TallGuyJohninBKK

If it's a one time thing, you can use USPS First Class International to ship a small box, I believe up to 4 lbs, and the rates aren't bad. Just arrange direct thru your local P.O. in the U.S. If you plan to be doing future or semi-regular packages, best to use a re-shipping service like Planet Express or Shipito, who both have very good rates for small packages up to 4-5 lbs. I usually pay about $10 to $12 a pound using Planet Express and their own economy mail service from the US to TH. Delivery time is usually 10-14 days. Very reliable, and insurance is optional, if desired, at very reasonable add-on rates of a couple bucks.

It's one thing in Thailand to get arrest warrants... There've been arrest warrants out for the Red Bull kid for years. It's a whole other thing to actually make the arrests and actually bring the suspects to court to face criminal charges and obtain convictions. From the OP article, all that's clear is that at least ONE apparent customer among the mentioned eight customers/men is actually in custody. Who knows about the others? And the same with the alleged procurers. There's mention of one who's a teen-age girl, and no mention or details of anyone else, despite a reference to "Procurers of the teens were soon rounded up." Oh ya? Who, how many? Where's the criminal charges filed against them? Let's wait for the day when any of these cases are actually filed in court, the perpetrators actually identified, and convictions and sentences obtained. Otherwise, it's just Thai police talk.

I wonder if the posting OP actually read what the study he posted says? Regarding protection against COVID infection: "It was reported that neutralizing antibody titres wane by 7.3-fold within 6 months of CoronaVac [Sinovac] vaccination,17 but comparable data are not available for BNT126b2 [Pfizer] vaccination. If we adjust for a 7.3-fold waning of antibody titres for both vaccines, we estimate that only eight (16.3%) of 49 receiving CoronaVac vaccines meet the protective threshold while 39 (79.6%) of 49 of those receiving BNT162b2 do so 6 months post-vaccination. This difference in immunogenicity may explain reported difference in vaccine efficacy between the two vaccines." Regarding protection against serious illness and death: " As it is likely that T-cell responses are important in limiting severity and fatal outcomes,7-11 both vaccines may be effective in preventing such adverse outcomes of COVID-19."

What some folks here seem to be missing is that not all geographies are affected the same, at the same time, with COVID. The UK lately, and perhaps the U.S. soon, are/will be able to lighten up on their restrictions because their case counts and hospitalizations have already peaked and have begun declining. Thailand and at least several other Asian countries including South Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia are all still on the upward trend of their Omicron waves... And who knows how long it will be before their respective numbers begin to fall. You can't base judgments about the necessary COVID control measures that are needed and appropriate in Thailand on what's occurring in the U.K. or the U.S. Both last year and again this year, the COVID wave in Thailand is running months behind the west.

Traffic fatalities are not contagious and don't grow exponentially. COVID is and does, unless restrained by effective vaccinations and social measures. Thailand got up to more than 300 COVID deaths a day last August, six times the daily rate of average road deaths. But months before in June, those daily numbers were in the teens, 20s and 30s, just like now.

Just for comparison purposes, my records from last fall, based on daily reports of that time, had Bangkok's daily case count peak at above 5,100 in mid August 2021. In the same vein, there was a long period of time in August 2021 where the daily count of serious/critical COVID cases in hospital was running above 5,000, and the intubated group was running above 1,100, before beginning to decline -- far above current levels. The current numbers for serious/critical COVID patients and those intubated roughly match those from late April 2021 (April 29 -- 786 serious/critical and 230 intubated), and it took another four months or so before they later peaked at the levels I mentioned in the prior paragraph.

Thailand 2022 COVID hospitalizations (regular hospitals): Jan 4 -- 17,280 Feb. 1 -- 40,590 (Past Week) Feb 12 -- 56,099 Feb 13 –- 58,245 Feb 14 –- 60,558 Feb 15 –- 60,303 Feb 16 -- 62,752 Feb 17 –- 64,919 Feb 18 -- 69,943 (now more than quadrupled since the start of the year) Thailand 2022 COVID patients in serious/critical condition: Jan 4 -- 555 Feb 1 -- 557 (past week) Feb 12 -- 610 Feb 13 -- 641 Feb 14 –- 687 Feb 15 -- 702 Feb 16 -- 699 Feb 17 -- 728 Feb 18 -- 755 Source: MoPH daily COVID reports, including the latest below, with the hospitalization and patient condition statistics in the blue colored section. https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos/a.106455480972785/506187714332891/?type=3 Also, more broadly as shown in the blue box, Thailand currently has 149,589 COVID positive cases in care, including the 69,943 in regular hospitals, and another 79,646 in various alternate arrangements including "hospitels," field hospitals, etc.

