TallGuyJohninBKK

March 16 / CBS News "There have been more measles cases reported so far in 2024 than all of 2023, with more than 60 confirmed or suspected cases currently recorded. Chicago has 12 confirmed cases, including 10 linked to a migrant shelter, causing the city to enact new policies amid the outbreak." The video talks about 60 confirmed or suspected cases in 17 different U.S. states. The last number I'm seeing for Florida was a count of 10 cases there. From the above video: And yet, some context for the current situation: https://www.cdc.gov/measles/cases-outbreaks.html I suspect, what helped draw the very heavy news media attention to Florida's recent measles outbreak was the anti-vax state surgeon general there flouting established public health guidance for responding to measles outbreaks and avoiding calling on the unvaccinated to get vaccinated. https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/florida-surgeon-general-measles-vaccinations-outbreak/3239826/ "Ladapo sent a letter to parents that pediatricians, immunologists and infectious disease experts have criticized. The letter acknowledged what has been common practice to contain measles outbreaks — that unvaccinated children or those without immunity should remain home during the incubation period of the virus, or up to 21 days. Ladapo, then, however, wrote that, “due to the high immunity rate in the community,” the Department of Health “is deferring to parents or guardians to make decisions about school attendance.” https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article285834346.html

How about NBC TV in South Florida: Florida surgeon general doesn't urge vaccinations amid measles outbreak Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo wrote in a letter emphasizing how contagious measles is and how effective the MMR vaccine is in preventing the disease, but he did not urge parents to immunize their children. ... The Florida Department of Health released a letter Tuesday from Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo emphasizing how contagious measles is and how effective the MMR vaccine is in preventing the disease, but Ladapo did not urge parents to immunize their children. “He does not, which is an interesting letter from a surgeon general," Zeman said. "I believe evidence is overwhelming that people ought to get vaccinated." “The letter doesn’t explicitly say we need to get more people vaccinated, and that is a key point that families need to know,” Dr. Marty said. https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/florida-surgeon-general-measles-vaccinations-outbreak/3239826/

Fortunately, and obviously, neither of you are medical doctors: Top 4 Things Parents Need to Know about Measles 1. Measles can be serious. Some people think of measles as just a little rash and fever that clears up in a few days, but measles can cause serious health complications, especially in children younger than 5 years of age. There is no way to tell in advance the severity of the symptoms your child will experience. About 1 in 5 people in the U.S. who get measles will be hospitalized 1 out of every 1,000 people with measles will develop brain swelling, which could lead to brain damage 1 to 3 out of 1,000 people with measles will die, even with the best care https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/parents-top4.html And from the WHO: Measles is a highly contagious, serious airborne disease caused by a virus that can lead to severe complications and death. Measles vaccination averted 56 million deaths being between 2000 and 2021. Even though a safe and cost-effective vaccine is available, in 2021, there were an estimated 128 000 measles deaths globally, mostly among unvaccinated or under vaccinated children under the age of 5 years. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/measles All of the above is a concern because there has been a rise lately in the numbers of parents NOT having their children vaccinated against measles, even though the MMR vaccine is 97% effective in preventing measles with two doses, and 93% effective with only one of the two recommended doses. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/measles/index.html

James Crumbley, father of Ethan Crumbley, found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in son's school shooting Crumbley was charged in connection with son Ethan's 2021 school shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan. His wife, Jennifer, was convicted on the same charge. PONTIAC, Mich. — A jury on Thursday convicted James Crumbley of involuntary manslaughter in connection with his teenage son’s deadly school shooting in 2021, in step with his wife, who was found guilty last month on the same charge. The jury's decision after about 10 hours of deliberations caps a landmark case that for the first time in the U.S. held the parents of a mass school shooter criminally responsible. James and Jennifer Crumbley’s son, Ethan, who was 15 when he opened fire at Oxford High School in suburban Detroit, pleaded guilty as an adult and was sentenced in December to life in prison without the possibility of parole. "These were egregious facts in this case. These parents could have prevented this tragedy. It was foreseeable," Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said after the verdict. (more) https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/verdict-james-crumbley-involuntary-manslaughter-trial-rcna143174

We live in a very strange world of U.S. politics when 20,000 to 25,000 Americans per week were dying from COVID in the fall of 2020 during the U.S. peak of COVID fatalities, and according to Pew's survey above, still one-third of the American public back then didn't think that COVID was a major threat to public health... That's pretty surreal! Source:

Because the "very few fatalities" you claim I'm guessing are the end "gray" most recent weekly columns shown on the chart that represent incomplete data, because of the time lag that occurs with the processing of death registrations. As the CDC clearly explains in the info accompanying the chart under the "Footnotes" section: "Data during recent periods are incomplete because of the lag in time between when a death occurs and when a death certificate is completed, submitted to NCHS, and processed for reporting. This delay can range from 1 week to 8 weeks or more, depending on the jurisdiction. The most recent 3 weeks of mortality counts are shaded grey and mortality rates shown as dotted lines because NVSS reporting is <95% during this period." That's why the graphic I posted above highlighted the latest "blue" / complete column in the time series, and not the incomplete "gray" weekly columns at the very end. Source: Unless you mean you consider 1,200+ Americans per week dying from COVID -- the latest complete tally -- to be "very few"?

The good news is, COVID key indicators in the U.S. have been pretty consistently going down in recent weeks: Source: The bad news is, more than 13,000 Americans still were newly hospitalized for COVID in the most recent week: Source: And more than 1,000 Americans per week are still dying with COVID as the primary or contributing cause (based on the latest week from mid-February with data considered complete): Source:

Continued decline in share of U.S. adults with up-to-date vaccination A new Pew Research Center survey finds that just 20% of Americans view the coronavirus as a major threat to the health of the U.S. population today and only 10% are very concerned they will get it and require hospitalization. This data represents a low ebb of public concern about the virus that reached its height in the summer and fall of 2020, when as many as two-thirds of Americans viewed COVID-19 as a major threat to public health. Just 28% of U.S. adults say they have received the updated COVID-19 vaccine, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended last fall to protect against serious illness. This stands in stark contrast to the spring and summer of 2021, when long lines and limited availability characterized the initial rollout of the first COVID-19 vaccines. A majority of U.S. adults (69%) had been fully vaccinated by August 2021. Underscoring the limited demand for the updated COVID-19 vaccines, a larger share of U.S. adults say they’ve gotten a flu shot in the last six months than the updated coronavirus vaccine (44% vs. 28%). And despite a public health push encouraging adults to get both vaccines at the same time, almost half of those who received a flu shot from a health care provider chose not to get the updated COVID-19 vaccine. (more) https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2024/03/07/how-americans-view-the-coronavirus-covid-19-vaccines-amid-declining-levels-of-concern/

And a timely reminder on this topic: International Long COVID Awareness Day March 15 is International Long COVID Awareness Day. This year's theme is "Confront Long COVID." It is important to recognize and raise awareness of Long COVID as a real and serious infection-associated chronic condition that has affected millions of people across the United States. CDC and other federal partners and stakeholders are actively working to address gaps in the understanding of Long COVID and the needs of people with Long COVID. Source:

What the OP report here should have said is... ‘long Covid’ symptoms are no worse than those after flu...in a setting where 90% of the population had already been double vaccinated against COVID. The same Queensland public health folks behind the OP report have done prior research on the same topic, including an August 2023 journal article that begins with the following: "In a highly vaccinated Australian population, we aimed to compare ongoing symptoms and functional impairment 12 weeks after PCR-confirmed COVID-19 infection with PCR-confirmed influenza infection." And then goes on to add: "We do not dismiss the validity of long COVID but recommend an appropriate comparator group when researching this condition." and "In Australia, the first wave of the Omicron variant commenced in late 2021 when over 90% of the population was double vaccinated against COVID-19." https://bmjpublichealth.bmj.com/content/1/1/e000060 In other words, as other prior research has already shown: More evidence vaccination reduces risk of long COVID January 13, 2024 A large staggered cohort study from primary care patients in the UK, Spain, and Estonia finds that COVID-19 vaccination consistently reduced the risk of long-COVID symptoms. The study is published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. ... "We defined long COVID as having at least one record of any of the pre-defined symptoms between 90 and 365 days after the date of a PCR-positive test or clinical diagnosis of COVID-19, with no record of that symptom 180 days before SARS-CoV-2 infection." ... Across all four staggered cohorts in all three countries, vaccination was associated with a lowered risk of developing long COVID. And a slightly stronger preventative effect was seen for the first dose of BNT162b2 than for ChAdOx1, the authors said. Vaccine efficacy (VE) against long COVID ranged from 29% to 52%. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/more-evidence-vaccination-reduces-risk-long-covid Talking about comparing comparable groups, there's no mention in the OP study what portion of those surveyed about lingering flu symptoms had or had not received flu vaccinations prior. And likewise, there's no detail in the OP study comparing the self-reported rates of disabling COVID symptoms among the UNvaccinated with the same for unvaccinated flu cases.

Also worth noting, as the Guardian article did, that the Queensland survey on long COVID symptoms occurred in the following context: "They also said because 90% of people in Queensland were vaccinated when Omicron emerged, the lower severity of long Covid could be due to vaccination and the variant." https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/15/long-covid-symptoms-flu-cold along with: "A new study based on 4,605 participants in the Michigan COVID-19 Recovery Surveillance Study shows that the prevalence of long COVID symptoms at 30 and 90 days post-infection was 43% to 58% lower among adults who were fully vaccinated before infection."

The Australia survey says about 3% of those with long COVID reported significant impairments a year later. The U.S. CDC survey says about 20% of those with Long COVID (defined as systems lasting at least 3 months post infection) reported "significant activity limitations" when surveyed. That's quite a big difference between those two data points. Also worth noting the closing comment in the OP report from the Guardian re the Queensland survey: "Prof Jeremy Nicholson, the director of the Australian National Phenome Centre at Murdoch University, said the question of whether long Covid is unique “cannot be simply answered in this work”. “The study is observational, based on reported symptoms with no physiological or detailed functional follow-up data. Without laboratory pathophysiological assessment of individual patients, it is impossible to say that this is indistinguishable from flu-related or any other post-viral syndrome,” Nicholson said." https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/15/long-covid-symptoms-flu-cold Let's see what happens when this guy presents the findings of his survey and what kind of responses ensue from other professionals in the field.

And meanwhile from the same media outlet one day after the OP report here: ‘Alarming’ rise in Americans with long Covid symptoms CDC data shows nearly 18m people could be living with long Covid even as health agency relaxes isolation recommendations Fri 15 Mar 2024 Some 6.8% of American adults are currently experiencing long Covid symptoms, according to a new survey from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), revealing an “alarming” increase in recent months even as the health agency relaxes Covid isolation recommendations, experts say. ... When the same survey was conducted in October, 5.3% of respondents were experiencing long Covid symptoms at the time. ... More than three-quarters of the people with long Covid right now say the illness limits their day-to-day activity, and about one in five say it significantly affects their activities [emphasis added] – an estimated 3.8 million Americans who are now experiencing debilitating illness after Covid infection. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/15/long-covid-symptoms-cdc From the U.S. CDC survey data cited in the above Guardian report: The percentage of significant activity limitations (‘yes, a lot’ response) from long COVID, among adults who are currently experiencing long COVID Source: The above U.S. survey used the definition of long COVID as symptoms lasting 3 months or longer, whereas the OP Australia survey asked about symptoms one year after infection.

Study's excess deaths related to COVID for the years 2020 and 2021, global and by selected countries: (includes deaths directly due to SARS-CoV-2 infection and those indirectly due to other social, economic, or behavioural changes associated with the pandemic). Global -- 15.9 million Thailand -- 63,000 United Kingdom -- 137,000 United States -- 1,021,000 Main findings "Our comprehensive set of updated demographic metrics indicate profound changes in the global health landscape during the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic relative to historical trends. Long-term trends of decreasing mortality were superseded by marked increases in mortality rates in age groups older than 15 years during 2020 and 2021; in contrast, mortality in children under 5 years remained largely unaffected by the pandemic and continued to decrease globally. Global life expectancy declined sharply during 2020 and 2021, reversing the longstanding trend of life expectancy improvement. Age- standardised rates demonstrated the pandemic was disproportionately severe in countries within sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, south Asia, and Latin America." https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736(24)00476-8

In a stunning reversal of decades of progress, global life expectancy at birth fell 1.6 years from 2019 to 2021, with 16 million of 131 million total deaths in 2020 and 2021 directly or indirectly attributable to COVID-19, reveals one of the most comprehensive studies of its kind published yesterday in The Lancet. The Global Burden of Diseases (GBD), Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2021 Collaborators analyzed trends in death rates and life expectancy in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations from 1950 to 2021, with a focus on the 2020-2021 COVID-19 pandemic period. ... About 131 million people around the world died from any cause in 2020-2021 combined, with 15.9 million more deaths than expected due to COVID-19 infection or pandemic-related social, economic, or behavioral factors, such as delays in seeking healthcare. ... Global life expectancy climbed 22.7 years from 1950 to 2021, from 49.0 to 71.7 years, but from 2019 to 2021, it dropped 1.6 years, reversing historical trends. Thirty-two countries (15.7%) saw increased life expectancy. (more) https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/2022-covid-pandemic-had-shaved-16-years-global-life-expectancy-research-reveals COVID-19 had greater impact on life expectancy than previously known, but child mortality rates continued to decline during the pandemic Published March 11, 2024 A new study published in The Lancet reveals never-before-seen details about staggeringly high mortality from the COVID-19 pandemic within and across countries. Places such as Mexico City, Peru, and Bolivia had some of the largest drops in life expectancy from 2019 to 2021. The research, which presents updated estimates from the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2021, provides the most comprehensive look at the pandemic’s toll on human health to date, indicating that global life expectancy dropped by 1.6 years from 2019 to 2021, a sharp reversal from past increases. ... “For adults worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a more profound impact than any event seen in half a century, including conflicts and natural disasters,” says co-first author Dr. Austin E. Schumacher, Acting Assistant Professor of Health Metrics Sciences at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. “Life expectancy declined in 84% of countries and territories during this pandemic, demonstrating the devastating potential impacts of novel pathogens.” (more) https://www.healthdata.org/news-events/newsroom/news-releases/covid-19-had-greater-impact-life-expectancy-previously-known

(CNN) --Americans may feel like they’re reliving 2020, with a general election rematch set for 2024. But while the politicians’ faces are the same, life is much different. On March 13, 2020, then-President Donald Trump declared a national emergency for the Covid-19 pandemic. No one knew at the time exactly how much life was about to change. Reading CNN’s coverage from that era, however, is like transporting oneself back to the time that so many people have either forgotten or want to block out. We had no idea what was coming. But it’s equally remarkable, precisely four years later, how Covid-19 has both changed American life and also faded to the background. (more) https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/13/politics/covid-anniversary-what-matters/index.html

SARS-CoV-2 viral fragments can remain in blood and tissue for more than a year after infection, which researchers at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) say could contribute to long COVID. In two studies, the researchers found SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the blood for up to 14 months post-infection and for more than 2 years in connective-tissue samples from 171 COVID-19 survivors without evidence of reinfection. The team obtained the samples from UCSF's Long COVID Tissue Bank, which houses samples donated by patients with and without long COVID. ... Michael Peluso, MD, who led the studies...added that more research is needed to determine whether the viral RNA contributes to long COVID and related events such as heart attack and stroke. His team is involved in clinical trials that are studying whether monoclonal antibodies or antiviral drugs can eliminate the RNA and benefit long-COVID patients. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/sars-cov-2-rna-can-persist-blood-tissue-may-play-role-long-covid-research-suggests Evidence of long-term infection Early in the pandemic, COVID-19 was thought to be a transient illness. But a growing number of patients, even those who had previously been healthy, continued having symptoms, such as, brain fog, digestive problems and vascular issues, for months or even years. The researchers looked at blood samples from 171 people who had been infected with COVID. Using an ultra-sensitive test for the COVID “spike” protein, which helps the virus break into human cells, the scientists found the virus was still present up to 14 months later in some people. Among those who were hospitalized for COVID, the likelihood of detecting the COVID antigens was about twice as high as it was for those who were not. It was also higher for those who reported being sicker, but were not hospitalized. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1036945

Five-year Mucosal Immunity in human Coronavirus Challenge (MusiCC) project will be led by Imperial College London An international consortium of researchers specialising in human challenge studies is embarking on a $57 million project to develop advanced, virus-blocking coronavirus vaccines that could stop SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses from infecting people in the first place. Led by Imperial College London and co-funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe Programme and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the consortium of more than a dozen scientific teams and organisations will begin by running trials to select particular viruses and identify the best conditions under which to safely induce infection in healthy volunteers. Researchers at multiple clinical research facilities will use a selected virus to try to infect healthy volunteers who have received an experimental vaccine. Unlike traditional vaccines which are injected into muscle, these experimental vaccines will be inhaled into the lungs or sprayed in the nose and are designed to induce a type of protection known as mucosal immunity, which scientists believe could be the key to stopping onward transmission of coronaviruses. (more) https://www.biospectrumindia.com/news/57/24361/international-consortium-embarks-on-57-m-project-to-test-inhaled-nasal-vaccines-against-viral-infection.html "As the lead and convener of the consortium, Imperial will work with all MusiCC partners, including, for example, the University of Antwerp’s Vaccinopolis in Belgium, to establish human challenge models that can be used in multiple trial sites. The trials will test potential mucosal vaccine candidates against betacoronaviruses – the sub-family of coronaviruses that includes the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, several seasonal viruses that cause common colds, and the MERS coronavirus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. Using harmonised standard operating procedures, the trials will take place across several sites in the UK, Europe, the United States and Singapore and will each involve a small group of young, healthy volunteers. In the challenge trial, volunteers will first receive either a dose of an investigational vaccine designed to provide mucosal coronavirus immunity or placebo before being intentionally exposed to a calibrated dose of SARS-CoV-2." https://cepi.net/global-consortium-plans-coordinated-human-challenge-studies-hunt-transmission-blocking-coronavirus

It's interesting that this Saimai Survive organization and the activist behind it are seemingly in the news almost every day lately, representing a succession of clients who typically have gotten nowhere in trying to deal with the Thai police going thru the regular channels. If memory serves, the recent cases have included alleged rape victims, victims of wrongdoing by police, victims of botched plastic surgery jobs where the police seemed unwilling to act, cases where minors have been abused, and on and on and on... All Saimai Survive examples below, and often until recently consisting of the organization and the victimized party/parties presenting their plea via press conferences to Deputy National Police Chief Hakparn (aka Big Joke). https://aseannow.com/topic/1320341-teenage-thai-girl-accuses-tattoo-artist-of-sexual-assault/ https://aseannow.com/topic/1318564-disturbing-behaviour-of-police-officer-who-raped-minor-exposed-by-another-student/ https://aseannow.com/topic/1319421-thai-resort-owner-allegedly-drugs-attacks-rapes-party-entertainer/ https://aseannow.com/topic/1315547-top-media-influencer-claims-that-chinese-men-target-thai-women-for-love-in-what-she-calls-‘son-hunting’/ https://aseannow.com/topic/1312760-fortune-teller-tricks-thai-woman-into-sex-and-14-million-baht-loss/

Then Krungthai has this newly added language in their fees schedule regarding Dynamic Currency Conversion not abroad, but when someone wants to use a foreign VISA or MasterCard at their bank here in Thailand: https://krungthai.com/Download/rateFee/RateFeeDownload_4801242_67_E.pdf (page 30 of the above PDF file) This above in purple seems to be a new category of fee for the bank regarding DCC, but seems separate from the fees discussed in the OP news report here, since those pertain to using the Thai bank cards outside of Thailand, not domestically.

As an example of what I said above about Thai banks' longstanding practice of charging foreign currency conversion fees when their cards are used outside of Thailand, here's an excerpt from Krungthai Bank's current fees schedule regarding using their debit cards in foreign countries: https://krungthai.com/Download/rateFee/RateFeeDownload_4801242_67_E.pdf (page 29 of the above PDF file)

'Fraid not re "not common anymore"... The foreign currency/foreign use fees still tend to be the common/default practice at banks in both the U.S. and the U.K. The financial institutions that do NOT charge such fees are far and away the exception, not the rule. Examples: https://www.usnews.com/banking/articles/foreign-transaction-fees-by-bank This chart below is older and for U.K. credit cards, but you get the picture: https://wise.com/gb/blog/non-sterling-transaction-fee

DCC, as implemented here in Thailand, was always an "optional" ripoff... As in, the customer using a foreign card in Thailand had to be given the option of either agreeing to it or declining it. And the DCC meant not a flat fee surcharge, but instead a special lower exchange rate (higher price) with the end price being displayed in the currency of one's home country card instead of in baht. If the customer refused/declined DCC for the transaction, it then would be charged in Thai baht at the standard, no surcharge price. I don't see anything optional about what the Thai banks are talking about here. Rather than DCC, what they're doing actually seems instead to be what's generally called a "foreign currency conversion fee." Which, a lot of western banks impose a surcharge of 3% or more for when using their cards outside the bank's home country.

I'm perplexed by what's going on with the OP report... because... as you suggest in your comment... It's been my experience that at least several of the major Thai banks (and probably most all, because they tend to have mirror policies) already have long been charging foreign currency conversion fees when the Thai bank cards are used outside of Thailand. My Thai wife just returned from a business trip to a foreign country. She checked with her major Thai bank before she left home here, and was told there'd be a 2.5% surcharge for whatever ATM withdrawals or purchases she would have done outside Thailand with her Thai bank debit card. And AFAIK, it's been like that for a long time, because I remember checking long ago what would happen if I ever tried to use my Thai bank debit card during travel back to my home country, and got the exact same answer.

Thailand MoPH Weekly COVID report for Feb. 25 - Mar. 2, 2024: --462 new COVID hospitalizations, down 25 from the prior week --2 new COVID deaths, down 1 from the prior week --263 current COVID patients hospitalized in serious condition, down 25 from the prior week (dark purple) --91 current COVID patients hospitalized requiring intubation/ventilation to breathe, down 20 from the prior week (light purple) (cumulative figures are COVID new hospitalizations (4,661) & deaths (48) since the start of the current year) https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main