TallGuyJohninBKK

Details from the Ministry of Public Health on today's 125 newly reported COVID deaths: One German and one Finland national among them. Age range 1 year to 102 years. Median age 76, meaning half the deaths were in people younger than that, and the other half older than that. 97 of the deaths, or 78%, were in people age 60 and above. Bangkok province had the most reported deaths with 10, followed by seven in Chonburi, and five each in Roi Et, Phrae, Rayong and Nakhon Sawan. MoPH also cited various health risk factors present (not causes) in those who died of COVID, with the most frequent one being kidney disease, cited among 32 of today's reported deaths. https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/posts/542989153986080

In situations where there's adequate testing occurring, COVID deaths and serious illnesses generally are a trailing indicator to cases (meaning they typically start falling after cases do), because they take longer time to develop after the initial infections. But in situations like Thailand where there's basically no comprehensive or adequate testing occurring and we're in the midst of the Songkran holidays slowdown, I don't think you can't make that same kind of assumption. Thus it's the Thai Ministry of Health that's been predicting that COVID case numbers could hit 50,000 per day in the aftermath of the Songkran holidays.... Have to wait and see how that plays out in the weeks ahead.

The problem is, 90+% of the people who are dying of COVID in Thailand every day have NOT received a third shot vaccine booster dose that the health experts say is needed to best protect against the Omicron variant. And the bigger picture view of that is, almost two-thirds of Thailand's entire population has NOT received the third shot booster dose, meaning there are A LOT of vulnerable people out there, especially the most vulnerable senior citizens, of whom 60% still have not been boosted.

I saw an interesting analogy made by an infectious diseases expert in the U.S. on this, the other day... Basically, he said the prior Delta variant was like the water.... But the current Omicron variant, he said, is like the wind.... Meaning, it goes everywhere...

Thailand set another year-high record of new COVID deaths for the third consecutive day with 125 on Saturday, the country’s seventh straight day with more than 100 deaths, while also reporting 2,062 COVID patients hospitalized in serious condition, the second highest tally of the year. The 125 new COVID deaths blew past the prior year high totals of 119 reported yesterday and 115 on Thursday. The 2,062 COVID patients hospitalized in serious condition became the country’s second highest tally of the year exceeded only by a 2,065 count of such cases reported last Monday. The bad news on new COVID deaths and serious hospitalizations came despite Thailand reporting more declines in officially reported new COVID cases to 18,892 and total active COVID cases under care to 221,452, both numbers declining steadily during the past week amid a general slowdown during the Songkran New Year's holidays. And both official numbers are widely considered vast undercounts with many cases going unreported. With Saturday's update, new daily COVID deaths in Thailand have risen for the past four consecutive days, and new serious COVID hospitalizations have risen for the past three consecutive days despite the New Year's holidays, both considered better indicators of the direction of the country's COVID pandemic. Among the serious condition hospitalized COVID cases, the share in the worst condition, those requiring intubation to breathe, declined slightly to 867, but that still is the third highest daily total of the year, and the decline from 872 the day before mostly because of all the new deaths. Overall, Saturday's update pushed Thailand's official COVID death toll for 2022 past the 5,000 mark for the first time to 5,056. And it pushed Thailand's total tally of official cases since the start of the pandemic past the 4 million mark for the first time, hitting 4,012,184, which would represent more than 5 percent of the country's population if it were accurate. For added 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/542795344005461 https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main

I know BNH tends to be pricey... but that would be VERY pricey if it was their charge for an ATK test... ????

Are both of those ATK tests? 4000+b sounds more like the price for an RT-PCR test.

No one's going to overdose taking a single standard multi-vitamin per day... But where there is the potential for that, is when people go out and start buying and consuming large quantities of this or that individual supplement that some unqualified quack was promoting as a cure-all on social media.

