TallGuyJohninBKK

Be fair in reporting the full results of the cited study, per the original source of your OP news report: "The researchers found that Paxlovid reduced hospitalizations among people 65 and older by roughly 75% when given shortly after infection. That's consistent with earlier results used to authorize the drug in the U.S. and other nations." AND "The study has limitations due to its design, which compiled data from a large Israeli health system rather than enrolling patients in a randomized study with a control group — the gold standard for medical research." https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2022/08/24/paxlovid-pfizer-covid-pill-benefits-adults/7889907001/ It's not a perfect medication. But it's not a useless one either.

U.S. CDC recommends Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine for adolescents The CDC on Monday recommended Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine for use in adolescents aged 12 to 17 years. ... The two-dose, protein-based vaccine differs from the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna messenger RNA vaccines, which are available for children as young as age 6 months. Experts have said that the availability of a non-mRNA vaccine could help reduce COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. ... The FDA granted an EUA for the vaccine in adults last month. (more) https://www.healio.com/news/pediatrics/20220822/cdc-recommends-novavaxs-covid19-vaccine-for-adolescents

Pfizer, Moderna to deliver 175M updated COVID shots for September rollout The U.S. government has completed plans to implement a fall booster campaign in September that will deliver 175M doses of updated COVID-19 vaccines to states, pharmacies, and other vaccination sites. The Biden administration is purchasing the redesigned COVID-19 shots from vaccine makers who received guidance from the FDA in June to update their vaccines to protect against the latest subvariants of Omicron and the original COVID strain. Over the past few weeks, messenger-RNA-based vaccine makers Pfizer (NYSE:PFE)/ BioNTech (BNTX) and their rival Moderna (MRNA) announced new agreements to deliver 105M and 66M doses of updated COVID-19 vaccine doses to the government, respectively. (more) https://seekingalpha.com/news/3875878-pfizer-moderna-to-deliver-175m-doses-of-updated-covid-shots-for-september-rollout

By my tally of official MoPH stats, about 950 people have died in Thailand FROM COVID in the past month (that's not "with" COVID--the Thai government stopped counting those many months back). That's a lot of dead people, mostly Thais, for a COVID disease that the prior poster claims generally has no symptoms. Daily COVID deaths for the past month per the Thai MoPH, starting with today's update and working back to July 25: https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=30-days

Then perhaps you'd care to reconcile your experience with the latest report out today from the Thai Ministry of Public Health that reports the following: --28 new deaths caused by COVID in the past day. --2000+ new hospital admissions for COVID in the past day. --nearly 9,500 people hospitalized in total nationwide for COVID right now. --And of those, 785 in serious condition, and of those, 386 requiring mechanical intubation in order to breathe.... https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos/a.106142991004034/629523905332604/?type=3

Ya, 6.5 million+ "official" COVID deaths worldwide, 1.1 million in the U.S. and another 187,000 to 200,000 in the UK are real gut busters... ???? https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-51768274

You're pulling up a 2020-era article written by the Spectator's gossip columnist.... And when it finally gets around to questioning Ferguson on his early COVID pandemic estimates... ...The article cites Stanford Univ COVID skeptic professor Ioannidis, who projected early on in the pandemic that the U.S. might have 10,000 COVID deaths. The U.S. now has 1 million plus COVID deaths. Guess who turned out to be more wrong....

Yes, the grass is so much greener in other countries where too many people don't wear face masks, refuse to get vaccinated or boosted, etc etc... Clear evidence below: Cumulative COVID deaths per 1 million population by country: Source link

Another member in a different thread just lately reported on his two recent international flights into Thailand... In his post, like you, he said he was asked for his vax certificate upon checking in with his airlines at departure. But was NOT asked upon arrival by anyone on the Thai end of things at Swampy.

fyi, my wife has a several year old mobile number assigned direct from AIS that's an 092 prefix. And, I've noticed, lately I've had a couple Grab delivery drivers calling me on 065 prefix numbers... So clearly, those two prefixes are not entirely disreputable.

That kind of behavior goes against public health advice... Because while you may be feeling better or fine, you still can be contagious and spread COVID to others around you certainly during that initial 5 day period.

The US CDC also has a companion advisory that those who have tested positive for COVID should wear a face mask for at least 10 days thereafter, or until they have TWO negative antigen tests at least 48 hours apart. "Continue taking antigen tests at least 48 hours apart until you have two sequential negative results. This may mean you need to continue wearing a mask and testing beyond day 10. "[1] As noted in the Food and Drug Administration labeling for authorized over-the-counter antigen tests, negative test results do not rule out SARS-CoV-2 infection and should not be used as the sole basis for treatment or patient management decisions, including infection control decisions." https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/isolation.html

The Thai policy being described here is actually very similar to the current, recently relaxed CDC policy in the U.S., which somewhat counts as being part of the rest of the civilized world. "If you test positive for COVID-19, stay home for at least 5 days and isolate from others in your home. You are likely most infectious during these first 5 days. Wear a high-quality mask if you must be around others at home and in public. Do not go places where you are unable to wear a mask." and If you had no symptoms You may end isolation after day 5. and "If you develop symptoms within 10 days of when you were tested, the clock restarts at day 0 on the day of symptom onset." https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/isolation.html

The only key COVID disease data reporting by the Thai government that has remained constant and comparable for the duration of the pandemic here... AFAIK... are the daily stats on serious condition hospitalizations and intubations. Cases, deaths, testing...other kinds of stuff... they've monkey'd with along the way and changed the way they're doing those tallies, making comparisons to prior year's data useless.

As I said above, the 2,000+ daily numbers of COVID cases the Thai government is reporting these days are ONLY hospitalizations... A person with COVID can still be hospitalized FOR COVID even if they happen to have other conditions, which a large proportion of Thais do... including things like diabetes and high blood pressure, liver disease, etc. Having any of those other conditions doesn't somehow negate the fact they've been hospitalized for COVID.

Unless I've missed it somewhere, I've seen very little to nothing from the Thai government thus far on what kind of second generation Omicron vaccines they plan on acquiring, and when they might become available. The UK approved a new vaccine that's based on the original BA.1 Omicron variant. The U.S. probably within the next month is expected to approve new vaccine or vaccines based on the more recent BA.4/BA.5 variants. From what I've read, the vaccine manufacturers have already been producing the new vaccines. So at least in the U.S., once approval is given, there are supposed to be supplies available for immediate use. Based on past history, unless the Thai government has been unusually and quietly proactive, it's' probably going to be some months down the line... But who knows at this point.

The current government policy "recommends" wearing a face mask in indoors settings when in close contact with others, and in general for people who are at high-risk from COVID. The part that got dropped was only the prior "requirement" part.

N95-type masks (also called respirator masks) are the best available to the general public, and have been found to provide the highest level of protection -- if fit and worn properly.

I don't have the full list handy at the moment.... But if memory serves, it's things like obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, liver disease, etc etc.

See my post above... They've changed the way they count official COVID cases lately.... In the past they used to count all positive tests... Then they started not reporting ATK tests as opposed to RT-PCR tests... And now more recently, AFAIK, the only new cases they report daily are those that require hospitalization.

Thailand has done what a lot of other countries around the world have done and are doing -- to varying extents stopped testing, stopped counting, stopped looking. If I understand it right, the 2000+ daily cases Thailand officially reports these days are only new COVID positive tests involving hospitalizations. The 30,000 to 60,000 daily numbers mentioned in the article aren't what they officially report anymore. I'm not sure how they're basing those.

Post COVID breathing problems are a well-established after effect of COVID and symptom of so-called Long COVID... But perhaps it would be better to get advice from a reputable specialist here... vs.... Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC) "Overall, we rate the Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance a strong pseudoscience website based on the promotion of unproven alternative medicines that falsely mislead people and several failed fact checks." "The organization has also developed its own prevention and early outpatient protocol called I-Mask, which includes many unproven interventions..." https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/front-line-covid-19-critical-care-alliance-flccc-bias/

MOPH also released a graphic recapping the number of official deaths and serious reactions officially attributed to COVID vaccination in Thailand... with that being 6 deaths and 158 serious reactions, tiny fractions out of more than 142 million vaccine doses administered. https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos/a.106455480972785/626391615645833/?type=3 According to the MOPH, three of the deaths occurred due to blood clotting in people who had received the AstraZeneca vaccine, 2 deaths from severe allergic reaction, one in a Sinovac recipient and 1 in an AZ recipient, and 1 death from heart inflammation in a Pfizer vaccine recipient. Among the non-fatal serious reactions, 98 were listed as severe allergic reaction, 52 involving heart inflammation and 8 involving blood clotting. By type of vaccine given, according to the MOPH, Pfizer had 49 serious reactions involving heart inflammation, Sinovac recipients had 46 cases of serious allergic reaction, and AstraZeneca had 31 cases of severe allergic reaction -- though no detail was given as to whether those were passing short-term reactions or longer-term ones. Overall, most of the serious adverse reactions by type and vaccine type worked out to be at rates of less than 1 in a million doses given. The MOPH graphic doesn't list any death or serious reaction info for Moderna vaccine recipients, with no explanation given.

MOPH also released an interesting graphic today showing a breakdown of nearly 9,400 COVID deaths in Thailand since the start of the year, by vaccination status. The unvaccinated accounted for the largest share of the COVID deaths on average at 56.1% for the entire period, followed by the vaccinated but not boosted at 35.5%, and then the vaccinated and boosted at 8.4% averaged over the seven-month period. But the chart also shows a slight increase in the share of deaths among the vaccinated but not boosted comparing January vs. July, the latter month being when the more infectious and vaccine resistant BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron variants become predominant. The chart also showed a more significant increase over time in the share of deaths among the vaccinated and boosted, which went from just 1.1% of deaths in January to 20.2% of deaths by July, presumably also because of the newer more resistant variants and waning efficacy of vaccines as months pass post injection. I can't quite tell from the TH language title of the graphic whether it's counting all Thai COVID deaths since the start of the year, or only those in the government's so-called "608" group (which would be most deaths anways) -- "608" being those age 60 and older along with any age people with any of 8 specified chronic health conditions. https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos/a.106455480972785/626391565645838/?type=3

And from the full OP article: "CCSA advisor, Dr. Udom Kachinthorn said today (Friday), before the CCSA meeting, that the actual infection rate should, however, be between 60,000 and 70,000 cases a day, as many are not reported to the authorities." Here's the government's daily COVID recap for Friday: They don't report each day the actual total number of test positive daily COVID cases any more.... just those newly admitted to hospital with COVID, which is the 2,110 daily figure above (in dark orange). 27 new COVID deaths for the day. More than 10,000 hospitalized with COVID at present. 853 of those in serious condition due to COVID, and 436 of those requiring intubation to breath (the light blue sections above). https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos/a.106455480972785/626390735645921/?type=3