TallGuyJohninBKK

What is XBB? The new ‘immune-evasive’ COVID strain that combines Omicron variants is driving cases in two countries ... "The XBB strain is causing a small surge in cases in countries like Bangladesh and Singapore. The latter has recorded a daily average of about 5,500 cases over the past week, compared to a daily average of 2,000 cases a month ago." ... Hospitalizations in Singapore have increased alongside the rise in cases, yet deaths remain low, with fewer than a dozen recorded in the country over the past week." ... Experts are also concerned that monoclonal antibody treatments might be less effective against newer variants like XBB and BA.2.75.2. “We’ve not seen this type of immune evasion before,” Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), told Fortune earlier this month." https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:vFtKyx05emEJ:https://fortune.com/2022/10/11/what-is-xbb-variant-covid-singapore-immune-evasive/&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-b-d

Three COVID Scenarios That Could Spell Trouble for the Fall ... Eric Topol, MD, founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute and Medscape's editor-in-chief, said about COVID this fall: "There will be another wave, magnitude unknown." He said subvariants XBB and BQ.1.1 "have extreme levels of immune evasion and both could pose a challenge," explaining that XBB is more likely to cause trouble than BQ.1.1 because it is even more resistant to natural or vaccine-induced immunity." https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/982113

The dropoff in protection of the original vaccine versions against the current Omicron variant of COVID beyond 4 months or so is more related to its protection against regular infection. The current vaccines' protection against serious illness and death from COVID has been shown to be more long-lasting than the protection against just mere infection.

The reason the discovery of the COVID XBB variant in Thais is significant is only explained in the latter portion of the OP article not excerpted above. The significance is, as the rest of the OP article explains: "The new strain is “probably the most immune-evasive yet” due to its combination of mutations from other strains, Raj Rajnarayanan, a professor at the New York Institute of Technology’s Jonesboro, Ark., campus, told Fortune in September. A preprint study from Oct. 4, authored by researchers at Peking University and Changping Laboratory, found that XBB had the greatest ability to evade antibody protections among newly emerging variants." In other words, the XBB variant is likely to be even more effective than Omicron is defeating the protections of current COVID vaccines, meaning potentially greater likelihoods of more people getting infected and more people getting sick.

Not sure why the intelligence community would need to disavow their opinions expressed back in 2020, based on the info that was available at that time... considering: "The former Trump administration officials who signed the letter include Russ Travers, who served as National Counterterrorism Center acting director; Glenn Gerstell, the former NSA general counsel; Rick Ledgett, the former deputy NSA director; Marc Polymeropoulos, a retired CIA senior operations officer; and Cynthia Strand, who served as the CIA’s deputy assistant director for global issues." And, what that group of officials actually said in their letter was: "“We want to emphasize that we do not know if the emails, provided to the New York Post by President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, are genuine or not and that we do not have evidence of Russian involvement,” the letter reads. But, it continues, “there are a number of factors that make us suspicious of Russian involvement.” “Such an operation would be consistent with Russian objectives, as outlined publicly and recently by the Intelligence Community, to create political chaos in the United States and to deepen political divisions here but also to undermine the candidacy of former Vice President Biden and thereby help the candidacy of President Trump,” the letter reads. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/19/hunter-biden-story-russian-disinfo-430276

And the main thing that the right-wing seems to keep trying hard to avoid amid all their would-be conspiracies.... There was NO credible information back in 2020, or even today, that then candidate Joe Biden or today's President Joe Biden was involved in any wrongdoing, that he profited or had any real financial stake in any of his son's activities, or that any of his son's activities influenced his policies in any way. That's why the whole thing had no business influencing the 2020 election, why much of the mainstream media didn't associate it with the presidential campaign, and why even to this day it has nothing PROVEN to do with President Biden or his actions.... Who knows... maybe something REAL will surface somewhere in the future, and if it does, so be it.... But right now, as regards Joe Biden, it's a big NOTHING in terms of any proven, pertinent facts..... As illustrated by the following that undercuts one of the right-wing's main talking points: "there is an alleged email provided by Tony Bobulinski about the deal with the Chinese energy tycoon, sent by Hunter business associate James Gilliar to Bobulinski and Hunter in May 2017, that suggests a split of equity for their new business venture. In addition for “20 H” (20 percent for Hunter) and “10 Jim” (10 percent for James Biden), it includes the line: “10 held by H for the big guy ?” ... Furthermore, there is also a message six days after this one where Hunter says that his “Chairman” gave him “an emphatic NO.” Fox News claims the “chairman” is Joe Biden, which if true would seem to suggest he turned down Hunter’s offer. In any case, the deal involving Bobulinski ended up falling apart." https://www.vox.com/2020/10/22/21529237/hunter-biden-debate-laptop-tony-bobulinski

"Wray seemed to raise doubts that Thibault was working at any recent time on issues related to Hunter Biden. The FBI chief said that investigation, reportedly focused on tax issues and potential foreign influence related to Hunter Biden’s business ties, is being run by the Bureau’s Baltimore Field Office, which handles matters related to Delaware."

