TallGuyJohninBKK

At any given time, both the direction of newly reported COVID cases and new COVID deaths are moving in varying directions in different countries/regions around the world... Note below that both new COVID cases and new COVID deaths are UP week over week in the Southeast Asia region at large. Johns Hopkins has a good recap of this comparing the most recent week with the prior week: "The global weekly incidence remained relatively stable after an increasing trend for the past 5 weeks, up 1.54% from the previous week. At the regional level, the Western Pacific (+37.83%), Americas (+9.53%), and Southeast Asia (+5.25%) experienced increases in new cases, while Europe (-13.88%), the Eastern Mediterranean (-3.88%), and Africa (-21.91%) regions had decreasing trends. Global weekly mortality also remained stable, rising 0.5% over the previous week with 11,257 total reported deaths. The number of new weekly deaths increased in the Southeast Asia (+20%), Eastern Mediterranean (+15%), and Americas (+7%) regions, decreased in the Africa (-39%) and Europe (-14%) regions, and remained stable in the Western Pacific region." https://myemail.constantcontact.com/--COVID-19-Updates---July-21--2022.html

For some reason, you chose to focus your attention on the daily deaths numbers, which have not increased substantially in Thailand thus far, or in many other places lately... But if you'll notice, my first point and reference in the post you're responding to instead was the following: "Serious condition hospitalizations from COVID in Thailand have increased 42% over the past month from 608 to 868 cases as of Friday, the highest number in the past month. (393 of those are unable to breathe on their own and have required intubation.)" Those numbers aren't so small, and a 42% increase in serious COVID hospitalization in the span of one month is something to be concerned about -- especially when the same kinds of developments are occurring in many other countries likewise with increasing COVID caseloads right now. The end of COVID is nowhere near nigh (to use your phrase), as any number of COVID researchers and experts are publicly saying right now, because the virus is continuing to mutate, lately has been becoming both more transmissible and better able to escape protections from both prior infections and prior vaccinations. And that means more people getting sick.

When I first read the headline on this report, I thought the minister was being accused of having popped out DURING the censure debate for a quick quickie.....which would have been pretty balsy. But then in reading further, that doesn't appear to have been the case, and rather, allegedly more of an ongoing thing. Reminded me of the past reports about some Parliament members having been caught viewing porn on their mobile phones while the legislative body was in session.

In its last detailed daily COVID deaths report publicly issued in early July -- before MoPH stopped making them public -- they reported the median time between COVID diagnosis and death for that day's new deaths. The median time frame for that group of COVID deaths was 8 days from diagnosis to death.

From the various medical sources I've been reading, the latest BA.4/BA.5 and BA2.75 variants seem to have several elements in common: --they are more transmissible (easier to spread) than the prior versions, meaning more infections. --they are more able to overcome immunity from prior COVID vaccinations as well as prior COVID infections from other variants. Thus.... Reinfection period from COVID-19 may be as short as 28 days: Australia’s health officials --Health officials in Australia recommend shortening the reinfection period from 12 weeks to 28 days. --Australia is experiencing a wave of BA.4 and BA.5 omicron cases. --These subvariants are expected to lead to a rise in cases in the U.S. and potentially another wave. https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/3559124-reinfection-period-from-covid-19-may-be-as-short-as-28-days-say-australias-health-officials/

Serious condition hospitalizations from COVID in Thailand have increased 42% over the past month from 608 to 868 cases as of Friday, the highest number in the past month. (393 of those are unable to breathe on their own and have required intubation.) New COVID deaths, 25 reported on Friday, was the second highest daily total of the past month. Current total hospitalizations for COVID reached 11,624 on Friday, the highest total of the past month. All the key COVID indicators for Thailand -- hospitalizations, serious condition hospitalizations and deaths -- are, and have been, on the upswing. https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=30-days

As of today, Thailand has 11,500+ people hospitalized with COVID, the highest number in the past month. https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=30-days Of those, 854 are in serious condition (also the highest number in the past month) and 382 of those are intubated because they're unable to breathe on their own. And the serious condition number has increased by 38 percent just over the past month. https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos/a.106142991004034/607743730843955/?type=3 The current fatalities are just a small, but significant, part of the broader overall COVID illness picture. And, contrary to your claim above, the MoPH regularly reports those details on new daily COVID fatalities (though they used to be much more detailed in that than they are now as they try to head for "endemic" status). Of the latest new COVID deaths reported, most all were either age 60 or older OR had some preexisting condition. And, most all had NOT received COVID booster vaccine shots -- which has been the general trend among COVID deaths here. (see the circled portion of the MoPH chart below -- the "608" reference is MoPH's shorthand for people age 60+ OR with any of 8 designated preexisting conditions.) PS -The Thai MoPH long ago eliminated from their COVID death statistics any counting of cases of people who died from other causes WITH COVID.... If they show up in the stats now, they're dying FROM COVID. And also, when MoPH talks of pre-existing conditions, that doesn't mean those people were headed toward dying anyway. It means a lot of them have various CHRONIC conditions that they otherwise would have likely lived with for many years, had COVID not taken them sooner. https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos/a.106142991004034/607743684177293/?type=3

