TallGuyJohninBKK

And a study from Denmark involving heart failure patients: Risk of Worsening Heart Failure and All-Cause Mortality Following COVID-19 Vaccination in Patients With Heart Failure: A Nationwide Real-World Safety Study 28 July 2023 ... Conclusions This study found that the SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination was not associated with an increased risk of worsening heart failure, myocarditis, venous thromboembolism, or all-cause mortality. This suggests there should be no concern regarding the use of the mRNA vaccine in patients with heart failure in relation to the risk of cardiovascular side effects. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.123.010617

Vaccine Victory: How COVID-19 shots slash all-cause mortality and outshine misinformation 12 February 2024 The accumulation of evidence solidly affirms that COVID-19 vaccines not only directly save lives by preventing virus-specific deaths but also play a crucial role in reducing all-cause mortality among vaccinated populations. While claims about COVID-19 vaccines being associated with increased mortality have circulated, they are often based on misinterpretation of data, anecdotal evidence, or preliminary research that does not stand up to rigorous scientific scrutiny. The consensus among health authorities and scientific community is that COVID-19 vaccines are a critical tool in reducing mortality and severe illness from the virus, with the benefits significantly outweighing the risks. https://www.globalvaccinedatanetwork.org/blog/Vaccine_Victory_How_COVID-19_shots_slash_all-cause_mortality_and_outshine_misinformation

The data cited in your OP study is similarly dated, even though their report publication is more recent. From the OP cited study (if you download the full PDF document from the weblink provided in the OP): " The population considered is that of residents or those domiciled in the province of Pescara on 1 January 2021, aged 10 years and older, without a positive SARS-CoV-2 swab at the date of the follow-up start. Vaccination data were acquired from the official regional SARS-CoV-2 vaccination dataset, up to 31 December 2022. The follow-up considered ranges between 1 January 2021 and 15 February 2023."

An obscure study led by an Italian anti-vaxer who has trafficked in COVID conspiracy theories (as with his reported comments re the proposed WHO pandemic treaty below), and whose findings here about one italian province have been contradicted by numerous other broader more substantial research studies. Re author Donzelli and his group Fondazione Centro Studi Allineare Sanità e Salute: From the cited study: Alberto Donzelli 4,* 4 Independent Medical-Scientific Commission, Foundation “Allineare Sanità e Salute”, Milan 20131, Italy *Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. "The Italian government, in the meantime, as announced to the microphones of Borgonovo by Dr. Donzelli, president of the Allineare Sanità e Salute foundation and member of the independent medical and scientific commission, has set aside the chilling old draft of the pandemic plan to prepare to draw up a new one . On the risks deriving from the pandemic treaty proposed by the WHO, Donzelli warns live: "The new powers of the WHO would make it possible to impose, through mandatory vaccination certificates to be able to move, digital certificates containing the vaccination status, the possibility of blocking movements to people who do not comply with international vaccination provisions which instead must be much discussed on the merits of each of these vaccines" https://www-radioradio-it.translate.goog/2024/03/oms-trattato-pandemico-tedros-alberto-donzelli-covid/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en And re research on the general issues / claims raised in the OP study: "Jeffrey Morris, a biostatistics professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine told AAP FactCheck in May 2023 that one way to test claims vaccines caused large numbers of deaths was to compare non-COVID mortality rates between people who have and haven’t had the jab. Professor Morris said credible studies comparing the two groups found mortality was the same or lower among people who had the jab, indicating vaccines did not significantly increase the risk of death, as seen here and here." [emphasis added] https://www.aap.com.au/factcheck/data-debunks-wild-claim-of-one-billion-deaths/ A safety study evaluating non-COVID-19 mortality risk following COVID-19 vaccination 16 January 2023 Highlights • Non-COVID-19 mortality rates were lower among COVID-19 vaccinees in the US. • Adjusted hazard ratios comparing COVID-19 vaccinees and comparators were below 1. • No increased risk was found for non-COVID-19 mortality after COVID-19 vaccination. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X22015614?via%3Dihub Effect of COVID-19 vaccination on mortality by COVID-19 and on mortality by other causes, the Netherlands, January 2021–January 2022 12 July 2023 COVID-19 vaccination was highly effective against COVID-19 mortality. • This effectiveness declines with time since vaccination. • Risk of death from causes other than COVID-19 was not increased in the 5–8 weeks after a first, second or booster dose. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X23006606?via%3Dihub European mortality data do not support link between higher COVID-19 vaccination rates and excess deaths October 7, 2022 https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-gbnews-excessdeaths-idUSL1N3180Q7/