Re the above cited report by Senate Republicans: "The reports retread familiar ground for those who followed the 2019 impeachment inquiry. And it’s hard to read these reports and not come to the same conclusion as those proceedings indicated: Hunter Biden’s role on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma had no impact on the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy decisions. But regardless of the substance of the reports, the episode paints a bleak picture of the demise of a key vehicle for congressional oversight. The years spent under Johnson’s leadership chasing unfounded conspiracies have sucked away the HSGAC’s credibility and atrophied the committee’s ability to conduct credible oversight." ... "Johnson and Grassley dug up no evidence of malfeasance on the elder Biden’s part." https://www.lawfareblog.com/what-make-johnson-grassley-report-biden-and-burisma

Go to Republican source for biased polling: "Rasmussen Reports /ˈræsˌmʌsən/[4] is an American conservative polling company founded in 2003." "After Trump lost the election, he and his allies made false and disproven claims of fraud and attempted to overturn the results, with Rasmussen itself suggesting that Vice President Mike Pence should overturn the election results." "Rasmussen has received criticism over the wording in its polls.[104][105] Asking a polling question with different wording can affect the results of the poll;[106] the commentators in question allege that the questions Rasmussen ask in polls are skewed in order to favor a specific response." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasmussen_Reports

That would, appropriately, be the U.S. attorney and the Justice Department -- not political revenge seeking Republicans in the House.

“This Republican obsession with Hunter Biden is a Fox News talking point,” said a Democratic aide who works on investigations and spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter. “Unlike former president Trump and his family, who used their senior White House positions to advance their own financial interests — and whom Republicans have blindly defended — Hunter Biden is a private citizen who is not a member of the administration. Republicans’ hypocrisy is not lost on the American people.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/16/afghanistan-hunter-biden-gop-readies-its-investigations/

And the same survey also noted: "Today some studies on the effect of circumcision on sexual function are available. However they vary widely in outcome."

FWIW: "The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidelines state that the health benefits of circumcision outweigh the risks, but these benefits are not enough to recommend universal newborn circumcision. Therefore, it is the guardians’ decision to circumcise their son." AND "An estimated 58.3% of male newborns and 80.5% of males aged 14-59 years in the United States are circumcised [3,4]. ... Male newborns who undergo circumcision benefit from significant reductions in the risk of urinary tract infections in the first year of life and penile cancer and risk of transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections later in life. The task force found that the benefits of circumcision were enough to justify access to all families and warrant third-party payment [1,5,6]. However, the AAP found that the health benefits were not great enough to recommend routine circumcision for all male newborns and that circumcision remains at the discretion of the guardian." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8654051/

Thai nursery: CNN journalists apologise for entering site of deadly attack Two journalists from US news outlet CNN have apologised for their coverage of last week's attack on a childcare centre in Thailand that left 37 people, including 23 children, dead. They entered the building where the attack occurred and filmed on site. They were accused of trespassing and filming a crime scene without permission. Both of them were later cleared of the charges, but fined for working as journalists while on tourist visas. (more) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-63196932 ---------------------------- A convenient local kerfuffle to deflect attention from the individual responsible for this terrible massacre and how it occurred, which should be everyone's main focus of attention so more of the same doesn't occur in the future. Not to mention, all the institutional wrongs, chiefly by the police, that allowed that responsible individual for years to escape the consequences of his prior wrongdoing. That said, yes, the CNN crew were wrong to have been working as journalists in Thailand on tourist visas instead of the normal news media visa, a requirement that should have been well-known to their organization. As for reporting on a massacre or a mass deaths situation, that's something that journalists sadly have to do all too often these days. And it's always a balancing act between needing to report the story accurately and fairly to the public (which is their job), without crossing the line of going too far, which can be a hard balance to strike in these kinds of situations. I'm not hearing the Thais complaining that the CNN crew's actual reporting was bad, but instead, the more bureacratic issues of their visa status and whether they had or hadn't been given permission to film where they did. From the above BBC report on that: "CNN has issued two statements. In the first response, it said their crew were told by three public health officials that they could film inside. They said the premises had been cordoned off while they were inside, and they needed to climb over the fence to leave. Police later found that village health volunteers had granted the team entry despite having no authority to do so, according to local news outlet The Nation." The above BBC report also says CNN has stopped broadcasting the report at issue and removed the video from its website.

So does he mean.... unlike all the prior supposed crackdowns when their big pronouncements were really just for show, and their real institutional corruption and misdeeds continued unchecked -- save for a few transfers to inactive posts here and there....

So you're saying, they no longer have all the tables at the entrance to the Immigration building where people had long been required to fill out a COVID questionnaire before entering? They were still doing that in late September when I was last there.

