TallGuyJohninBKK

The chart you're citing from Worldometers appears to be OLD 2020 era data just from China, which in and of itself is notoriously unreliable... All in all, it means nothing. Here's the broader look at the chart info you excerpted above: And, not surprisingly, there is actual real and more current data on that subject that you could have cited, but didn't. According to the US CDC, for example, there have been since the start of the pandemic in the U.S. alone 637 COVID deaths of children ages 0 - 4, and 986 COVID deaths among youngsters ages 5 to 18. So anyone suggesting children are somehow immune from serious health impacts from COVID is simply wrong. And these CDC numbers below only deal with youngster COVID deaths, and not the far larger numbers of COVID hospitalizations and COVID illnesses. https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Deaths-by-Sex-Ages-0-18-years/xa4b-4pzv

When the bivalent vaccines were first launched in the West, there were very mixed signals about just how effective they were, and whether they really were an improvement over the original versions. Some initial reports and analysis said they were not. However, subsequent and expanded research and studies on the bivalent vaccines after they've been in use in various countries for months seems to have turned the tide and the latest and more recent research seems to in fact show them as more effective against serious illness, hospitalization and death than their predecessors. However, in looking today, I found one Thai media source earlier this month that claimed the Thai MoPH ended up canceling their plans to acquire the bivalent vaccines based on the early and ultimately countermanded research findings about about the newer vaccines, which if true would be a bad move on Thailand's part. Here's that Thai media report, not sure how credible or authoritative it is: Thai bivalent strains of the COVID-2 vaccine do not have to be imported. Health Underwood World 6 days ago ... "Anutin Charnvirakul, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Health, said he had received information on medical and academic advice. covid vaccineThe original and the new. 2 strains of COVID vaccine The effect of using a needle to stimulate the immune system is similar. Therefore, it is not necessary to consider importing it to be used as a stimulant needle in Thailand at this time. will definitely not be stuck at him. Dr. Tares Krassanairawiwong The Director-General of the Department of Disease Control (Kor.) gave information that there was no need to order at this time." (more) https://thailand.postsen.com/health/100791/Thai-bivalent-strains-of-the-COVID-2-vaccine-do-not-have-to-be-imported.html Unfortunately for Thailand, more recent research and reports as the newer bivalent vaccines have been in use in the U.S. and elsewhere say they DO have protection advantages over the original versions..... and no different safety profile. "our vaccines have continued to be protective against severe disease as the virus mutates, including the bivalent boosters currently available that were modeled after the BA.4/BA.5 subvariants. Lab studies have found that new boosters neutralize XBB.1.5 as well as BA.5, according to Topol's report, and that XBB.1.5's and BA.5's spike proteins have more in common." https://www.cnet.com/health/medical/vaccine-effectiveness-available-covid-treatments-what-to-know-about-xbb-1-5/ Bivalent COVID-19 boosters may cut risk of severe disease by more than half Updated bivalent (two-strain) mRNA booster shots, which target the Omicron BA.4/BA.5 sublineages of COVID-19 and the original strain, cut the risk of contracting severe COVID-19 by up to 57%, according to a study published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report today, but most Americans have yet to get the shot since they were made available on Sep 1. A second study today in the same journal shows the bivalent boosters are particularly effective at preventing hospitalizations in elderly Americans. (more) https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/bivalent-covid-19-boosters-may-cut-risk-severe-disease-more-half The above article cites the following recent study from the U.S. CDC: Early Estimates of Bivalent mRNA Vaccine Effectiveness in Preventing COVID-19–Associated Emergency Department or Urgent Care Encounters and Hospitalizations Among Immunocompetent Adults — VISION Network, Nine States, September–November 2022 What is added by this report? "Bivalent booster doses provided additional protection against COVID-19–associated emergency department/urgent care encounters and hospitalizations in persons who previously received 2, 3, or 4 monovalent vaccine doses. Because of waning of monovalent vaccine-conferred immunity, relative effectiveness of bivalent vaccines was higher with increased time since the previous monovalent dose. What are the implications for public health practice? All persons should stay up to date with recommended COVID-19 vaccinations, including receiving a bivalent booster dose if eligible." This is how the CDC report said the newer vaccines helped improve people's odds of avoiding COVID hospitalization, compared to being unvaccinated and compared to having prior original vaccinations at various timeframes: "VE [vaccine effectiveness] of a bivalent booster dose (after 2, 3, or 4 monovalent doses) against COVID-19–associated hospitalizations was 57% compared with no vaccination, 38% compared with monovalent vaccination only with last dose 5–7 months earlier, and 45% compared with monovalent vaccination only with last dose ≥11 months earlier. (more) https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm715152e1.htm