Interesting juxtaposition of news headlines on the forum today: Provincial governors in Thailand told to prepare plans for COVID-19 surge COVID Not Medical Emergency Anymore ????

Perhaps a reminder of the statement the prince issued in connection with the settlement is in order: "The statement added: "Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms. Giuffre's character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks. It is known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years." https://www.insider.com/virginia-roberts-sexual-assault-claims-prince-andrew-timeline-2021-8#february-2022-andrew-reached-an-out-of-court-settlement-with-giuffre-16

Try again... See the right side graphic below. Source

Feb. 17 update from Johns Hopkins: "The WHO COVID-19 Dashboard reports 414.5 million cumulative cases and 5.83 million deaths worldwide as of February 16. The global cumulative incidence passed 400 million cases on February 9, only 33 days after reaching 300 million. The global weekly incidence continues to decline, down 18.2% from the previous week. Notably, all WHO regions with the exception of the Western Pacific region (+18.7%) reported decreasing weekly incidence last week. Global weekly mortality remained relatively steady, up 0.5% from the previous week. The weekly total of 73,145 deaths is the highest since the week of August 23, 2021—the peak of the previous wave." ... Our World in Data estimates that there are 4.88 billion vaccinated individuals worldwide (1+ dose; 62% of the global population) and 4.28 billion who are fully vaccinated (54.4% of the global population)." https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/resources/COVID-19/COVID-19-SituationReports.html

Feb. 17 Update from Johns Hopkins: "Studies differ on how many people experience long COVID symptoms, with one US CDC study estimating 1 in 10 will develop symptoms more than a month after acute infection and another from Oxford University estimating 1 in 3 individuals. While some see their symptoms resolve within weeks or months, others are experiencing nagging symptoms that have lasted a year or more. Additionally, evidence is emerging that people who have had COVID-19—including those with mild cases and who do not have typical long COVID symptoms—have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and mental health conditions when compared with individuals who have never had the disease. Therefore, millions of people worldwide could experience long COVID or future health implications, with lasting societal and economic impacts. ... In the UK, 1.3 million people—2% of the population—reported experiencing long COVID symptoms for more than 4 weeks after their initial infection." https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/resources/COVID-19/COVID-19-SituationReports.html

For those who might not be aware of it, or need a reminder, forum member @Eaglekott has quietly been doing a great job taking the MoPH daily COVID case numbers and producing charts that rank the various provinces on per capita COVID cases (per 100,000 population) day to day. Because he's ranking and calculating on a per capita basis, it's absolutely reasonable to make province to province comparisons based on the per capita case numbers. There's a separate thread on the topic where Eaglekott does more or less daily updates. Well worth keeping an eye on ( though he appears to be a bit under the weather at present ???? ): Guess who's at the top of the per capita cases list? With Bangkok way down at #15....despite always having the largest gross number of cases, because of its massive population. (the graph below is just the first top half of a two-image set for the day. Focus on the far right column, which is the per capita case number tally).

Thanks for your continued GREAT work maintaining this....

Here's two recent graphics from the U.S. CDC with info on the value of booster shots: Infections: Hospitalizations (this chart below mostly shows the Delta variant era, and only the beginning of Omicron heading into December): https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7104e2.htm

The count of COVID patients being treated in regular hospitals has almost quadrupled since the beginning of the year to the 64,919 figure above. And continues rising virtually every day. If that isn't a "medical emergency," then I don't know what is. As for the "Only about 700 COVID-19 patients were admitted to hospital for the time being, he said." Here's the COVID regular hospitalization patient counts for the past two days: Feb 16 -- 62,752 Feb 17 –- 64,919 By my count, that's a single day increase of 2,167.

Part of that above, I'd imagine, is a function of level of testing. SK is very committed to substantial testing. Thailand, on the other hand, is not. That's part of the reason why, lately, with Omicron, I tend to pay more attention to the hospitalization numbers, versus the case numbers, because I believe the hospitalization numbers are less skewed by varying levels of testing activity from country to country. It would be interesting if OWD or some similar entity could manage to compile a per capita COVID hospitalization rate by country. OWD has some of that for certain countries, but apparently not for Thailand, Hong Kong or South Korea, among others. Chart below showing since Jan 1, 2022: U.S. and UK per capita COVID hospitalizations lately trending down. Singapore and Malaysia per capita COVID hospitalizations trending up. OWD source

The Thai government has a booster shot eligibility schedule (in the form of a graphic) that spells out when people are eligible. The range is between 3 and 6 months after, depending on what one's original two shots were. If memory serves, original shots of Sinovac have shorter follow times for boosters, whereas two original shots of mRNA vaccines have the longest follow-up times. There are lots of different vaccine combinations that various people here could have received for their original shots, so there are a lot of different booster timeframes for all those combos, in the 3-6 month range.