FWIW, refreshingly, I don't recall any Thai gogo bars or bar girls surfacing in any shape or form in this particular episode. There was a relatively brief segment during the opening part of the episode that had a street scene in Bangkok where the L.A. and Thai police were training together (no bars or girls). And then most of the rest of the Thailand portions of the episode were out in the boonies.

The drug kingpin character on the episode, Zaw Min, is played by actor Nay Myo Thant. I'm not sure exactly who that actor is... except.... one of the founders of the Thai rap group Thaitanium has the same name, so I'm wondering if it might not be the same person. Here's a YT clip of that part of the show, with the Zaw Min character showing up at about the 2 minute, 30 second mark of this clip:

Here's a teaser video on the episode and the actors/production staff talking about filming in Thailand: https://www.tvinsider.com/1063811/swat-season-6-premiere-shemar-moore-cast-filming-thailand-preview/

The other night on U.S. TV network CBS, one of their popular primetime drama series called "SWAT" -- about a police Special Weapons and Tactics team based in Los Angeles -- had its Season 6 premier.... And to my surprise, it happened to be filmed and set largely in Thailand (scenes in Bangkok and then somewhere in the North AFAICT), and included a lot of supporting Thai actors and one with a Myanmar type name. The episode is called "Thai Hard" and involves the head of the SWAT team (actor Shemar Moore) getting captured along with an ex-military buddy while on a police training trip to Thailand by a Myanmar drug kingpin. From the way the episode ended, it looks like the next week's episode #2 and maybe more likely also will be set in Thailand. -- which is something of a rarity for U.S. primetime TV series. Here's a list of some of the Thai actors who got guest credits on the episode: Pasakorn Hoyhon - Thet Nay Myo Thant - Zaw Min Kanticha Chumma - Chintana Nut Devahastin - Somchai Pattarasuda Anuman - May Sahajak Boonthanakit - Commander Niran https://swatcbs.fandom.com/wiki/Thai_Hard https://www.tvinsider.com/gallery/swat-season-6-premiere-photos-thai-hard/#11 A couple of things that struck me as being peculiar/funny about the episode.... though perhaps to be expected. --All the Asian characters guesting on the show -- including a Thai police SWAT commander and two younger officers under him, spoke excellent English, as did the Myanmar drug kingpin character out in the Thai-Myanmar border boonies... How often do you run into real Thai police here who speak English like natives (yes, I'm sure there are "some", somewhere)? --The Thai SWAT team commander talks early in the show about planning to come to Los Angeles soon because, he says, his older daughter will soon graduate from the private and pricey Pepperdine University in Malibu... And the school's website says its total annual expenses undergrad students should expect are between $70,000 and $85,000.... Perhaps the Thai SWAT commander character is just one of those "unusually wealthy" civil servant types... And then there's the younger female Thai SWAT officer who seems to have been assigned as a kind of local tour guide for the Los Angeles SWAT officers while in BKK. Her character, in perfect English, talks about having liked to read Sherlock Holmes stories when she was younger.... Dunno, but is Sherlock Holmes popular reading about the Thai female police officer corps??? Anyway, it was fun to see Thailand and Thai actors get some time/exposure on a U.S. network primetime TV series.... and not as hookers or exploited immigrant laborers....

My FB account log-in is set to just accept my email address as ID and then a good strong password for password. No two factor authentication. Works just fine all the time. I'm careful about my FB password, don't share it with anyone, and don't use the same PW for FB that I use anywhere else. Also, I don't have or do anything on my FB account that would be particularly sensitive or private information. PS - It helps to use a password manager like Last Pass or BitWarden as a browser extension, which will save and keep all your different passwords... locked behind a master password that only you should know... That way, you can have and use DIFFERENT passwords for your various accounts, without having to mentally remember them all, and/or, write them down on a cheat sheet somewhere that someone else might gain access to.

And, eerily similar to a prior episode about five years ago involving the Mae Hong Son child prostitution ring run by a policeman and having local government officials as clients. https://www.nationthailand.com/breaking-news/30315017 According to local news reports, about 8 people including the policeman were finally sentenced to long prison terms in 2018.

And this hard on the heels of the news report out of Pattaya this week of police there busting an under-age prostitution operation in a bar involving 12 to 16 year old girls.

Not sure what you're referring to. The forum did reorganize things recently, and the locations and links for some subforums did get moved around... But there's still an active COVID topics subforum here, at the following link: https://aseannow.com/forum/245-covid-19-coronavirus/ And of course, related topics also show up in the World News and Thailand News sections as warranted:

It's a VERY rare side effect of vaccination, usually only mild and short-term in duration, and when it does occur, usually is in teens and early 20s... Not an issue for older folks at all.... And beyond all that, myocarditis, not necessarily mild and short term, is far more common from COVID itself than from vaccinations.