just as one example. COVID Omicron variant infection deadlier than flu, studies suggest April 8, 2023 "Two new studies suggest that COVID-19 Omicron variant infection is deadlier than influenza, with one finding that US veterans hospitalized with Omicron in fall and winter 2022-23 died at a 61% higher rate than hospitalized flu patients, and the other revealing that Israeli adults hospitalized with flu were 55% less likely to die within 30 days than those admitted for Omicron in the 2021-22 flu season." https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/covid-omicron-variant-infection-deadlier-flu-studies-suggest

Strange thing.... America has more than its fair share of people very much opposed to receiving COVID vaccines and wearing face masks.... and indeed, look what happened to the U.S. COVID death rate. Whereas, people in Thailand were more willing to be vaccinated and continue wearing face masks as recommended by their government, and didn't end up with as bad a COVID death rate as the U.S. Hard to say just what exactly drove what in each situation, but it's at least an interesting contrast. And one that has been noted lately. Traditional values closely linked to following COVID-19 precautions, except in US "A new study from researchers at the University of California-Los Angeles shows the US population's response to COVID-19 precautions stood in sharp contrast to other countries. Worldwide, people who professed to have more traditional or socially conservative values were more likely to adhere to COVID-19 recommendations, but in the United States people with those values were more likely to dismiss such recommendations. ... "In countries where the discourse around science and trust was less polarized, traditionalists were more willing to embrace precautions than their more socially liberal counterparts," study co-author Daniel Fessler, PhD said. "The U.S., where these topics were highly politicized, suffered more COVID-19 deaths per capita than any other highly developed nation." (more) https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/traditional-values-closely-linked-following-covid-19-precautions-except-us

Mask wear etiquette advised by public health agencies is that people should wash their hands or use alcohol gel whenever putting on or taking off a facemask. Lots of folks wear masks exactly in order to be able to "get on" with their lives (and out of consideration to others)... as opposed to ending up in a hospital or worse.

The point that's mainly been debated here on this thread is the BTS Skytrain policy advising people to wear facemasks while on BTS to help reduce the risk of COVID. That's exactly the kind of confined space, crowded setting that face masks would be most recommended for... just as the Thai Ministry of Public Health has done.

The thread here is about COVID in Thailand, not PM2.5. Masks work best when everyone in the room has one on, but you’ll still benefit from masking up even when those around you aren’t ... "A study from Tokyo tested how well different types of masks protected the wearer from actual coronavirus particles. The study showed that even a simple cotton mask offered some protection (17 percent to 27 percent) to the wearer. Medical masks performed better, including a surgical mask (47 percent to 50 percent protection), a loosefitting N95 (57 percent to 86 percent protection) and a tightly sealed N95 (79 percent to 90 percent protection)." https://www.nytimes.com/article/covid-masks-protection-stats.html

And you know that how? You have some source that tells you that? Thais in Bangkok and elsewhere have been wearing face masks long before the relatively recent outbreak of very bad seasonal air pollution.

The chart and statistics were specific to deaths in the U.S. Are large numbers of Americans dying in a war somewhere in the U.S. right now?

And yet, your speculation about how deaths are counted, undercounted, or overcounted here is largely fact-free.... and filled with your own largely unsourced speculations.

In the U.S., as a general rule, a case only gets counted as a COVID related death if COVID either directly caused or contributed to the person's death. That's why doctors there fill out causes on the death certificates. And, there's wide agreement among COVID scientists and researchers that the various official COVID death counts tallied by governments are in fact undercounts to the actual deaths that have occurred.

COVID-19 leading cause of death ranking November 10, 2022 "At the time of this brief, COVID-19 is on track to be the third leading cause of death in the U.S. for the third year in a row. COVID-19 claimed 340,000 lives in 2020, 475,000 lives in 2021, and so far, has taken 230,000 lives in 2022 through September." https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/covid-19-leading-cause-of-death-ranking/

I'm not worried. But I do object to those here who falsely claim nothing is occurring with COVID these days either here in Thailand or elsewhere in the world.... when many people are still getting stick and some still are dying from COVID. "Dr Thares advised all high-risk groups to promptly obtain a new booster shot of the Covid-19 vaccine, particularly focusing on the elderly and those with chronic illnesses. To adapt to the escalating number of new infections, the Ministry of Public Health will revise its vaccination strategy. From next month, booster shots will be administered as they would for seasonal flu vaccinations." https://thethaiger.com/news/national/adapting-ddcs-vaccination-strategy-to-address-increasing-cases

A 250% week over week increase in Thailand COVID hospitalizations is your version of "tiny"?

