TallGuyJohninBKK

The full article claims...they were using the radioactive materials to check for otherwise invisible cracks in steam lines... At least, that's their story, and they're sticking to it.

FATCA filing thresholds: People living in the US have lower filing thresholds: Unmarried taxpayers living in the US: The total value of your specified foreign financial assets is more than $50,000 on the last day of the tax year or more than $75,000 at any time during the tax year Married taxpayers filing a joint income tax return and living in the US: The total value of your specified foreign financial assets is more than $100,000 on the last day of the tax year or more than $150,000 at any time during the tax year People living abroad have higher filing thresholds, ranging between $200K and $600K: You are filing a return other than a joint return and the total value of your specified foreign assets is more than $200,000 on the last day of the tax year or more than $300,000 at any time during the year; or You are filing a joint return and the value of your specified foreign asset is more than $400,000 on the last day of the tax year or more than $600,000 at any time during the year. https://www.irs.gov/businesses/corporations/do-i-need-to-file-form-8938-statement-of-specified-foreign-financial-assets

FBAR has a lower reporting threshold, so probably captures more expats.. Whereas FATCA has a series of several different higher reporting thresholds, depending on one's personal circumstances. FATCA's generally going to apply to fewer expats than FBAR. For expats here, just keeping 800K Thai baht in a Thai bank account for retirement extension purposes is going to put someone well above the FBAR filing threshold -- even if they had no other foreign financial holdings at all.

The FBAR filing obligation for Americans actually applies when the combined values of any/all foreign financial holdings they had during the past year exceeds $10,000 U.S. It's not a threshold of more than $10K per foreign account, but rather, anytime when the combined values of all one's foreign accounts exceed $10K. "Who Must File A U.S. person, including a citizen, resident, corporation, partnership, limited liability company, trust and estate, must file an FBAR to report: a financial interest in or signature or other authority over at least one financial account located outside the United States if the aggregate value of those foreign financial accounts exceeded $10,000 at any time during the calendar year reported." https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/report-of-foreign-bank-and-financial-accounts-fbar

There were a bunch of low-quality and/or biased/faulty studies done on Ivermectin in the earlier times of the pandemic... often by authors who had commercial/financial interests in promoting/selling the drug. Over time, the medical/scientific community caught up with most of those, eventually pointing out their flaws and faults.... and ultimately producing a series of legitimate, non-conflicted studies that told a consistent result. Ivermectin is NOT an effective treatment for or preventive medication against COVID. New England Journal of Medicine Editorial Time to Stop Using Ineffective Covid-19 Drugs August 18, 2022 "During the Covid-19 pandemic, some of the early treatment trials were rushed, leading to studies that were badly conducted1 or had too few patients.2 As a result, initial evidence of the efficacy of some Covid-19 treatments could not be replicated,3,4 but these drugs were already in widespread use by then, and some clinicians have been reluctant to change to proven efficacious alternatives. Ivermectin and fluvoxamine, in particular, are still widely prescribed, even though evidence has been steadily accumulating to indicate that both treatments at acceptable doses are not effective for Covid-19." https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2209017

The real data says NO to that: As of December in the U.S., people who had received COVID vaccine bivalent boosters had a 9.8 times lower risk of dying from COVID than the unvaccinated. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#rates-by-vaccine-status

Those estimates were in the early days of the pandemic, and they were only estimates.... But what came after from the WHO told the clearer tale: https://www.who.int/data/stories/global-excess-deaths-associated-with-covid-19-january-2020-december-2021 Also, in reality, small fatality percentages turn out to be very large number of COVID deaths, as illustrated by the following info from Johns Hopkins: Mexico - 4.5% case fatality rate -- 333,188 official COVID deaths Russia - 1.8% case fatality rate -- 388,478 official COVID deaths US - 1.1% case fatality rate -- 1.1 million official COVID deaths. UK - 0.9% case fatality rate -- 220,000+ official COVID deaths Thailand - 0.7% case fatality rate -- 33,900+ official COVID deaths And I caveated each of those countries' death totals as "official deaths" because the above stats are not counting the "excess mortality" data for each, which reflects how "official" COVID deaths often were a large undercount to actual COVID deaths. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality

I wore my N95 masks, consistently got vaccinated as recommended, and I never got COVID all these years, afaik.... Those approaches, along with social distancing, have been working just fine for me! A good mask only protects you when you actually wear it... Not if you take it off when you visit the pub... not if you don't wear it when out with friends, etc etc. They're not foolproof, but they help reduce the risk... and reduce it a whole lot more than your apparent wish of everyone roaming around spreading their germs with no precautions whatsoever.

You're misrepresenting what the article actually says to fit your own narrative... The evidence is clear, the primary route for COVID infections is thru the respiratory system (not eyes or surfaces), and masks can be effective to varying degrees in reducing those risks.

None of which says anything about the risk or likelihood of acquiring a COVID infection via ones eyes, or about the effectiveness of face masks -- which supposedly what was being discussed here lately. Read the AARP article posted prior, which actually addresses the issues at hand.

Yes... the truth is coming out, despite uninformed posts like yours. "According to the latest study from the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Illness Analysis at Imperial College London, international vaccination programs prevented 14.4 million fatalities from Covid-19 between December 8, 2020, and December 8, 2021. In Thailand, immunization initiatives saved around 382,600 lives over that period. A research team from Mahidol University and Naresuan University led by Associate Professor Dr. Charin Modchang expanded the study and utilized the same mathematical modeling approaches to estimate the number of lives saved due to Thailand’s vaccine rollout. The study revealed that between the time the first vaccine was administered in 2021 and July 3, 2022, 490,000 lives were saved."