Asia is on the upside of Omicron right now, while some western countries like the U.S. just lately seemed to have hit their peak and now are on the down-side of the wave. The news out of Hong Kong seems particularly bad. Hope that Thailand isn't headed down that same road in the weeks ahead. But the numbers here pretty much keep rising day-by-day for the time being.

The comments here from several posters saying they had no plans to get a booster shot after having their original two-shot vaccinations are particularly interesting, coming now. Because, all the medical research clearly shows that TWO shots alone are not very effective against the currently circulating Omicron variant, but a third mRNA dose significantly improves your chances of a] not getting infected, and b] should you become infected, less likelihood of serious illness. The booster also remedies the waning effectiveness over time issue with the original shots. Unlike some western countries, Thailand right now is still on the UP side of its Omicron wave, not the down side. Case counts are rising every day, and the same with hospitalized COVID cases that have almost quadrupled since the start of the year. Now would seem to be the time that common sense would dictate -- you really want to make sure you've received that third booster shot. That is what pretty much all the public health authorities are recommending, because that's what the medical/public health research shows is needed to combat Omicron. Hard to fathom that kind of "I don't want it" thinking, especially among a forum population skewed toward older and retired folks, who are the most at risk for serious/bad COVID outcomes.

Re the OP report: Bravo!!! Can't undo what's already been done. But hope they make them pay for it after the fact.

I don't know about viral loads issue of Delta vs Omicron. But I believe you're correct in your comment above explaining about how the two different variants tend to cause problems in differing parts of the body, and why Omicron cases (in general, comparatively) tend to be milder. Although the much higher rate of Omicron infection (because many more people get it) still ends up sending as many or more people to the hospital in many places.

"The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) is setting up more beds in isolation facilities to handle the rising number of Covid-19 cases. During an inspection at an isolation center in Klong Toey district on Wednesday, Bangkok governor Aswin Kwanmuang announced that about 1,000 beds have been added to the 13 community isolation centers currently in operation throughout the capital. Additional Isolation facilities are also currently being set up as the number of patients in Bangkok has risen since the beginning of the year. These centers will help treat patients with less severe conditions which reduces cases at hospitals and ease pressure on the overall health system. ... People who test positive for Covid-19 should contact the BMA via the NHSO hotline number at 1330 ext. 14, the Erawan Medical Center's hotline number at 1669 ext. 2, or the EOC emergency hotline numbers for evaluation and immediate treatment." https://www.facebook.com/nbtworld/posts/10158509229282050

Thailand 2022 COVID hospitalizations (regular hospitals): Jan 4 -- 17,280 Feb. 1 -- 40,590 (Past Week) Feb 11 -- 55,058 Feb 12 -- 56,099 Feb 13 –- 58,245 Feb 14 –- 60,558 Feb 15 –- 60,303 Feb 16 -- 62,752 Feb 17 –- 64,919 (nearly quadruple since the start of the year) Thailand 2022 COVID patients in serious/critical condition: Jan 4 -- 555 Feb 1 -- 557 (past week) Feb 11 -- 569 Feb 12 -- 610 Feb 13 -- 641 Feb 14 –- 687 Feb 15 -- 702 Feb 16 -- 699 Feb 17 -- 728 Source: MoPH daily COVID reports, including the latest below, with the hospitalization and patient condition statistics in the blue colored section. https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos/a.106455480972785/505572571061072/?type=3 Also, more broadly as shown in the blue box, Thailand currently has 144,061 COVID positive cases in care, including the 64,919 in regular hospitals, and another 79,142 in various alternate arrangements including "hospitels," field hospitals, etc.

Regarding the extremely rare myocarditis issue with vaccines, others have already addressed your comment above, including that the risks of COVID are greater than those side effect risks from the vaccine. And now there's evidence that even the original vaccine risk claims, after further investigation, actually have been overblown: Feb 04, 2022 "Today during a meeting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)... The meeting included new discussion of myocarditis risks in recipients of mRNA vaccines. The CDC's Tom Shimabukuro, MD, MPH, shared that there have been 13 deaths following mRNA vaccination from myocarditis in the United States, but upon investigation, none have been deemed to be caused by vaccination. Most myocarditis cases following mRNA vaccine were fully resolved within 90 days of diagnosis, with patients saying the condition had no impact on their quality of life, and most cases were classified as mild according to clinicians." https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2022/02/acip-fully-recommends-spikevax-cdc-expands-wastewater-surveillance Just because something A happens after you've done something B, doesn't mean that B was the automatically cause of it. And in these cases, they determined it wasn't.