TallGuyJohninBKK

Another large Kansas newspaper, the Topeka Capital-Journal, also has the following very strange excerpt in its news report on Kobach's lawsuit, which makes it sound like his own state attorneys won't even be taking the lead on the Pfizer case. Instead: "The Kansas lawsuit is likely being handled by the James Otis Law Group, a firm that Kobach contracted with for a secretive pharmaceutical case. The request for proposals had said the attorney general's office was "in the early stages" of an investigation into "alleged unfair or unconscionable acts or practices involving the drug manufacturer industry" targeting "a particular firm." ... The [law] firm was founded by former Missouri solicitor general Dean John Sauer. He has represented former President Donald Trump, arguing that he should be immune from criminal prosecution for charges connected to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. Sauer gained national attention when arguing in a federal appellate court that presidential immunity could hypothetically cover ordering Navy SEALs to assassinate a political rival." The Topeka Capital-Journal https://archive.ph/mEVXg All of the above reports give a pretty good sense of the backgrounds of those filing and pursuing these cases against Pfizer.

The home state Kansas City Star newspaper also reported the following in its news report on Kobach's lawsuit: "The lawsuit, filed in state court in Thomas County, comes after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a similar lawsuit in November. Kobach said at a news conference on Monday that Kansas is one of several states taking legal action against Pfizer. The company said in a statement the lawsuit is without merit. Kobach, a Republican, is launching the legal challenge as the pandemic has begun to fade in the public consciousness. But anger at vaccine manufacturers, including conspiracy theories surrounding the COVID-19 vaccines, are rampant among parts of the right." https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article289330650.html

The above-linked Reuters report also took issue with other claims made in Kobach's lawsuit, such as: "The lawsuit claims that, beginning shortly after the vaccine's rollout in early 2021, Pfizer concealed evidence that the shot was linked to pregnancy complications, including miscarriage, as well as inflammation in and around the heart, known as myocarditis and pericarditis. ... The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in June 2021 added a warning about myocarditis and pericarditis to the vaccine's label. The side effects are rare and most often occur in adolescent boys and young men. A 2023 review of 21 studies by the U.S. National Institutes of Health concluded that COVID vaccines were not linked to miscarriage." https://www.reuters.com/legal/kansas-accuses-pfizer-misleading-public-about-covid-vaccine-lawsuit-2024-06-17/

The lawsuit here by a far right-wing idealogue state attorney general is basically a copycat of a prior case, as noted in the Reuters report linked above, filed months ago by a similar right-wing AG in Texas, which drew the following assessment: Texas sues Pfizer with COVID anti-vax argument that is pure stupid 12/5/2023 ... "In all, Paxton's 54-page complaint acts as a compendium of pandemic-era anti-vaccine misinformation and tropes while making a slew of unsupported claims. But, central to the Lone Star State's shaky legal argument is one that centers on the standard math Pfizer used to assess the effectiveness of its vaccine: a calculation of relative risk reduction. This argument is as unoriginal as it is incorrect. Anti-vaccine advocates have championed this flawed math-based theory since the height of the pandemic. Actual experts have roundly debunked it many times. Still, it appears in all its absurd glory in Paxton's lawsuit last week, which seeks $10 million in reparations." https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/12/texas-sues-pfizer-with-covid-anti-vax-argument-that-is-pure-stupid/ Kobach's lawsuit makes the exact same argument in its filing, as follows: https://ag.ks.gov/docs/default-source/documents/2024-06-15-pfizer-complaint-(002).pdf?sfvrsn=eb8bbe1a_8 Also, the Associated Press did a profile on Kobach in 2022 that included the following on his background and history of questionable claims and legal initiatives, which should be considered when evaluating the likely merits of his claims being made in this Pfizer case: "Kobach also pushed the idea that droves of people could be voting illegally and championed a tough prove-your-citizenship rule for new Kansas voters, only to see the federal courts strike it down and order the state to pay voting rights attorneys $1.4 million. Kobach served as co-chairman of Trump’s short-lived presidential advisory commission on “election integrity” and promoted Trump’s lies about widespread voter fraud. At the time, The Associated Press reported that Kobach oversaw an election system in Kansas that threw out at least three times as many ballots in the 2016 election as any similarly sized state did, fueling concerns about massive voter suppression should its practices become the national standard." https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-abortion-voting-rights-presidential-immigration-3ec99db94c0d772465d3a7ccf015ccc6