Those reports later rescinded as a probable false alarm: Does Pfizer’s COVID-19 booster increase stroke risk? ‘Very unlikely,’ agencies say The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that one of their databases warned of the possibility that the Pfizer bivalent COVID-19 booster could be linked to an increased risk of stroke in people aged 65 and older. The agencies investigated that warning and did not find evidence to confirm the risk. "The CDC and FDA announced their investigation in a Jan. 13 press release. The agencies said a "preliminary safety signal" was identified for people 65 and older, but their investigation found "it is very unlikely that the signal … represents a true clinical risk." (more) https://www.politifact.com/article/2023/jan/18/does-pfizers-covid-19-booster-increase-stroke-risk/

You're dating yourself! I go back a long ways here... but that name even predates my arrival! I believe the original name of the current mall, that opened in 1990, was the ill-named (based on later U.S. events) World Trade Center.

I remember that announcement. But I also seem to remember subsequent to that, it was clarified that Thailand still was going to be acquiring the newer vaccines, if not by the MoPH directly, then by the GPO and/or private hospitals. But, until we hear something more recent and authoritative on the issue, who knows!

And meanwhile, over in Thailand's Chinese "gray" market world, Immigration for years, supposedly in exchange for kickbacks, has been handing out improper student visas to scores / hundreds? of Chinese business people (gangsters?) masquerading as Thai language students, and Thais are illegally fronting as nominees for illegal Chinese owned/operated businesses involved in drugs, gambling and who knows what else. And the Chinese guy who's supposedly in charge of the whole empire is married to a Thai police colonel and somehow managed to get Thai citizenship out of the deal! Immigration is bugging us about slivers, while huge logs of corruption are merrily floating downstream right under their noses.

The accuracy and validity/legitimacy of that article and its methods has been challenged by credible sources, such as the review article below in Science-Based Medicine: Peer review fail: Vaccine publishes antivax propaganda disguised as “reanalyses” of Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial data "In order portray COVID-19 vaccines as dangerous, Peter Doshi has now managed to get poorly designed and performed “reanalyses” of the clinical trial data used by the FDA to grant emergency use approval of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines published in two reputable journals, The BMJ and Vaccine? What happened?" "Now that the paper, whose flaws and misleading nature were discussed in great detail by many scientists (which I will discuss in a moment), as well as by our very own Dr. Jonathan Howard and Dr. Harriet Hall, has somehow inexplicably gone from preprint to peer-reviewed publication in Vaccine, the onslaught started again." https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/peer-review-fail-vaccine-publishes-antivax-propaganda/ As for the creds of Science-Based Medicine: "Overall, we rate Science-Based Medicine Pro-Science based on the use of scientific sources and support for the consensus of science. We also rate them Very-High for factual reporting due to scientific sourcing and a clean fact check record." https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/science-based-medicine/ In short, for reasons explained in the Science-Based Medicine review article above, even the 1 in 1,000 claim from the anti-vax journal article you cited isn't legitimate or based in any reality.