I was reading up on Vitamin D lately, because of a discussion that ensued here on the forum relating to COVID. I went to reputable health / medical websites, and found lists of foods rich in Vitamin D and what levels those provided. And given that I've been getting relatively little direct sun lately, a lot of those things I simply don't and/orwon't eat here in Thailand, and certainly not on a daily basis in the quantities that would be required to meet RDA. "up to 50% of the world’s population may not get enough sun, and 40% of U.S. residents are deficient in vitamin D (1Trusted Source, 2Trusted Source). This is partly because people spend more time indoors, wear sunblock outside, and eat a Western diet low in good sources of this vitamin." https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/9-foods-high-in-vitamin-d --salmon, poor quality, and if not, very expensive here. And farmed salmon, the most common here, provides a lot less Vit D than the wild caught varieties. --cod liver oil, yuck.... --canned tuna, OK, but not one of my preferences ["Unfortunately, canned tuna contains methylmercury, a toxin found in many types of fish. If it builds up in your body, it can cause serious health problems"] --egg yolks, I eat some --mushrooms, not a fan of the varieties sold here --Vitamin D fortified foods... not clear to me that Thailand typically fortifies foods as much as is done in the U.S.. for instance, the Thai fresh dairy brand I buy here has zero vitamin info as part of its nutrition label... just calories, fat, sugar, carbs, etc. So, taking a daily multi vitamin solves all those issues, and doesn't force me to go out shopping for and buying a lot of food products I'd otherwise not buy.

Yep... I think that's part of what's going on... And whenever I see the huge price variations like that, I'm always left wondering, on Lazada, whether the much cheaper version might be a counterfeit or otherwise problematic.... or.... just someone offering an actual good deal. And unfortunately, no real way to know for sure going in. Another very galling thing I noticed today... Lazada is promoting their supposed "Mid-Month" sale and claiming big price reductions on all kinds of different products...including various of the vitamins. Well, I went back today and checked some of the things I've purchased lately from Lazada long before their supposed "Mid Month Sale" came along, and the actual more or less regular prices I paid for various things in past weeks are all almost identical to today's "Mid Month Sale" prices from exactly the same sellers and listings... So in other words, FAKE sales... but then again, that's nothing unfamiliar or surprising when it comes to retailing here.

Just an update on my abovementioned plans to ship some multi-vitamins bought from Amazon in the U.S. to Thailand. 1. First try, ordered a 200 tabs bottle of Centrum Silver and had it shipped to my mail forwarding service in California. The package supposedly arrived opened and empty with no bottle inside, which was a very odd and unprecedented situation for me. So I ended up having Amazon, without any problem, refund me the entire purchase. 2. As a replacement, I then followed up with an order of two, 200-tablet bottles of One-a-Day for Men's multi-vitamins that cost about $15 total on sale as part of a promotion including free shipping with Amazon Prime. Then paid about $20 for insured, regular mail shipping via my mail forwarding service to Thailand for a 1.5 lbs package. On the customs info, I simply wrote "One-A-Day tablets". My package arrived here and was delivered by Thai Post just fine. The envelope had been opened (and then re-sealed) and it looked like one of the bottles had been removed from its retail packaging and inspected, but the product seals were intact. And because it was regular mail, no Thai Customs duty charged at all. So my total price, purchase and shipping, for the two, 200-tablet bottles of One-A-Day came to about $35 U.S., or about 1,100 baht... which equals about 2.75 baht per tablet all in. Lazada is selling several varieties of the same product, with prices ranging from 3.24 baht to 8.64 baht per tablet.... Not sure why they have such a wide range of pricing....

The Ministry of Public Health today released data on what it said has been the effectiveness of vaccinations in both preventing COVID infections and deaths during the Omicron wave from January through March, based on tracking data from the Chiang Mai province. The graphic below says, for the period tracked: Two shots (so-called fully vaccinated): not effective in preventing infections, but did prevent more than 85% of deaths. Three shots including booster: 34% to 68% effective in preventing infections, and 98% to 99% in preventing deaths. Four shots including two boosters: 80% to 82% effective in preventing infections, and no deaths reported thus far among this group. https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/posts/542196414065354

Today's past two weeks COVID trends chart from the Ministry of Public Health: The red text in the bottom right corner of the chart says 109 of today's 119 newly reported COVID deaths (more than 91%) involved people who had NOT received a third-dose COVID booster vaccine. Nationally, the share of the population at large that has received a third dose COVID vaccine booster shot remains just under 36%. And just over 39% for the most vulnerable subgroup of seniors age 60 and above.

https://www.facebook.com/OICDDC/posts/349050023923157

Thailand on Friday reported a new record year-high 119 COVID deaths, the sixth consecutive day the country's death toll has exceeded 100, along with an increase to 2,024 COVID patients hospitalized in serious condition, the country’s third highest tally of the year. Friday’s report by the Ministry of Public Health was the second straight day of new year-high deaths in the country, surpassing the prior record 115 from yesterday. The 2,024 cases hospitalized in serious condition was Thailand’s highest total except for tallies of 2,065 and 2,056 last Monday and Tuesday. Among the serious COVID hospitalizations, the share of patients in the worst condition, those requiring intubation to breathe, rose to 872, the second highest tally of the year surpassed only by 885 last Tuesday. Along with the deaths and hospitalizations, the MoPH also reported 20,289 new official COVID cases from the past day, a significant decrease from yesterday’s 24,134 total, but also a cases tally that’s widely considered an undercount and likely influenced by Thailand’s current Songkran New Year’s holidays. Overall, Thailand reported a total of 224,905 currently active official COVID infections under care, a number that has been steadily decreasing during the past week from a recent high of more than 251,000. And yet that case count is decreasing while serious hospitalizations and deaths keep climbing. For added 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/542127434072252 https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main

Priceless comedy gold for Thailand... You couldn't make this stuff up...if you tried! And... he really must have been, to quote the headline here, "drunk as a skunk" in order to get fired from the RTP for that kind of offense.... Getting fired from the RTP, as others here have noted, isn't such an easy thing to accomplish!

There's no "record pollution in BKK." Except for the past couple days of moderately unhealthy air, the past few months -- the normal smog season here -- have been considerably better than past years, with very few red colored / unhealthy for all days.

In the news.... "At a briefing today, however, WHO officials urged countries not to drop their guard, as a few locations report spikes and some—like the United States—see early signs of new rises. ... At today's WHO briefing, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, said some countries are still seeing serious spikes in cases, which are putting pressure on hospitals. And he warned that the capacity to track COVID-19 trends is compromised as countries reduce testing for the virus. ... At today's briefing, the WHO said the emergency committee concluded that the COVID-19 situation still warrants a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2022/04/global-covid-cases-fall-cdc-extends-travel-mask-order

They're not the only ones who've lost 2 years of their lives, literally... entire countries have because COVID has shortened average lifespans more than anything since World War II.... COVID-19 pandemic cut life expectancy by most since World War Two –study "LONDON, Sept 27 (Reuters) - The COVID-19 pandemic reduced life expectancy in 2020 by the largest amount since World War Two, according to a study published on Monday by Oxford University, with the life expectancy of American men dropping by more than two years. Life expectancy fell by more than six months compared with 2019 in 22 of the 29 countries analysed in the study, which spanned Europe, the United States and Chile. There were reductions in life expectancy in 27 of the 29 countries overall." (more) https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/covid-19-pandemic-cut-life-expectancy-by-most-since-world-war-two-study-2021-09-26/ AND U.S. life expectancy falls for 2nd year in a row April 7, 2022 "Despite the availability of life-saving COVID-19 vaccines, so many people died in the second year of the pandemic in the U.S. that the nation's life expectancy dropped for a second year in a row last year, according to a new analysis. ... Many of the deaths occurred in people in the prime of their lives, Woolf says, and drove the overall U.S. life expectancy to fall to 76.6 years — the lowest in at least 25 years." ... The 2021 drop came after U.S life expectancy plummeted in 2020, tumbling by almost two years — the biggest one-year fall in U.S. life expectancy since at least World War II. (more) https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/04/07/1091398423/u-s-life-expectancy-falls-for-2nd-year-in-a-row

Here's the way one U.S. study ranked the various causes for severe COVID outcomes, highest to lowest, with older age being the highest risk of all. Obesity is way down on the list compared to the others. But still is risk...not meaning to suggest otherwise. "Adjusted odds ratios (aOR) of severe COVID-19 outcomes after primary vaccination were higher among persons aged ≥65 years (aOR = 3.22; 95% CI = 1.81–5.74), and those with immunosuppression (aOR = 1.91; 95% CI = 1.37–2.66), pulmonary disease (aOR = 1.69; 95% CI = 1.31–2.18), liver disease (aOR = 1.68; 95% CI = 1.12–2.52), chronic kidney disease (aOR = 1.61; 95% CI = 1.19–2.19), neurologic disease (aOR = 1.54; 95% CI = 1.06–2.25), diabetes (aOR = 1.47; 95% CI = 1.14–1.89), or cardiac disease (aOR = 1.44; 95% CI = 1.01–2.06)." Risk Factors for Severe COVID-19 Outcomes Among Persons Aged ≥18 Years Who Completed a Primary COVID-19 Vaccination Series — 465 Health Care Facilities, United States, December 2020–October 2021 https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7101a4.htm

it's been interesting to have read the MoPH daily COVID fatality reports over a period of many months now. For all the attention some posters here seem to fixate on the obesity issue, that's usually a fairly small share of the MoPH risk factor lists, and as with today's report, kidney disease is far and away a more frequently cited risk among the COVID deaths here.

Ya, I've seen those reports and their language, and figured that's what you were, at least in part, basing your comments on... I'm just not sure extrapolating the particular language and assessment that Chonburi health officials have chosen to use for a few local deaths there is automatically illustrative of the national landscape. Especially when the national-level MoPH COVID fatality reports don't paint the same picture.

The other day it was 25 or so road deaths compared to 100+ COVID deaths.... And a new report today says the average road deaths over the past three days has been about 38 per day... https://www.facebook.com/ThaiPBSWorld/posts/5455928334452452 But apart from that, as has been mentioned before, road deaths are not a contagious pandemic, whereas COVID is.

It's hard to know for sure, given the way the MoPH reports their COVID death data and their relative lack of specificity at the national level. For example, of today's 115 deaths, they say 90 of them were age 60 and older... but they don't give any breakdown on to what extent that group had chronic risk conditions for COVID serious illness. Then separately, they list another 23 deaths under the age of 60 in which they say chronic conditions were involved. At the bottom of the fatality report, they have a general list of risk conditions involving the fatalities at large, and 91 are listed (no way to know if any of them may be multiple conditions involving the same fatality). On their list for today: --33 kidney disease --22 heart disease --15 cerebrovascular disease --13 bedridden --7 cancer --1 obesity If you take that list at face value, that would mean at least 24 of today's 115 deaths had no identified health conditions called out by MoPH. And of course, being bedridden in and of itself may not be a COVID health risk condition as opposed to a symptom of old age, given that the oldest fatality among today's group was age 99. There's also no way to know, from the MoPH's reporting, to what extent any of these above risk factor conditions were, to use your phrase, "severe personal health problems" as opposed to ongoing, chronic and otherwise manageable health issues. https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/posts/541597437458585

Apart from the year-high number of 115 new COVID deaths today, it's a bad COVID day in Thailand when more provinces other than Bangkok are reporting more than 1,000 official new cases, or getting close to that threshold: https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos/a.106455480972785/541592410792421/?type=3 Meanwhile, the latest per capita COVID case rankings by province from member @Eaglekott for April 12 two days earlier (where Chonburi had reported only 803 cases (791 in the official MoPH document I'm seeing) and Khon Kaen only 527): https://aseannow.com/topic/1221220-information-about-new-covid-19-cases-per-province/?do=findComment&comment=17301128