There are different opinions about the questions you broach above, but I can offer the following comments: In general, for a person who's at high risk for bad COVID outcomes (elderly, overweight, diabetes), places such as the U.S. and UK recommend that they remain up-to-date with their COVID vaccinations. Right now, that's meant as at least having received one dose of the latest XBB variant COVID vaccine. The UK at present is running twice-a-year public vaccination campaigns (spring and fall) targeted to the elderly and those otherwise at high risk. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-vaccination-spring-booster-resources/a-guide-to-the-covid-19-spring-booster-2023 The U.S. has taken a broader approach, saying that everyone should at least receive one dose of the latest XBB variant vaccine, and a second dose is OK for people at higher risk. https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2024/s-0228-covid.html In both the U.S. and the UK, there will be new versions of the COVID vaccines released later this fall aimed at protecting against the latest JN.1 / KP.2 COVID variants. In general, both countries appear to be heading toward an annual cycle of COVID vaccines being updated for the latest variants, much like flu vaccines are updated each year. And both the U.S. and UK right now are OK with twice-a-year vaccinations for those in the high-risk groups. As for the duration of protection, recent studies continue to show that it wanes after administration, down to pretty low levels by the time people get 6 months or more out from vaccination -- which is what presumably has driven the acceptance of twice-a-year vaccinations for those at high risk. This study info was reported in the New England Journal of Medicine recently on protection duration against COVID infections, hospitalizations and death, and was posted earlier in this thread: https://aseannow.com/topic/1329918-new-covid-sub-variant-kp2-on-the-rise-in-thailand/?do=findComment&comment=19000206 Re your comment about prior discussion about the vaccines having longer-term protections lasting 1-2 years, I saw those references earlier in the pandemic with earlier variants of the COVID virus. But I haven't seen anything substantiating that lately. Also, while I wouldn't advise the following, there was this item in the news not long back:

Anti-vaxerism and vax hesitancy for COVID had a real and substantial cost in lives lost early on in the pandemic: 300,000 US COVID deaths could have been averted through vaccination, analysis finds The national average indicates that about 50% of deaths were preventable. May 17, 2022 COVID-19 vaccines could have prevented at least 318,000 virus-related deaths between January 2021 and April 2022, a new analysis found. The analysis used real-world data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and The New York Times and was done by researchers from Brown School of Public Health, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Microsoft AI for Health. ... "At a time when many in the U.S. have given up on vaccinations, these numbers are a stark reminder of the effectiveness of vaccines in fighting this pandemic," said Stefanie Friedhoff, associate professor of the practice in health services, policy and practice at the Brown University School of Public Health, and a co-author of the analysis. "We must continue to invest in getting more Americans vaccinated and boosted to save more lives." (more) https://abcnews.go.com/Health/300000-us-covid-deaths-averted-vaccination-analysis-finds/story?id=84753284