1. The vast majority of major medical and public health organizations around the world continue to support and endorse COVID vaccines as the best, safest method of protecting against the disease. Despite that, there remains a vocal minority of health professionals -- generally from fields not specific to COVID or infectious diseases -- who continue to promote COVID and vaccine misinformation. ICMRA statement on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines International Coalition of Medicines Regulatory Authorities ICMRA brings together 38 medicines regulatory authorities from every region in the world... "ICMRA strongly supports the safety of COVID-19 vaccines and their benefits in protecting people of all ages from the severe consequences of COVID-19." https://icmra.info/drupal/strategicinitiatives/vaccines/safety_statement Report spotlights 52 US doctors who posted potentially harmful COVID misinformation online "The authors said that while medical misinformation was spread long before the COVID-19 pandemic, the internet boosts the reach and speed of dissemination, potentially exacerbating the consequences. They noted that about a third of the more than 1.1 million reported COVID-19 deaths in the United States as of January 18, 2023, were considered preventable if public health recommendations such as vaccination and physical distancing had been followed." https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/report-spotlights-52-us-doctors-who-posted-potentially-harmful-covid-misinformation-online 2. The main COVID vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, including the versions currently in use, have full approval from regulators in the U.S. and many other countries. In the U.S. by way of example, those full approvals followed the initial Emergency Use Authorizations (EUAs) given at the beginning of the pandemic. The primary COVID vaccines underwent the normal testing and clinical trials process as with other vaccines leading to their full regulatory approval. FDA Takes Action on Updated mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines to Better Protect Against Currently Circulating Variants September 11, 2023 https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-takes-action-updated-mrna-covid-19-vaccines-better-protect-against-currently-circulating There are FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. as of May 2023 "FDA press releases, which are publicly available online, show that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was approved for people over 16 on 23 August 2021. It was later approved for individuals between the ages of 12 and 15 on 8 July 2022. The FDA also approved the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for individuals over 18 on 31 January 2022. ... In summary, two COVID-19 vaccines are FDA-approved: the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for people aged 12 or older and the Moderna vaccine for people aged 18 or older. Claims stating the opposite are therefore false. These vaccines and others are also authorized for use in other age groups or as booster shots under EUA. It is important to note that EUAs still require clinical trials demonstrating the effectiveness and safety of vaccines. Vaccines authorized under EUAs thus aren’t experimental." https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/there-are-fda-approved-covid-19-vaccines-in-the-u-s-as-of-may-2023-contrary-to-claim-by-peter-mccullough/ COVID-19 mRNA vaccines were tested in clinical trials, aren’t experimental "COVID-19 mRNA vaccines went through multiple stages of clinical testing to ensure their safety and effectiveness. As they’ve already cleared clinical trials, they’re no longer experimental. The trials and real-world data have also shown that COVID-19 vaccines are effective at reducing the risk of severe disease and death." https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/covid-19-mrna-vaccines-tested-clinical-trials-arent-experimental/ "There are many reasons why the COVID-19 vaccines could be developed so quickly. Here are just a few [highlights excerpted to comply with forum fair use quoting rules]: The COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna were created with a method that has been in development for years, so the companies could start the vaccine development process early in the pandemic. ... The vaccine developers didn’t skip any testing steps, but conducted some of the steps on an overlapping schedule to gather data faster. Vaccine projects had plenty of resources, as governments invested in research and/or paid for vaccines in advance. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/covid-19-vaccines-myth- versus-fact