A bunch of non-credible anti-vax rubbish and unsourced claims, as usual. OP, thanks for posting the vax offer info. I'm assuming the offer is for the original Pfizer vaccines, as I've heard nothing publicly from the MoPH about what they originally said were their plans to acquire the bivalent vaccines for use in 2023. https://thainewsroom.com/2022/09/06/ministry-moving-to-purchase-updated-covid-vaccines/

In my case, and they knew it at the time, I had to be back there ONE WEEK later to the L section to do my new annual extension renewal, and had to repeat the whole bank book update and bank book photocopies process all over again. But at least for the extension renewal process, I knew that it was going to be required, as it long has been.

I'm fine to comply with their rules, if they (Immigration) actually post or publicize or inform the retirement extension holder community of them in some way.... which they typically don't do, and didn't do in the case of demanding the applicant's Thai bank book when doing a new passport stamps transfer. So instead, we get these kinds of new demands that just pop up out of nowhere because some Immigration general or colonel decides they need to make sure us foreigners aren't trying to pull any fast ones with the 400K/800K deposits mid-cycle.

Needless to say, Jomtien does not necessarily follow the same policies and procedures as they do at BKK CW. PS -- The issue with the policy that BKK CW enforced, at least last fall, was that no one would necessarily be expecting to need to bring their Thai bank book holding their extension deposit with them for purposes of transferring stamps. That had never been required there in the past. On my particular visit, I just happened to have brought the bank book with me... so I was able to meet their demand. But bringing your retirement extension deposit bank book, at least then, wasn't anywhere on their own list of required documents for completing the transfer of stamps process. If I hadn't have brought the bank book with me out of an abundance of caution, I would have wasted a day and trip out to BKK CW, and would have had to return back there the next day with bank book in hand.

I see we had an exchange of comments/posts previously on this very issue in the thread below after I came back last September from the BKK CW encounter and detailed their bank passbook demands:

My experience with that at BKK CW, as recited above, occurred Sept. of 2022. At the time, the IO and supervisor I challenged on the issue told me it was a new policy of theirs.

When I transferred my retirement extension to a new passport at BKK CW Immigration some months back, that's exactly what they required of me -- to my surprise! The IO and then the supervisor I spoke with both said that their (at least BKK CW's) newish policy for people with retirement extensions is that anytime you go to the L section there for any type of transaction, they're going to demand new proof at that time of compliance with the 800K/400K deposit requirements.

I should have clarified above, meant to say, living overseas AND giving/using a foreign address with their brokerage account. If you're living abroad and using a U.S. address of record on your U.S. brokerage account, then the mutual funds issue should not arise.

AFAIK, if an American is living overseas, all purchases of U.S. mutual funds are not allowed, whether it's via an IRA account or any other brokerage account. AFAIK, that restriction on U.S citizens living abroad only applies to mutual fund purchases and not other kinds of U.S. investment holdings.

The science and credible studies in support of face mask wear as helping reduce (not absolutely prevent) the risk of contracting and spreading COVID are overwhelmingly clear. The WHO supports that, the U.S. CDC supports that, the American Medical Association and countless other public health agencies support that. Even the Thai doctor in the OP article advised that people should still wear face masks when in crowded indoor places: "The virologist adds that adults with respiratory diseases should continue to wear face masks outside the home. In addition, everyone should wear a face mask on public transport and in crowded spaces." The arguments against face mask wear mostly come from right-wing political idealogues and fringe scientists and doctors (whose backgrounds often are in fields unrelated to COVID and infectious diseases) who often publish their opinions in dubious journals, and/or eventually have their writings later pulled or ripped apart by actual experts in the field. There is an expert consensus on face mask wear as one of several key measures to combat COVID, along with vaccination, social distancing and hygiene practices. But as with anything, there are always going to be a few fringe groups and voices shouting into the wind.

A betting man would guess this has something to do with the DSI's director's involvement in the current Chinese "gray market" business and visas investigation, either for better (he was actually trying to prosecute them) or worse (he was obtructing attempts to prosecute them). Take your pick! So now the former DSI chief is chief of the place that keeps track of dead bodies. Perhaps that's meant as a lesson/warning to him....

And as far as likely relevance to the OP's question, all these years later, ancient history....