This is the latest research I've seen on the real-world effectiveness of the current XBB variant COVID vaccines -- not absolute protection by any means, but a lot better than doing nothing. The percentages below refer to the amounts of reduced risk that being vaccinated with the current XBB-variant vaccines (mostly Pfizer, some Moderna) provided against being hospitalized, dying, etc. vs. those who didn't receive them. The research below also divided its overall vaccine effectiveness data into two cohorts -- those vaccinated before late Oct. 2023 when the XBB variant was still dominant, and those vaccinated later when the current, more vaccine evasive JN.1 family of variants emerged. "Data appeared to point to lower effectiveness against infection, hospitalization, and death after the arrival of the JN.1 subvariant, the dominant strain in the U.S. through the end of March of this year. ... Effectiveness against hospitalization in those vaccinated during the period before JN.1 was 73.7% after week 8 and 59.1% after week 10, while effectiveness against death was 86.2% at week 4 and 72.9% at week 8 during this period. Among those vaccinated after the JN.1 variant became dominant, effectiveness against hospitalization was 60.1% after week 4 and effectiveness against death was 59.8% after week 4, and both steadily decreased over time. [the hospitalization VE number at week 9, the last week tracked, was 40.3%]" MedPage Today https://archive.ph/G7c1d "We collected individual-level data on the uptake of the three XBB.1.5 vaccines and the incidence of Covid-19 between September 11, 2023, and February 21, 2024, in a cohort of approximately 1.8 million persons by linking records from the Nebraska Electronic Disease Surveillance System and the Nebraska State Immunization Information System (NESIIS). ... In the cohort, 218,250 persons (11.9%) received XBB.1.5 vaccines, of whom 133,403 (61.1%) received the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine and 84,307 (38.6%) received the Moderna vaccine. ... Overall, the XBB.1.5 vaccines were effective against omicron subvariants, although less so against JN.1. The effectiveness was greater against hospitalization and death than against infection, and it waned moderately from its peak over time." https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMc2402779

The Thai Red Cross vaccination clinic in BKK -- formally known as the Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute -- does indeed offer the updated XBB COVID vaccines for a fee, along with several other clinics or hospitals around BKK, at last check: Contact and other details below:

You've got a lot you're trying to forget. And in my opinion, the millions who lost their lives because of COVID deserve to be remembered, not forgotten, and lessons learned. Per the New York Times in March: The Fourth Anniversary of the Covid Pandemic "The worst pandemic in a century had begun. ... The true toll Covid’s confirmed death toll — more than seven million people worldwide — is horrific on its own, and the true toll is much worse. The Economist magazine keeps a running estimate of excess deaths, defined as the number of deaths above what was expected from pre-Covid trends. The global total is approaching 30 million. This number includes both confirmed Covid deaths and undiagnosed ones, which have been common in poorer countries. It includes deaths caused by pandemic disruptions, such as missed doctor appointments that might have prevented other diseases. The isolation of the pandemic also caused a surge of social ills in the U.S., including increases in deaths from alcohol, drugs, vehicle crashes and murders." (more) https://archive.ph/niVyc

The journal BMJ Public Health, which originally published the disputed study cited in this thread, now has publicly posted its formal "Expression of concern" regarding the study, and announced it is formally investigating "the quality and messaging" of the study, as follows: Correction | Published: 14 June 2024 Expression of concern: Excess mortality across countries in the western world since the COVID-19 pandemic: ‘Our World in Data’ estimates of January 2020 to December 2022 "The integrity team and editors are investigating issues raised regarding the quality and messaging of this work. The Princess Máxima Centre, which is listed as the affiliation of three of the four authors, is also investigating the scientific quality of this study.1 The integrity team has contacted the institution regarding their investigation. Readers should also be alerted to misreporting and misunderstanding of the work. It has been claimed that the work implies a direct causal link between COVID-19 vaccination and mortality. This study does not establish any such link. The researchers looked only at trends in excess mortality over time, not its causes. The research does not support the claim that vaccines are a major contributory factor to excess deaths since the start of the pandemic. Vaccines have, in fact, been instrumental in reducing the severe illness and death associated with COVID-19 infection." https://bmjpublichealth.bmj.com/content/2/1/e000282eoc

Thailand has had weekly new COVID hospitalizations increase five-fold over the past three months to 2,881 last week, and serious condition hospitalizations for COVID right now are at their highest level in a year... and yet, Thailand's official weekly COVID deaths reported have mostly remained in the single digits for most of that time. And the MoPH has in the past indicated it was going to take a narrow approach to what it would consider official COVID deaths. Meanwhile, the UK, with roughly the same size population in Thailand, is regularly reporting 100+ COVID deaths per week where COVID is listed as a cause on the death certificates... Interesting distinction between COVID deaths in those two countries and how they're reported. UKHSA data dashboard https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/

Except for.... 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." https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02156-9 AND "A study carried out on 5700 COVID-19 patients from 12 hospitals in the USA found diabetes to be the third most common comorbidity (~34% of patients), compared to hypertension (56%) and obesity (42%)." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10456773/ The above citations indicate pretty substantial shares of the population at large having some level of COVID comorbidity risk.