As the summer travel season picks up, COVID cases and hospitalizations are rising in Los Angeles County — and some of those recently reinfected are finding their latest bout to be the worst yet. There are no signs at this point that the latest coronavirus variants are producing more severe illness, either nationally or in California. While COVID hospitalizations are still rising in L.A. County, and are now higher than they were at this same point last year, they remain below the relatively mild peak seen in summer 2023. But doctors have always warned that, though subsequent COVID infections are often mild compared with a first brush with the disease, they can still cause severe illness. Even if someone doesn't need to visit the emergency room or be hospitalized, people describe painful, even agonizing symptoms. "The dogma is that every time you get COVID, it's milder. But I think we need to keep our minds open to the possibility that some people have worse symptoms," said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a UC San Francisco infectious diseases expert. Each time getting COVID, he said, is "kind of like playing COVID roulette." (more) Los Angeles Times https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-07-08/playing-covid-roulette-some-infected-by-flirt-variants-report-their-most-unpleasant-symptoms-yet

Thailand MoPH Weekly COVID report for June 30-July 6, 2024: --1,377 new COVID hospitalizations, averaging 197 per day, down 1,879 / 57.7% from 3,256 the prior week --11 new COVID deaths, down 5 / 31.3% from 16 the prior week --735 current COVID patients hospitalized in serious condition (pneumonia symptoms), up 26 / 3.7% from 709 the prior week (dark purple) --340 current COVID patients hospitalized requiring intubation/ventilation to breathe, up 4 / 1.2% from 336 the prior week (light purple) The latest 1,377 tally of new weekly COVID hospitalizations, averaging 197 per day, marked Thailand's largest single-week decline of the year, following the prior week's total of 3,256 that was the country's highest since December 2022. Still, the latest reported level of new weekly COVID hospitalizations remains almost three times higher than the number (501) at the start of the recent COVID surge in mid-March. And the latest single-week decline is only the third weekly decline in the past 17 weeks. The latest tally of 11 weekly COVID deaths is off of the year-high total of 16 from the prior week, but more than double the weekly COVID deaths total at the start of 2024. The latest small increases to 735 serious condition COVID hospitalized patients and 340 hospitalized patients requiring ventilation to breathe both remained just slightly below the year-high totals set last month. Cumulative figures since the start of the year are COVID hospitalizations (32,582) & COVID deaths (183). Of the 11 official COVID deaths for the past week, the MoPH is reporting that 6 were male and 5 female. By age, 6 were ages 70 and above, 3 were ages 60-69, and 1 each were in the age ranges 50-59 and 20-49. https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main The weekly new COVID hospitalization totals since this year's spring surge began in mid-March have been: March 16 -- 501 March 23 -- 630 March 30 -- 728 April 6 -- 774 April 13 -- 849 April 20 -- 1,004 April 27 -- 1,672 May 4 -- 1,792 May 11 -- 1,880 May 18 - 1,882 May 25 -- 1,801 June 1 -- 1,863 June 8 -- 2,762 June 15 -- 2,881 June 22 -- 1,823 June 29 -- 3,256 July 6 -- 1,377 By comparison, Thailand's key weekly COVID indicators to start 2024 were 664 new COVID hospitalizations and 4 COVID deaths for the first week of the year. Compared to the first week of July in 2023, cumulative COVID deaths thus far this year of 183 are far below the 727 figure from a year ago. But cumulative COVID hospitalizations thus far this year of 32,582 are running above the 29,696 total from the same point last year. Last week, MoPH official predicted that this year's spring COVID surge would peak by mid-July. Last year, Thailand also had a spring COVID surge that peaked in June before COVID hospitalizations declined into the fall.

Here, because the Thai government for now has abandoned all government-provided COVID vaccination efforts, probably because they don't want to spend the money amid their national government budget problems. And thus are leaving their senior citizen and other high-risk COVID groups, in particular, at serious health risk.

Except for these 1,847 COVID deaths in the U.S. of juveniles up thru June 2023, among others elsewhere: https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Deaths-by-Sex-Ages-0-18-years/xa4b-4pzv Or this broader estimate from the UN: How many children have died from COVID-19? "Among the 4.4 million COVID-19 deaths1 reported in the MPIDR COVerAGE database, 0.4 per cent (over 17,400) occurred in children and adolescents under 20 years of age. Of the over 17,400 deaths reported in those under 20 years of age, 53 per cent occurred among adolescents ages 10–19, and 47 per cent among children ages 0–9." https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-survival/covid-19/

Thailand had 3,256 hospitalizations for COVID just last week. So you probably need to work on your social circle some to get a meaningful sample. But yes, since a U.S. study I posted here just yesterday found that 2-3 year old pre-XBB COVID vaccinations basically aren't providing any protection against COVID hospitalizations at this point -- because of the long times that have passed since they were given and the virus having mutated many times since -- up-to-date XBB COVID vaccinations are really the only ones providing meaningful protection at this point, and that protection is pretty strong. (see below) But at least thus far, the Thai government isn't doing any XBB COVID vaccinations in this country of 70+ million people where most who have been vaccinated were last vaccinated with older version vaccines back in 2022 or prior. Useless at this point, thus as was your comment. https://aseannow.com/topic/1331424-study-latest-xbb-covid-19-vaccine-offers-protection-against-hospitalization/

Most of the comments you're quoting above were preceded by the professor's comment -- "Over the coming decades".

I think you'll find the so-called COVID comorbidity rates among the general population are not so small as you think. And the typical discussions about comorbidities focus on chronic medical conditions per se, and not mere aging itself which is the largest risk factor, as shown below. Updated Estimates of Chronic Conditions Affecting Risk for Complications from Coronavirus Disease, United States "We estimate that 56.0% of US adults, with a wide range across age groups and states, have >1 underlying conditions that increase risk for hospitalization caused by COVID-19." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7454091/ AND Comorbidities, multimorbidity and COVID-19 "Modeling studies have estimated that 1.7 billion people globally (22% of the population) have at least one comorbidity that is associated with an increased risk of developing severe COVID-19." ... Most research related to the impact of long-term conditions on COVID-19 has focused on single comorbidities. However, one-third of adults globally are estimated to have two or more long-term conditions86, increasing to more than two-thirds in those aged 65 or older87. In a large study of hospitalized people with COVID-19 in the UK, crude mortality in patients with multimorbidity was more than double that of those without multimorbidity (37.2% versus 17.3%), even after adjusting for demographic factors https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02156-9 Underlying Medical Conditions Associated with Higher Risk for Severe COVID-19: Information for Healthcare Professionals "Age is the strongest risk factor for severe COVID-19 outcomes. Patients with one or multiple of certain underlying medical conditions are also at higher risk.(1–3) Additionally, being unvaccinated or not being up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations also increases the risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/clinical-care/underlyingconditions.html

AFAIK, there's a difference between industrial use type CO2 and consumer use type CO2 for beverage carbonation in terms of the purity levels involved. I have a DrinkMate brand home carbonation unit similar to SodaStream that uses either 400g or 800g CO2 bottles. The 800g bottle lasts me about a month of use at home for sparkling water pretty much every day. The vendor of those units refills the 800g CO2 cartridges for 800 baht per. I have no idea if that's a reasonable price or not for home consumer use carbonation bottles here in Thailand.

Ya, like these folks: CONSPIRACY-PSEUDOSCIENCE Overall, we rate America’s Frontline Doctors a quackery-level pseudoscience website based on promoting false or misleading information regarding Coronavirus that does not align with the scientific consensus. We also rate them Low for factual reporting due to a lack of transparency and using known pseudoscience sources to draw their conclusions. "they give a page that lists its leadership, which does not contain an Epidemiologist, Immunologist, or Infectious Disease, expert. Additionally, if they have qualified physicians and researchers on staff, they are not listed on the website." https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/americas-frontline-doctors/ Or these folks fronted by a U.S. cardiologist, Peter McCullough, who's been among the most prolific misinformation peddlers of the pandemic. CONSPIRACY-PSEUDOSCIENCE Overall, we rate The Wellness Company as a conspiracy and pseudoscience website based on the promotion of alternative health claims that are either false, misleading, or unproven. "In general, The Wellness Company promotes pseudoscientific disinformation often as a way to promote alternative health products. Realistically, this site does not promote wellness but rather pseudoscience that can be harmful to health if proper medical treatments are not sought." https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-wellness-company-bias/

The UK, unlike Thailand, just wrapped up its spring nationwide campaign urging the elderly and others at high risk to get their updated COVID vaccination at the government's expense.... "On 20 June, NHS England said more than four million people had received a spring booster jab." https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55045639 And as for your other comments: Covid spike sees masks reintroduced at hospitals https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czk078zj5nyo AND Summer Covid wave hits UK as expert warns of Euro 2024 fuelling rise in infections A “growing” summer wave of Covid-19 has hit the UK as experts suggest the European football tournament is fueling a rise in infections. The latest figures from the UK Health Security Agency show that as of 19 June infections were up by 33 per cent on the previous week. Hospital admissions saw a slight increase. ... According to the UKHSA, Covid hospital admissions increased by 24 per cent in the week leading up to Sunday 23 June, with a rate of 3.31 per 100,000 people compared with 2.67 per 100,000 in the previous week. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/summer-covid-wave-2024-uk-euros-b2573767.html

And yet, COVID deaths keep piling up around the world week after week. Admittedly, fewer than in the worst years of the pandemic, and now mostly occurring among the elderly and those with other very common health conditions like overweight, diabetes, high blood pressure, etc etc. But still occurring, and still a risk. Notably, of the 16 official COVID deaths Thailand reported for the past week, two of them were in the age group 20-49, and another two were in the age group 50-59... Maybe someone forgot to tell them your fairy tale about COVID today being "essentially a non-severe and non-fatal viral infection." Or maybe it depends on how you define the term "essentially." Not to mention the other 709 people hospitalized in Thai hospitals as of Saturday who were listed in serious condition with COVID. I don't think it's "non-severe" for them. https://aseannow.com/topic/1331183-new-weekly-covid-hospitalizations-rocket-upward-to-3256-hitting-new-high-for-2023-2024/ Or the 146 people in the UK who died of COVID for the most recently reported week. https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/ Or the 64 people who died from COVID in Taiwan for the most recent week, up from 40 the week before. Or maybe some people here think they don't count because most of those deaths occurred with people age 65 and above. https://aseannow.com/topic/1331423-taiwan-sees-932-severe-covid-cases-64-weekly-covid-deaths-reported/ Or the 300 or so people who continue to die of COVID in the U.S. pretty much every week lately. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_weeklydeaths_select_00 I suspect you'll argue despite all the COVID deaths reported above, the odds of dying remain low... And that's probably true... until you or a family member or someone else ends up being one of the statistics that fill out the ongoing COVID deaths reports week after week after week.

I'm seeing Makro online selling that product in 6- and 10-packs starting at 220b per can for the 6-pack set. Less per can (under 200b) for the 10-pack set. https://www.makro.pro/en/p/cf8bb2s-7513104482499

For a more detailed report on the latest weekly COVID update from the MoPH:

Just curious, as someone who regularly eats granola for breakfast, what makes you say that particular brand is "very good quality"? One of the problems I often encounter with Thai products is their nutrition information and ingredient labels often are vague and dubious at best, making it difficult to make any real judgments... And some local products don't have any nutrition labels at all.

Here's your "right"...

Yes, for a fee:

Worth noting: the above news report also cites that Taiwan has a very low uptake of the latest XBB variant COVID vaccines, even lower than in the U.S., including for its senior citizens. Specifically: "The [Taiwan] CDC said 2.805 million doses of the XBB vaccine have been administered, with 21,000 doses administered from June 17-23. The XBB vaccination rate is 11.47%, with the first and second-dose vaccination rates for those aged 65 and above 20.74% and 1.79%, respectively." [emphasis added] By comparison, the latest XBB vaccine update estimates from the U.S. say about 22% of adults have gotten the XBB vaccine, including more than 40% of senior citizens age 65 and above. https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/data-research/dashboard/vaccination-trends-adults.html https://apnews.com/article/covid-vaccines-shots-over-65-84bd91f6c51db7bbb334bd18a07e4f3b Thailand, by comparison, has no government program to administer XBB COVID vaccines, and privately sourced XBB COVID vaccinations here are likely so few that they're not tracked or publicly reported. So unfortunately regarding Taiwan, it's not any great surprise that they're now reporting increasing numbers of COVID hospitalizations and deaths, largely among the senior citizen population there. Particularly since new research is indicating that the older COVID vaccines, now 1-2 or more years and multiple COVID variant changes later, basically aren't nowadays providing any better protection vs. being unvaccinated.

A couple of additional things to note about the above study: 1. It was funded, as clearly disclosed in the study, by Pfizer and done in conjunction with the Kaiser Permanente Southern California health system. The authors included researchers both from Kaiser and Pfizer. 2. But more pertinent to readers here, various forum members are often commenting that they had their original COVID vaccines several years ago in Thailand, and don't feel that they need any more. One of the findings that was particularly interesting on that point is this study found that the original version or 2nd generation bivalent COVID vaccines people received in past years, at this point in the pandemic, provided no statistically significant protection against COVID hospitalization vs. those who had never received any COVID vaccine. Specifically, the authors wrote: "Finally, compared with unvaccinated individuals, those who had not received an XBB vaccine of any kind but had received older versions of COVID-19 vaccines (ie, ≥1 BA.4/5 bivalent dose or ≥3 or ≥2 original wild-type doses and no variant-adapted vaccines of any kind) did not show a statistically significant reduced risk of COVID-19 outcomes, including hospital admission, during the study period. ... Thus, analogous to influenza, although older versions of COVID-19 vaccines once provided high levels of protection, the combination of waning vaccine-induced immunity and continuous SARS-CoV-2 strain evolution eventually renders prior versions of vaccines ineffective. This, in turn, warrants routine updates to COVID-19 vaccines—also like influenza—so long as SARS-CoV-2 continues to circulate and cause disease."

JAMA Internal Medicine published a study calculating the protection offered by the latest Pfizer COVID-19 XBB vaccine compared to older vaccines against COVID-associated hospitalization and emergency department (ED) or urgent care (UC) visits. ... The authors compared outcomes among those who had received an updated XBB vaccine and those who had not received an XBB vaccine of any kind, regardless of prior COVID-19 vaccination or infection history. ... 62% protection against hospitalization Compared to those who had not received an updated XBB vaccine, recipients had 62% protection against COVID-19 hospitalization (95% confidence interval [CI], 32% to 79%). Protection was 58% against ED/UC visits (95% CI, 48% to 67%). A history of vaccination with pre-XBB vaccines did not significantly reduce the risk of COVID-19 outcomes, including hospital admission, and outcomes were similar to those of unvaccinated patients. (more) https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/latest-xbb-covid-19-vaccine-offers-protection-against-hospitalization-deaths Findings In this case-control study among 2854 cases and 15 345 controls, the BNT162b2 XBB vaccine provided statistically significant additional protection against a range of COVID-19 outcomes during the early part of the 2023 to 2024 viral respiratory season. Older versions of COVID-19 vaccines offered little, if any, additional protection compared with being unvaccinated, including against COVID-19 hospital admissions, regardless of the number or type of prior doses received. ... Results Among 2854 cases and 15 345 controls (median [IQR] age, 56 [37-72] years; 10 658 [58.6%] female), adjusted estimation of effectiveness of the BNT162b2 XBB vaccine received a median of 34 days prior vs not having received an XBB vaccine of any kind was 62% (95% CI, 32%-79%) against COVID-19 hospitalization and 58% (95% CI, 48%-67%) for ED/UC visits. Compared with being unvaccinated, those who had received only older versions of COVID-19 vaccines did not show statistically significant reduced risk of COVID-19 outcomes, including hospital admission. (more) https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2820268

Jul. 3, 2024 TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Tuesday (July 2) reported 932 new severe COVID cases from June 25 - July 1, a 14% increase from the previous week. There were also 64 deaths from COVID. Individuals aged 65 and above account for 79% of the severe cases and 90% of the deaths. The CDC said the current prevalent variants, JN.1, KP.2, KP.3, and LB.1, possess immune evasion characteristics and higher transmissibility. However, current research shows they have not increased disease severity. ... The CDC said the domestic COVID outbreak is worsening and is in the epidemic phase and could plateau in mid-July. The JN. 1 variant is the most prevalent, both domestically and from overseas, accounting for 47% and 38%, respectively. (more) Taiwan News https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/news/5898112 And one week prior from the same news outlet: COVID hospitalizations in Taiwan increase 31% Over 800 hospitalizations for COVID reported last week Jun. 27, 2024 TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Severe COVID cases that required hospitalization increased by 30.9% last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday (June 25). The CDC said 817 COVID cases required hospitalization from June 18-24, a 30.9% increase from 624 cases between June 11-17. Among last week's cases, 79% were individuals aged 65 and above. There were 40 COVID-related deaths last week, of these, 90% were aged 65 and above. (more) Taiwan News https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/news/5896139