You didn't say WHEN you had that experience... But either way, it seems to be quite at odds with the recent Laksi experience cited by the OP here. That described by the OP was the same kind of answer my wife got back in November when talking in person to the counter staff at the Bangrak district office. Through a series of recent interactions here, I've gotten the feeling that the whole COVID pandemic ordeal has resulted in Thai government offices becoming much more focused about far ahead scheduled appointments and much less receptive to walk-in transactions that might have been more normal in the past.

I opened a Krungsri MTD account at my local branch some years ago, and have used it ever since as the home for my 800,000 baht deposit required for my retirement extension. I've never had a work permit here, and opened the MTD account solely on the basis of having a retirement extension. The account came with both a VISA debit card and a regular passbook. The account and its passbook have always been accepted by BKK Immigration for retirement extension deposit purposes without issue. Krungsri's online banking is reasonably good, and you can online transfer funds between Krungsri and other Thai bank accounts. The limitation on monthly withdrawals in not really an issue for me, since I really only use the account for Immigration deposit purposes, and not other activities.

Why would anyone want to sign on as legally responsible for a multi-million baht loan for a house that they won't own, won't live in and won't have any legal rights to?

For example: For the United States: Report: COVID-19 vaccines saved US $1.15 trillion, 3 million lives December 14, 2022 A Commonwealth Fund study estimates that, through November 2022, COVID-19 vaccines prevented more than 18.5 million US hospitalizations and 3.2 million deaths and saved the country $1.15 trillion. The modeling study estimated hospitalizations and deaths averted through the end of November 2022, at a time when 80% of the US population had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. ... "Without vaccination the U.S. would have experienced 1.5 times more infections, 3.8 times more hospitalizations, and 4.1 times more deaths," the authors wrote. (more) https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/report-covid-19-vaccines-saved-us-115-trillion-3-million-lives For the world: COVID-19 vaccines saved an estimated 20 million lives in 1 year June 24, 2022 COVID vaccines reduced the potential global death toll during the pandemic by almost two-thirds in their first year, saving an estimated 19.8 million lives, according to a mathematical modeling study yesterday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. An additional 600,000 lives could have been spared if a World Health Organization (WHO) goal of vaccinating 40% of the population of every country by the end of 2021 had been met, the authors of the study say. ... ...the model estimated that vaccination prevented 14.4 million deaths, or 79%. When they accounted for under-reporting, however, they found that COVID vaccination prevented an estimated 19.8 million deaths out of a total of 31.4 million potential deaths that would have occurred without vaccination—a reduction of 63%. (more) https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19-vaccines-saved-estimated-20-million-lives-1-year

You might -- but probably won't -- stop to consider that perhaps the reason everyone at your work who got vaccinated and later ended up getting mild cases of COVID escaped relatived unscathed was exactly because they HAD been vaccinated... In the current Omicron world, the current vaccines at far more effective at keeping COVID cases alive and out of the hospital than they are at preventing infections. Yes, the shots still help somewhat prevent infections, especially if the person has received the newer bivalent vaccines recently... But that protection against mere infection is not 100%, and does tend to wane substantially by several months after the latest shot. However, the protection from the vaccines against COVID death and serious illness has been shown to be more substantial and durable, even with the newer Omicron variants. So far from your "biggest swindle in human history," the vaccines during the course of the pandemic have kept many millions of people alive who otherwise would have died from COVID. And perhaps your co-workers are among them.

Mask Mythbusters: Common Questions about Kids & Face Masks How do masks prevent the spread of COVID-19? "When worn correctly, face masks create a barrier that reduces the spray of a person's spit and respiratory droplets. These droplets play a key role in the spread of COVID-19 because they can carry SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Masks also can protect you from others who may have coronavirus but are not showing symptoms and who could come within 6 feet of you, which is how far respiratory droplets can travel when people sneeze or cough or raise their voices." https://www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/conditions/COVID-19/Pages/Mask-Mythbusters.aspx