Per the US CDC: "Total COVID-19 deaths, accounting for underreporting, are likely to be higher than, but of the same order of magnitude as, total influenza deaths. Supporting this idea, the cumulative rate of COVID-19-associated hospitalizations during October 1, 2023–February 3, 2024, was 97 per 100,000 population, compared with 52 per 100,000 influenza-associated hospitalizations and 44 per 100,000 RSV hospitalizations. In-hospital death was about 1.8 times higher for COVID-19-associated hospitalizations (4.6%) vs. those for influenza (2.6%). https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/background/index.html

That number/share is just the number of UK HCWs who chose to get (or not get) a COVID vaccine in the UK government's semi-annual (twice a year) COVID vaccination campaign last fall. It doesn't tell how many of those folks got vaccinated months before in the spring, or how many will get vaccinated in this current spring's UK COVID vaccination campaign. It also doesn't tell WHY those who didn't get vaccinated chose not to... Perhaps because a lot of staff HCWs tend to be among younger age groups, and the UK government increasingly has only been targeting the elderly for government provided COVID vaccines. One thing I do know -- prior news reporting has indicated that somewhere around 90% of the UK's government health care workers have been COVID vaccinated with either their first and/or second vaccine doses. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-56291564

And that studies repeatedly have shown than being up-to-date on COVID XBB variant vaccinations reduces people's risk of serious COVID illness vs. those who haven't received the latest vaccine. Latest COVID-19 vaccines reduce hospitalization risk by around half "The latest COVID-19 vaccines reduce the risk for hospitalization or visits to an ED or urgent care by around 50%, according to interim data published in MMWR. ... Overall, VE against COVID-19-associated ME or hospitalization was 51% (95% CI = 47%-54%) in the first 7 to 59 days after receiving an updated vaccine dose and 39% (95% CI = 33%-45%) in the 60 to 119 days after an updated vaccine dose. https://www.healio.com/news/infectious-disease/20240301/latest-covid19-vaccines-reduce-hospitalization-risk-by-around-half or the following from the U.S. CDC: "Protective tools, like vaccines and treatments, that decrease risk of COVID-19 disease (particularly severe disease) are now widely available. COVID-19 vaccination reduces the risk of symptomatic disease and hospitalization by about 50% compared to people not up to date on vaccination. Over 95% of adults hospitalized in 2023-2024 due to COVID-19 had no record of receiving the latest vaccine." https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/background/index.html#:~:text=Over 95% of adults hospitalized,of receiving the latest vaccine

I agree. I said several times here that the U.S. went too far and strayed into non-factual claims in several respects. But their comments also were correct about the often substandard quality or outright counterfeit versions of Chinese PPE, and that Sinovac was in fact less effective against COVID than the West's mRNA vaccines.

Curious that the Thai local news media -- thus far at least -- seem to be ignoring this latest COVID update from the Thai Ministry of Public Health -- 2,881 new COVID hospitalizations last week, the highest number in a year. But the MoPH nonetheless went on Facebook earlier today to warn about the risks of COVID in schools and amid rising COVID hospitalizations, in particular the health risks for what they call the "608" group -- meaning those age 60 and above, and those having any of a group of eight chronic health conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, etc. that put them at higher risks for bad COVID outcomes. Source link: Per Facebook Translate: "The main strain that is being outbreak is the JN strain. 1 and the species of offspring that has the ability to spread more easily, non-severe symptoms, similar to common flu. I would like to emphasize that schools screen students every morning if they have respiratory symptoms, wear a hygienic mask and inform parents to take them for treatment or if the illness is found in a group, inform the local public health officer immediately. People with risk symptoms such as fever, cough, runny nose, sore throat should be checked early with ATK if infection is found. ย์. It is better to wear anti-infection masks, isolate yourself from others, and consult doctors urgently, especially in the 608 group, because if the infection risk group can have serious symptoms and fatalities."