Can You Catch the Coronavirus Through Your Eyes? Experts say it's not a big concern, but there are ways to lower your risk ... "For the most part, however, health experts believe we're probably more likely to become infected via our nose and mouth, than through our eyes, in part, says Tuli, “because our nose and mouth provide a direct passageway to the lungs,” whereas infectious particles that enter through our eyes have to take a more roundabout route. Also, notes James Cherry, M.D., a distinguished research professor and infectious disease expert at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, our tears contain antibodies that can help detect and latch onto unfriendly antigens, such as bacteria and viruses, and destroy them." https://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/info-2020/catching-coronavirus-through-your-eyes.html

And as usual, you have/present absolutely no credible source to support your claims.

Self-inflicted... Self-inflicted... Self-inflicted.... Beginning to sense a pattern there.

Sadly, there's still a country-full of Trump-inspired Jacob Chansleys out there.... From the OP report re death threats against Fauci and his family: "Fauci has long dismissed the attacks against him and shrugged Musk’s comment off — though he’s underscored that the rhetoric has sparked death threats and impacted his family. “Every time somebody gets up and spouts some nonsense that’s misinformation, disinformation and outright lies, somebody somewhere decides they want to do harm to me and/or my family,” Fauci said on CNN." That's your reward for dedicated public service in America these days....

Hey, it's not like Dr. Fauci led an attempted insurrection against his own country or anything, promoted useless and potentially harmful COVID treatments, falsely claimed early in the pandemic that it would all be over in a couple months, etc etc... I know who ought to be prosecuted here, and it's certainly not Dr. Fauci.

Interesting reporting on how right-wing governors and legislators in deep red state have passed a lot of measures aimed at crippling the authority of public health officials to respond to future public health crises. "Lawsuits and legislation over COVID-19 response measure have weakened public health authority and the ability to respond to future pandemics, the Washington Post reported yesterday. It noted that at least 30 states have passed laws since 2020 limiting public health authorities and that more than half the country is barred from issuing mask mandates, closing schools, and taking other response steps." https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/quick-takes-global-covid-ebb-us-pandemic-pushback-testing-china-travelers-singapore-covid

Right back at ya.... Married men are healthier than everyone else "It turns out that when it comes to health, married people have an edge, especially married men. ... Married men and married women live, on average, two years longer than their unmarried counterparts. One reason for this longevity benefit is the influence of marital partners on healthy behaviors. Study after study shows that married people eat better and are less likely to smoke and drink excessively." https://fortune.com/2023/01/13/why-are-married-men-healthier-on-average-women-gender-research/

AFAIK, there's no credible evidence that COVID virus infection via the eyes (while possible and the subject of some studies) actually accounts for any meaningful share of infections. Same with surface contact. It's primarily a respiratory infection route, which is why good masks are important, as they reduce the risk from the PRIMARY route of infection.

The Bangkok local government did a Facebook post on Sunday advertising the availability of Pfizer bivalent, Pfizer original and AstraZeneca COVID vaccines every Friday afternoon at district health centers. Presumably that is aimed primarily at Thai citizens, but dunno what the health centers would do if farangs showed up. https://www.facebook.com/prbangkok/posts/pfbid02EERaHGArWN7g5DxCRh2uv6nMPQC1vq3rs9ziv4qMRZH1kDREYNMqp4295Hj3nG91l FB Translation: Bangkok. Invite the public to get Covid 19 vaccination for free!! At the health service center near my home. Open every Friday except public holidays. From 13.00 - 15.00 p.m. At 69 health service centers. You can enter the service by booking an appointment for vaccination through QueQ application or Walk in. Please enquire about the service centre before entering as there are limited availability of vaccines."

I'm weary of posters who continue to flood the forum with entirely unsourced and unsubstantiated misinformation -- often claims originating from rubbish sources that previously have been proven as flatly false -- on life/health important issues including face mask wear, vaccines, COVID etc.

These are not local for Pattaya... but they're online and specialize in tax issues for US expats living abroad. (PS - I have not used any of these myself, so I can't personally vouch for them. But they are well-known entities in the field). https://www.taxesforexpats.com/services/our-fees.html https://globalustaxplan.com/ https://americanexpatfinance.com/news/item/366-bangkok-everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know https://www.greenbacktaxservices.com/audience/americans-working-abroad/

Much recommended for older adults age 65 and beyond... Key Facts "Pneumococcal disease is common in young children, but older adults are at greatest risk of serious illness and death." https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/pneumo/index.html

Also, I know some here will take exception to the following notion.... But medical research has been pretty clear in coming to the conclusion that married men in general tend to live longer than single men do... Although, separate from that, those with good social relationships (as opposed to being isolated) also tend to fare better.

BeFALL is the right word here.... Be careful on those rickety, hazard-prone Thai sidewalks, slippery tiles in and out of the bathroom/shower, long stairs up and down BTS stations for those in BKK, and other danger zones here in the Wild East! "[Sen Mitch] McConnell will be among 800,000 [U.S.] seniors who will be hospitalized with injuries from falling this year. For older adults in the U.S., fall death rates went up by 30% from 2007-2016, and researchers predict there will be seven deadly falls every hour by 2030. Researchers say that “falls account for 70 percent of accidental deaths in persons 75 years of age and older.” https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2023/mitch-mcconnell-among-800000-seniors-hospitalized-falling-injuries/