Your entirely unsourced comments above re New Zealand appear to be pretty misleading, not surprisingly....especially regarding the issue of face masks, as shown below. It wasn't NZ's strict enforcement of COVID prevention policies such as mask wearing that has led to their recent COVID surges, but rather, their relaxing of those original tough policies that's led to more people there getting ill from COVID. New Zealand seeks to repeat world-beating Covid response in face of surging cases Amid warnings of a healthcare workforce collapse, the population is being urged to recommit to pandemic measures many thought were behind them "In supermarkets and coffee queues, New Zealand’s chins are reappearing. Masks – previously a constant - have become patchy. Once-ubiquitous bottles of hand sanitiser begun to disappear. In some venues, laminated contact-tracing codes are peeling off the walls. The country, which once embraced snap lockdowns in the face of a single Covid case, has in recent months progressively dropped restrictions and carried on as thousands of people have been infected. Now, looking down the barrel of a rising wave of infections and a growing death toll, New Zealand faces the question of whether it can reclaim its reputation for a world-beating Covid response." (more) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/16/new-zealand-seeks-to-repeat-world-beating-covid-response-in-face-of-surging-cases

Available in an EN language version? I'm guessing not....

You'd be a whole lot more fatigued if you ended up on a ventilator in the hospital unable to breathe with a serious case of COVID... Right now in Thailand, new "official" daily cases (a bare fraction of the actual cases), total current COVID hospitalizations and current COVID hospitalizations with patients in serious condition are all at their highest levels in the past month.

Just because some country has this or that mask policy vs another that doesn't have the same kind of policy doesn't mean much in terms of comparing COVID case counts / outcomes. Some people follow and abide by mask policies, others follow them only for apperance sake or not at all. And those kinds of practices can vary widely among different population segments/groups in a given country. And then when their COVID cases start piling up, who's to say whether all those in the positive case counts category were among those strictly following the local masking requirements vs. those ignoring them? You just can't draw many meaningful conclusions from those kinds of comparisons. I look at it from a more basic perspective: when you go to the hospital and check the doctors and nurses treating potential or actual COVID patients, as a general rule, they're all going to be wearing N95 face masks or better (better being powered respirator units, among others). And that's because the mainstream medical community knows that N95 face masks fitted and worn properly help protect the wearers from COVID. At least during those work times that the masks are being worn. After the medical staff leave work, take off their masks, and go out into the big wide world, anything potentially can happen. No one wears face masks 24 hours a day.

Whatever happened to the visa-exempt 30-day entry of the old days? Does it even exist anymore? You used to be able to just hop on a plane, show up in Bangkok, and if you were an American among various other nationalities, you got a pretty much automatic 30-day permission to stay stamp in your passport...... without ever filling out a single form except for the arrival/departure card.

Ya, I was going to say, the costs can vary widely depending on where/what temple is involved, and how much/long of ceremonial stuff, if any, the family/survivors want to undertake. As examples: --My wife's Thai father passed away last year upcountry, and he was cremated with a simple ceremony at a local, nothing special temple. My wife indicates the temple's fee for handling the cremation and some required accessory stuff was under 10,000 baht. --At the other end, a close Thai acquaintance from a reasonably well-to-do Bangkok family died and was cremated about 18-months ago at a well-known, prominent Bangkok temple. The family rented a temple room for a 7-night long wake with a group of monks praying there every night, and guests provided food, etc... The total bill for all that including the cremation ceremony on the final day, I'm told, came to over 100,000 baht.

Were you going to provide any actual substantiating sources for any of the numerous allegedly factual claims you're making in your two posts above?

Here's the past two weeks daily trends chart (July 7 - 20) from MOPH, with the first, top line showing the daily trend for total serious condition COVID hospitalizations, and the second lower line showing the daily trend for total serious COVID hospitalizations requiring intubation in order to breathe: https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos/a.106455480972785/607115637573431/?type=3

I believe the current state of knowledge on COVID vaccines, even with the latest variants, is that while their protection against INFECTION tends to wane substantially after several months post injection, their protection against SERIOUS ILLNESS and DEATH from COVID is more effective and more long-lasting. Thus there remains good arguments for keeping up with vaccine boosters, especially for those in the older age groups and other vulnerable populations. No, the current vaccines aren't a 100% guarantee against becoming infected or even against becoming ill. But they substantially reduce your odds of becoming seriously ill or dying from COVID, as shown below. "Being up to date on COVID-19 vaccines continue to provide strong protection against severe disease, hospitalization, and death in adults, including during Omicron variant predominance. Effectiveness against infection has waned across all age groups, but this is expected. Protection is highest in adults who receive a booster dose." https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccine-effectiveness https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#rates-by-vaccine-status

With today's update from the Thai MoPH, new "official" COVID cases, total current COVID hospitalizations and COVID hospitalizations in serious condition are all now at their highest levels in the past month. Be careful out there!