I'd call your attention to this post from earlier in this thread... The U.S. was wrong in what they did with this disinformation campaign, but undoubtedly still were correct in a lot of what they said (though they went too far/over the top in trying to discredit China's less effective Sinovac COVID vacccine.

Well, we know enough about the symptoms of COVID to know that it has 748 people in Thailand currently hospitalized for COVID in serious condition, per today's update from the Thai MoPH in dark purple color below. Not to mention the 7 new official COVID deaths reported for last week in gray color below. https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main

Also in the news today -- not Thaksin this time, but the current one now: Thai PM takes sick leave to recover from COVID-19 infection "Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin is taking a sick leave after being diagnosed with COVID-19. Government Spokesman Chai Wacharonke said the prime minister fell ill, has felt tired since last Friday and went to see a doctor, who diagnosed a COVID infection. He was advised him to take a rest for a few days to avoid infecting others. He said he expects the prime minister to be able to return to work as normal on Wednesday." (more) https://www.thaipbsworld.com/thai-pm-takes-sick-leave-to-recover-from-covid-19-infection/ Seems there's still a virus going round and making people sick...

I have a higher COVID vaccine count than Mike above, and have regularly been wearing my N95 face masks when away from home and around others since the COVID pandemic began. Haven't been noticeably sick from anything in the past four years. Knock on wood. I'm going to continue on with what's been working for me as I go further into the 60s age range and hopefully beyond.

The full posts I've done on Thailand's weekly COVID reports always include whatever info is available on officially reported COVID deaths. And there's no clear trend in any direction, with the weekly reported death numbers bouncing up and down randomly. The latest full post, linked below, noted the following: "The latest weekly COVID deaths total has remained in the same typical single-digit range seen most of this year, despite the large increases in hospitalizations. The Thai MoPH in the past has adopted a relatively narrow definition of the types of deaths it will count as official COVID deaths. Of the 7 new official COVID deaths for the past week, the MoPH is reporting that 2 were male and 5 female. By age, 4 were ages 70 and above, 1 age 60-69, and 2 were ages 20-49." https://aseannow.com/topic/1326140-hospitalizations-climb-in-thailands-spring-2024-covid-surge/?do=findComment&comment=18995834 --------------------------------------- It's also worth noting by comparison that the UK, a country with roughly the same population as Thailand but better public health record keeping, has regularly been reporting more than 100 COVID deaths per week lately. Gives pause for wonder about Thailand's reporting... But then again, the UK hasn't seen a five-fold increase in new COVID hospitalizations over the past three months like Thailand has.... In the UK the COVID deaths and hospitalizations numbers pretty much stay in sync... Here, for unknown reasons, the hospitalization numbers spiral dramatically upward, but the death counts don't. Hmmmm. Recent COVID deaths in the UK: https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/topics/covid-19#deaths

That's true to a certain extent. But IMHO, better to keep catching up and do what you can to protect your health vs. failing to do so, and increasing your risks of COVID hospitalization or worse... Especially for those with COVID risk conditions that include older ages, a multitude of chronic health conditions including high blood pressure or being overweight, etc etc. -- that when you add them all together, ends up covering a large portion of the overall population.

Some here seemingly would have everyone ignore facts and reality like the following: "The latest MoPH report on new weekly COVID hospitalizations shows them continuing a long upward climb since mid-March. The weekly tallies during that recent period 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" https://aseannow.com/topic/1326140-hospitalizations-climb-in-thailands-spring-2024-covid-surge/?do=findComment&comment=18995834 https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main

Look at the size of the orange columns for COVID deaths. Then look at the size of the blue columns for flu deaths. Not even close. Also: