TallGuyJohninBKK

What doctors wish patients knew about long COVID ... "It is estimated that anywhere from 10% to 30% of patients might experience long COVID after recovering—even if they weren’t very sick in the first place. ... “There's a whole slew of symptoms affecting a variety of organ systems,” Dr. Sanghavi said. “No organ system is spared from long COVID, just like how COVID affects all these organ systems during acute illness.” ... Vaccination can prevent long COVID Dr. Sanghavi: “What is reassuring is that patients who were vaccinated, in those rare instances where they got a breakthrough infection those patients are 50% less likely to develop long COVID or post COVID syndrome.” (more) https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/what-doctors-wish-patients-knew-about-long-covid

The hidden long-term cognitive effects of COVID-19 ... However, new research is now suggesting that there may be long-term neurologic consequences in those who survive COVID infections, including more than seven million Americans and another 27 million people worldwide. Particularly troubling is increasing evidence that there may be mild — but very real — brain damage that occurs in many survivors, causing pervasive yet subtle cognitive, behavioral, and psychological problems. ... There is one inevitable conclusion from these studies: COVID infection frequently leads to brain damage — particularly in those over 70. While sometimes the brain damage is obvious and leads to major cognitive impairment, more frequently the damage is mild, leading to difficulties with sustained attention." (more) https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-hidden-long-term-cognitive-effects-of-covid-2020100821133

Some better info on the "Long COVID" pandemic: Global data reveal half may have long COVID 4 months on Apr 18, 2022 "Worldwide, 49% of COVID-19 survivors reported persistent symptoms 4 months after diagnosis, estimates a meta-analysis of 31 studies published late last week in The Journal of Infectious Diseases. ... Worldwide, estimated prevalence of long COVID was 37% (95% CI, 26% to 49%) 1 month after diagnosis, 25% (95% CI, 15% to 38%) at 2 months, 32% (95% CI, 14% to 57%) at 3 months, and 49% (95% CI, 40% to 59%) at 4 months. ... The most common symptoms were fatigue (23%), followed by memory problems (14%), shortness of breath (13%), sleep problems (11%), and joint pain (10%)." (more) https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2022/04/global-data-reveal-half-may-have-long-covid-4-months AND

Thailand COVID Update for Sunday, April 24: Newly reported COVID deaths on Sunday, new cases and serious COVID hospitalizations all declined from the prior day, according to today's update by the Ministry of Public Health. New COVID deaths fell from a year-high 129 reported yesterday to 126 today. New cases fell from 20,052 yesterday to 17,784 today for a third consecutive daily decline. Serious COVID hospitalizations declined from 1,962 yesterday to 1,929 today, the lowest tally of the past week, and the sixth consecutive daily decline. Also, the share of serious condition COVID hospitalizations in the worst condition, those requiring intubation to breathe, fell from 921 yesterday to 899 today -- down from the year-high tally of 940 last Tuesday. More broadly, the total number of official active COVID cases under care in the country also declined from 188,342 yesterday to 183,154 today, which also was its lowest figure of the past week. Overall, Sunday's new daily COVID case count almost matched that from one week ago and the latest death count was only two less. But Sunday's latest hospitalization figures were both notably lower than those from one week ago. However, Sunday still marked Thailand's 15th consecutive day with 100-plus new daily COVID deaths. And it's not uncommon for COVID statistics reported by the government to decline during weekend periods, as was the case today. For context, during the peak of the Delta wave last fall, Thailand's daily COVID case count topped out at 23,418, but the numbers of serious hospital cases and the intubated share of those peaked above 5,600 and 1,100 respectively, and daily deaths topped 300 for a brief period. https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/posts/547875750164087 https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main

This doesn't look like dropping when it comes to recent UK COVID deaths: Source link:

A new report by the CDC has found that COVID remained the third-leading cause of death in the U.S. for the second consecutive year in 2021, trailing only heart disease and cancer, according to provisional mortality data. Provisional Mortality Data — United States, 2021 Early Release / April 22, 2022 "For a second year, COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer." ... In 2021, COVID-19 was listed as the underlying or contributing cause of 460,513 deaths (111.4 per 100,000), an increase from 384,536 deaths (93.2) in 2020 (Table). ... COVID-19 was the underlying cause for approximately 90% (415,399), and a contributing cause of death for the remaining 10% (45,114) of COVID-19–associated deaths in 2021." https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7117e1.htm

A new study in the U.S. has credited the country's COVID vaccinations program thus far with preventing 2.2 million deaths, 17 million hospitalizations, 66 million COVID infections and $900 billion in health care expenses. Study finds U.S. COVID-19 vaccinations averted 2.2 million deaths (UPI) -- A new study published Friday found COVID-19 vaccinations have prevented 2.2 million deaths in the United States. The Commonwealth Fund study said 17 million hospitalizations were averted by the vaccines between December 12, 2020, and March 31, 2022. More than $899 billion was saved in healthcare costs due to the vaccines, according to the Commonwealth Fund study. The study found there would have been 66 million more COVID-19 infections without the vaccinations. (more) https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2022/04/08/COVID19-commonwelath-fund-study-vaccines-prevented-millions-of-deaths/1421649425164/ https://www.commonwealthfund.org/blog/2022/impact-us-covid-19-vaccination-efforts-march-update "The Commonwealth Fund — among the first private foundations started by a woman philanthropist, Anna M. Harkness — was established in 1918 with the broad charge to enhance the common good. Today, the mission of The Commonwealth Fund is to promote a high-performing health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, and greater efficiency, particularly for society’s most vulnerable, including low-income people, the uninsured, and people of color."

News regarding Pfizer's Paxlovid treatment for COVID: WHO backs Pfizer's Paxlovid for certain COVID patients but raises concerns on drug access, pricing "The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended the use of Pfizer's (NYSE:PFE) antiviral pill Paxlovid to treat patients with mild and moderate COVID-19 who are at the highest risk of hospital admission. The WHO suggested not to use the drug in patients at lower risk, as the benefits were found to be negligible, the agency said in an April 22 press release. The WHO called the drug 'best therapeutic choice for high-risk patients to date' but noted that availability, lack of price transparency in bilateral deals made by the producer, and the need for prompt and accurate testing before administering it, are turning the therapy into a major challenge for low- and middle-income countries." (more) https://seekingalpha.com/news/3825662-who-backs-pfizers-paxlovid-in-high-risk-covid-patients-but-raises-concerns-on-drug-access-pricing But... Pfizer COVID-19 pill linked to reports of returning symptoms - Boston Globe Boston Globe highlighted several cases where patients who took the Pfizer’s (NYSE:PFE) COVID-19 pill Paxlovid reported a rebound of symptoms despite testing negative for the virus after the initial infection. ... In its documents submitted to the FDA seeking regulatory nod for Paxlovid, Pfizer (PFE) noted several cases where trial subjects were found to have a rebound in SARS-CoV-2 RNA levels around Day 10 or Day 14.” ... Dr. Michael Charness, chief of staff at the VA Boston Healthcare System, ... concluded that some patients might require a longer course of therapy to develop a stronger immune defense. https://seekingalpha.com/news/3825817-pfizer-covid-19-pill-linked-to-reports-of-returning-symptoms-boston-globe

Update on efforts to develop a new vaccine version better tailored to Omicron and possible future variants: From Johns Hopkins: "Several companies, including Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, are developing variant-specific vaccines, but it is unclear how long testing and manufacturing of any newer vaccine versions might take. Moderna this week released preprint data on a bivalent vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273.211, that contains equal mRNA amounts of spike proteins from the ancestral SARS-CoV-2 strain and the Beta variant and could be used as a booster dose. According to the data—which is not yet peer-reviewed—the vaccine produced stronger, longer-lasting antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2 variants, including Omicron, than the company’s original vaccine. Results from a different Moderna bivalent vaccine candidate that uses mRNA from the original virus and Omicron are expected later this spring." https://myemail.constantcontact.com/COVID-19-Updates---April-14--2022.html

Seems a very bizarre decision by what's supposed to be a news media organization. Do they really think that sticking their heads in the sand and ignoring an issue (or substantially downplaying it) is somehow going to prevent people from continuing to get sick and in some cases die from COVID? Or that ceasing daily reporting will better remind people to take prudent health precautions? Right now, Thailand's official daily COVID death toll is roughly double that of its official daily road fatalities tally. Are they going to cease reporting on fatal road collisions too, because those clearly are "endemic" to Thailand? No, I don't think so.

https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos/a.106455480972785/547352123549783/?type=3

For anyone who hasn't caught on by now... the coronavirus outbreaks come in waves, waves up and waves down... Right now, in the United States (which, BTW, is closing in on 1 million official COVID deaths since the outset), what had been a downward trend in cases and hospitalizations are now upward trends for both..... Deaths are still trending down, but deaths are a lagging indicator that usually later follows trends in cases and hospitalizations. From the U.S. CDC: Reported Cases As of April 20, 2022, the current 7-day moving average of daily new cases (42,605) increased 35.3% compared with the previous 7-day moving average (31,495). New Hospital Admissions The current 7-day daily average for April 13–19, 2022, was 1,582. This is an 8.2% increase from the prior 7-day average (1,463) from April 6–12, 2022. Deaths The current 7-day moving average of new deaths (376) has decreased 9.4% compared with the previous 7-day moving average (415). As of April 20, 2022, a total of 987,601 COVID-19 deaths have been reported in the United States. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html And, BTW, Thailand on Saturday/today once again tied its year-high record with another day of 129 new COVID deaths, the third time in the past week the country has had that daily COVID death toll. And that number is about double the average number of road deaths the country has every day, by comparison.

Recap of the new rules for international arrivals effective May 1: https://www.facebook.com/LiveNBT2HD/videos/2924449737853710/ https://aseannow.com/topic/1257529-thailand-further-eases-entry-restrictions-for-international-travellers/

Thailand on Saturday reported 129 new COVID deaths, tying the country’s year-high total for the third time this month, while serious condition COVID hospitalizations declined again to 1,962, as did official new cases, which fell to 20,052. The 129 new COVID deaths reported Saturday tied the same totals that Thailand had last Thursday and Tuesday, and marked the 14th consecutive day of 100-plus daily COVID deaths. But elsewhere, the news was more positive, with most major COVID statistics continuing their post Songkran holidays decline. Serious hospitalizations at 1,962 marked their fifth consecutive daily decline, including falling from 1,985 on Friday. Official new cases at 20,052 dropped for a second consecutive day, down from Friday’s 21,808 total. And, total active COVID cases under care also fell from 190,780 Friday to 188,342 today. In one negative sign, however, the share of serious COVID hospitalizations in the worst condition, those requiring intubation to breathe, rose from 913 on Friday to 921 today, but remained below the year's high tally of 940 from last Tuesday. Even so, nowhere in Saturday's reported statistics was there any clear sign of the post-Songkran surge in new COVID infections and illnesses that the government's public health authorities have been preparing for and publicly warning about for weeks. Although Thailand has a narrow definition of what constitutes an official COVID case, RT-PCR results are counted but positive ATK tests are not, even an uncounted cases surge would at some point begin to translate into increased hospitalizations and deaths -- which hasn't been happening yet, according to the government's reporting. For context, during the peak of the Delta wave last fall, Thailand's daily COVID case count topped out at 23,418, but the numbers of serious hospital cases and the intubated share of those peaked above 5,600 and 1,100 respectively, and daily deaths topped 300 for a brief period. https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/posts/547225156895813 https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main

I'm not sure just who he's including in the definition of high risk.. But the group we usually start with in such discussions is the senior citizen age 60 and up population. And among those, 60% have yet to receive a third dose booster shot that's needed with Omicron. The non-boosted share among the general population is even higher, at about 64%. https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos/a.106455480972785/546784033606592/?type=3

As of this hour, it looks like MoPH has failed, for some reason, to update today's numbers for serious hospitalizations and intubations on their daily dashboard report. (The current version as of this moment is still showing yesterday's numbers, even though the rest of the data shown has been updated for today). So I'll post today's dashboard image without the incorrect/out-of-date data from yesterday. Hopefully they'll get around to fixing and updating that info at some point. https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main PS - they never did end up updating the dashboard report for today with the correct serious hospitalizations and intubations data... But they did later report it elsewhere, as follows:

Although it's not reflected on the WHO chart dated thru April 20 that's using 7-day average numbers, actually, the official daily numbers of serious COVID hospitalizations have been declining daily for the past 4 days since reaching the year high of 2,123 on April 18.

Thailand on Friday closed out the first work week post the Songkran holidays with very little change in its reported COVID situation, as new deaths declined by one to 128 and serious COVID hospitalizations continued a slow decline to 1,985, the first time under 2,000 in more than a week. The Friday update from the Ministry of Public Health marked Thailand’s 13th consecutive day of 100-plus COVID deaths, and Friday’s tally remained just below the year-high daily record of 129, which was reported yesterday. Serious hospitalizations, meanwhile, marked a fourth consecutive daily decline that most recently went from 2,021 yesterday to 1,985 today. Elsewhere, the MoPH reported 21,808 new official COVID infections for the day, a slight decline from the 21,931 reported yesterday. But active COVID cases under care nationwide increased slightly to 190,780, up from the 188,926 reported yesterday. Nowhere in Friday's reported statistics was there any clear sign of the post-Songkran surge in new COVID infections and illnesses that the government's public health authorities have been preparing for and publicly warning about for weeks. Although Thailand has a narrow definition of what constitutes an official COVID case, RT-PCR results are counted but positive ATK tests are not, even an uncounted cases surge would at some point begin to translate into increased hospitalizations and deaths -- which hasn't been happening yet. For context, during the peak of the Delta wave last fall, Thailand's daily COVID case count topped out at 23,418, but the numbers of serious hospital cases and the intubated share of those peaked above 5,600 and 1,100 respectively, and daily deaths topped 300 for a brief period. https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/posts/546632653621730

Properly wearing a legitimate N95 mask when around others certainly improves your odds. So does maintaining social distancing to the greatest extent when around others. So does getting vaccinated and boosted with an mRNA vaccine that reduces the likelihood of getting infected. Put all those together on a consistent basis, and I Iike the odds compared to the deniers' alternative of giving up and doing nothing. Source link

One of the good things in all of this is, real N95 masks these days have become much more available to regular consumers than they were in the early days when the supplies were very limited because those that were available were all being redirected to hospitals and medical staff. I don't know of any legitimate retailer in Thailand that's selling guaranteed authentic name brand N95 masks to the public still (though there are lots of KN94 and Korean and Chinese versions around). But lately, I've been able several times to order legit 3M N95 masks direct from Amazon U.S. as the seller and shipper. There also are a couple websites in the U.S. now that serve as legitimate resellers of guaranteed real NIOSH certifieid N95 masks from various producers (3M, Honeywell and others), so you'll know that what you're buying is legit as opposed to a Chinese counterfeit, which has been a real problem in the past.

Thailand on Thursday tied its year-high total with another 129 newly reported COVID deaths, the 12th consecutive day of 100-plus deaths, along with another decline in seriously hospitalized COVID patients to 2,021, although that number remained above 2,000 for the seventh consecutive day. The 129 new COVID deaths tied the year-high COVID deaths total previously set by Thailand on Tuesday, before a slight decline to 128 yesterday. Meanwhile, Thursday’s tally of 2,021 COVID patients hospitalized in serious condition was the third consecutive daily decline in that total and brought it to its lowest number in the past week. And perhaps in part because of Thursday's high number of new deaths, the country's tally of the most seriously ill subset of hospitalized COVID patients, those requiring intubation, fell for a second straight day to 885 from the 902 reported yesterday, and down from the year-high number of 940 the day before that. At the same time, the Ministry of Public Health reported a second consecutive daily increase in new COVID cases post Songkran to 21,931, up from 20,455 yesterday. But the number of total active COVID cases under care continued a week-long series of daily declines down to 188,926 from yesterday’s 191,743 total. All in all, most of Thailand's major reported COVID statistics, except for daily deaths and two days now of increased cases, have continued to fall in recent days following the Songkran New Year's holidays, although health officials have been predicting and preparing for a major post-holiday surge. For context, during the peak of the Delta wave last fall, Thailand's daily COVID case count topped out at 23,418, but the numbers of serious hospital cases and the intubated share of those peaked above 5,600 and 1,100 respectively, and daily deaths topped 300 for a brief period. https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/posts/546014907016838 https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main

Thailand on Wednesday reported 128 new COVID deaths, just one shy of the year’s record high and the 11th consecutive day of 100-plus deaths, along with a slightly reduced number of 2,049 COVID patients hospitalized in serious condition, the sixth consecutive day of tallies above 2,000. The 128 new COVID deaths were just one less than the year-high record of 129 set yesterday. The 2,049 COVID patients hospitalized in serious condition was a decline from the 2,104 reported yesterday, and the year-high number of 2,123 reported two days ago. In a bit of seemingly encouraging news, among the serious condition hospitalized COVID patients, those in the worst condition who require intubation in order to breathe declined to 902 in Wednesday's report from year-high 940 the day before, one of the largest recent drops in that tally. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Public Health reported 20,455 new official COVID cases, the highest number in the past six days and up from yesterday’s 16,891 count. But total active COVID cases under care were reported at 191,743, a substantial decline from the 197,349 tally reported yesterday. Despite the one-day uptick in new cases reported Wednesday, the latest numbers overall are yet to show any broad signs of feared major increases in the wake of the just ended Songkran New Year's holidays, although those may take more time to develop. Though in one sign of a possible post holidays impact, and of how Thailand's official COVID case reporting is very limited, the number of unofficial COVID cases from positive ATK tests reported Wednesday as 23,347 actually outnumbered the official 20,455 cases count. But the unofficial ATK cases don't count toward the country's officially reported cases tally. Wednesday was the first time in more than a week that the unofficial new cases count, almost double the 12,945 unofficial cases count from the day before, actually outnumbered the official cases count. For context, during the peak of the Delta wave last fall, Thailand's daily official COVID case count topped out at 23,418, but the numbers of serious hospital cases and the intubated share of those peaked above 5,600 and 1,100 respectively, and daily deaths topped 300 for a brief period. https://www.facebook.com/KhaosodEnglish/posts/5409394562412765 https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main

And closing in on almost 90,000 COVID deaths in CA since the start of the pandemic. Don't think too many people are cheering over that -- even if the per capita rate is in the lower range of U.S. states. https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/OPA/Pages/NR22-074.aspx

The COVID updates from the CA Dept of Health Services say otherwise (links to the source data are in the date references below): April 1 update: April 15 update: Unlike some other states, California for a long time had mask mandates for indoor public places, schools and various other kinds of COVID restrictions... and actually enforced them probably more than in many other places. And then this year, began lifting those restrictions... And look what's happened in CA and elsewhere as a result... cases are rising again, as would be expected.