ECDC and EMA update recommendations on additional booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines Press release 11 Jul 2022 The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) are recommending that second booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines be considered for people between 60 and 79 years old and people with medical conditions putting them at high risk of severe disease. ... As a new wave is currently underway in Europe, with increasing rates of hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, it is critical that public health authorities now consider people between 60 and 79 as well as vulnerable persons of any age for a second booster. ... Stella Kyriakides, the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety said that ‘Our COVID-19 vaccines work, and offer good levels of protection against severe illness and hospitalisation. With cases and hospitalisations rising again as we enter the summer period, I urge everybody to get vaccinated and boosted as quickly as possible." https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/news-events/ecdc-and-ema-update-recommendations-additional-booster-doses-covid-19-vaccines

According to the Ministry of Public Health's data, today's count of 2,886 "official" new COVID cases (a vast undercount to reality), the 11,271 people currently hospitalized because of COVID, and the 851 currently hospitalized in serious condition because of COVID all have reached their highest levels in the past month. The 851 number of serious condition COVID patients has risen 37.5 percent from the 619 recorded just one month ago. Fortunately, at least thus far, the number of daily new deaths the government is attributing to COVID has not yet been showing the same upward trend, and has continued to bounce around the 20 per day level. See the MoPH charts below: MoPH's daily update for Wednesday: https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos/a.106455480972785/607115640906764/?type=3 MoPH's past month daily tallies for key COVID indicators: https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=30-days

Ahh... him again... a tower of public health credibility.... ???? Whenever I'm seeking out public health guidance, I always look to "economic" research entities who publish articles by dubious academics. "A McMaster University professor is at the centre of a White House controversy over reports he tried to muzzle government scientists, demanded the power to edit COVID-19 documents from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and accused CDC staff of attempting to “hurt” U.S. President Donald Trump. Paul Elias Alexander, an assistant professor of health-research methods at the Hamilton university, joined the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services earlier this year. He was brought in as a scientific adviser to Michael Caputo, a former Trump campaign staffer with no scientific or medical background installed as HHS’s assistant secretary of public affairs in April. On Wednesday, HHS announced Dr. Alexander is “leaving the department” permanently and Mr. Caputo will take a 60-day medical absence." https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/us-politics/article-mcmaster-university-professor-embroiled-in-white-house-controversy-for/ "Alexander was recruited from his part-time, unpaid position at McMaster University to serve as an aide to HHS assistant secretary for public affairs Michael Caputo in March 2020." "McMaster University distanced itself from Alexander, saying, "As a consultant, he is not speaking on behalf of McMaster University or the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact."[6]" After leaving the Trump administration: "He is a participant in the Freedom Convoy 2022 protest against vaccine mandates in Ottawa.[19] He is a "board advisor" for "Taking Back our Freedoms", a group whose stated goal is "to bring a quick end to the so-called ‘C-19 health emergencies’ along with their unlawful ‘mandates’" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_E._Alexander And according to his own website, he's also no longer affiliated with McMaster University.... "He is a former Assistant Professor at McMaster University in evidence-based medicine." https://www.drpaulalexander.com/pages/work-history In other words, he's a right-wing fringe academic who got drummed out of the U.S. Health and Human Services agency after being installed there by a no public health background Trump flunky.

Finished setting up my new M33 5G over the past day, and must say, for me, a very nice and fast phone for under 7,000 baht. It comes with a standard microSD slot.... But given that I was going from a 32 GB ROM before on my older Samsung to now a 128 GB ROM on the new one, I don't think I'm going to be using/needing the SD card for quite a while, if ever... One slightly annoying thing that I knew going in...but nonetheless remains annoying. Samsung these days seems to no longer ship charger bricks with many (all?) of their new phones, just the USB C cable, and a short 1 meter long one at that. I presume that's to save money and/or minimize E-waste. But for me, the M33 phone was my first with 25W fast charging capability via USB C.... Everything I had prior was the past standard micro USB cables and chargers. So I had to go out to buy a separate Samsung charger to take advantage of the fast charging feature and a longer USB C cable to meet my needs. It would be nice, IMHO, when you buy a new Samsung phone from someplace like the official Samsung store on Lazada, if they gave you the option online of including or not including the charger as part of the purchase. But they don't do that...although they do sell the round pin variety (which I don't really care for) of the chargers separately from the same store for 459b per.

The one I perused today was a VERY long list.... ????

Had perhaps some one else started the phone at some prior point to you getting your hands on it for the first time... such as staff at a mobile shop, the seller, etc? That could explain it...

When I set up my new Samsung M33 5G TH model this afternoon, during setup, it first asked to connect to a wifi network, and then showed a whole long different list of OS languages to choose from... So I just scrolled down thru the list until I got to English U.S., chose that, and then the phone started for the first time with my chosen language.... I never had to deal with TH language menus, even though it's a Thailand based model.

Samsung Philippines has their own EN language website... And from what I've seen there, they have full specs listed in EN for all the Samsung models they sell there, including the LTE and 5G bands available in each. It's a handy site to be aware of... because the Samsung models sold in TH are pretty much identical in terms of hardware to the Samsung models sold in TH... both SEA variants... So it's an easier info source to access, compared to the Samsung Thailand website that's primarily in TH, AFAIK.