All the info you want is available at the website you linked to above... but you obviously don't want to acknowledge it... Not to mention that I've previously posted it here in this thread. From the U.S. CDC, all relating to Omicron: "New Hospital Admissions The current 7-day daily average for April 4–11, 2023, was 1,870. Deaths The current 7-day average of new deaths (190) decreased 25.4% compared with the previous 7-day average (254)." PS - surgical nurses don't usually get involved in treating COVID cases.

The official world death count from COVID is approaching 7 million, and the real estimates based on excess deaths data has been put more in the 15-20 million range. How much of an UNDER reaction to that do you want?

190 people per day are dying of COVID on average each and every day in the U.S., per the U.S. CDC. Thailand COVID new hospitalizations are running 60+ per day. We can't talk about actual Thailand COVID cases, because the government doesn't publicly count and report them anymore. And all the major public health agencies -- for our purposes here, WHO, CDC and Thai MoPH, continue to recommend mask wearing to help prevent COVID.

Actually you would hear plenty about them, if you bothered to keep yourself informed and up-to-date on COVID developments in the news.

The Thailand numbers aren't continuing to drop. As the prior news reports in this thread show, COVID hospitalizations increased about 250% from two weeks prior to this past week. You keep saying Covid "is basically gone," but never put forth any sourced facts to support your false claims.

re your various points... --I don't drive a car or motorcycle in Thailand because of the health/safety risks. --I do my best to avoid and prevent mosquito environments since no one should want to come down with dengue. --Perhaps because in part I regularly wear an N95 mask when around others, I haven't had any viral infections in the past several years. I try to be consistent and thoughtful in what I do.

People still die from and end up being hospitalized by Omicron, where pneumonia still occurs (as with the Thai MoPH episodes of intubation cited above) and can still be fatal even during Omicron. Mothers passed COVID to babies through placenta, possibly causing brain damage, death ... "This is the first study to show the transmission of COVID through the placenta resulting in brain damage in infants, the press release said. ... Although both babies tested negative for the COVID-19 virus at birth, they experienced "seizures, small head sizes and developmental delays," the press release said. One of the babies died suddenly at 13 months old." https://www.foxnews.com/health/mothers-passed-covid-babies-placenta-possibly-causing-brain-damage-death AND From a study involving a South Korean hospital: Comparison of the causes of death associated with delta and Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variants infection "During the Omicron-dominant period, 42 (6%) of 654 patients with COVID-19 were admitted died (Supplemental Figure 1). The primary cause of death was COVID-19–associated pneumonia in both the Omicron (64%, 27/42) and Delta (88%, 37/42) eras." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9710103/

Primarily home delivery since COVID, though we'll rarely eat out if we can find a setting that's low risk.

January 2023 from the WHO: WHO updates COVID-19 guidelines on masks, treatments and patient care ... Masks continue to be a key tool against COVID-19 "WHO continues to recommend the use of masks by the public in specific situations, and this update recommends their use irrespective of the local epidemiological situation, given the current spread of the COVID-19 globally. Masks are recommended following a recent exposure to COVID-19, when someone has or suspects they have COVID-19, when someone is at high-risk of severe COVID-19, and for anyone in a crowded, enclosed, or poorly ventilated space. Previously, WHO recommendations were based on the epidemiological situation." Note their current advisory -- "for anyone in a crowded, enclosed, or poorly ventilated space." https://www.who.int/news/item/13-01-2023-who-updates-covid-19-guidelines-on-masks--treatments-and-patient-care

Science and the real world says you're wrong.... See the latest Thai COVID hospitalizations data and the US COVID deaths, hospitalizations and new cases data posted earlier in this thread. This thread, after all, is supposed to be about the rising numbers of COVID hospitalizations in Thailand.... not a debate on face masks.

International flight airline jets have HEPA air filtration systems for cabin air. BTS trains do not. Also, while I'd certainly still wear a mask on a long, confined space airline flight.... the burden of doing so is certainly greater than wearing one for 5 or 10 minutes on a brief BTS trip.