TallGuyJohninBKK

Experts say severe muscle damage, mitochondrial problems and microclots may explain impact of working out "Many people with long Covid feel tired, unwell and in pain for lengthy periods after exercise, and researchers say they now know why. Experts say they have evidence that biological changes are to blame, such as severe muscle damage, mitochondrial problems and the presence of microclots in the body. ... Long Covid is thought to affect about 2 million people in the UK alone, and many experience a worsening of symptoms for weeks after a single bout of exercise." (more) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/04/people-with-long-covid-should-avoid-intense-exercise-say-researchers

"66.5% of [U.S.] bankruptcies are caused directly by medical expenses, making it the leading cause for bankruptcy." "17% of adults with health care debt declared bankruptcy or lost their home because of it." "40% of Americans fear they won’t be able to afford health care in the upcoming year." https://www.retireguide.com/retirement-planning/risks/medical-bankruptcy-statistics/ The U.S. health care system is broken in practical terms for many Americans. The Commonwealth Fund rankings for health care among western countries that @placeholder posted above tell the story. The ACA program is at least a partial attempt at trying to make U.S. healthcare more accessible and affordable.

Not so fresh... Not so clean, not in Bangkok at this time of the year: https://aqicn.org/station/thailand/bangkok/chulalongkorn-hospital/ AND The cost of clean air in Thailand ... "Air pollution increases the risk of many non-communicable diseases, such as ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer. In April 2022, PM2.5 concentration in Thailand's air was four times higher than the WHO annual air quality guideline value. This means the Thai population breaths in air that is too polluted, and which will affect their health. In 2016, it was estimated that over 33,000 deaths in Thailand were attributable to ambient air pollution." https://www.who.int/thailand/news/detail/08-06-2022-the-cost-of-clean-air-in-thailand

COVID vaccines saved 20M lives in 1st year, scientists say June 24, 2022 "Nearly 20 million lives were saved by COVID-19 vaccines during their first year, but even more deaths could have been prevented if international targets for the shots had been reached, researchers reported Thursday. ... The researchers used data from 185 countries to estimate that vaccines prevented 4.2 million COVID-19 deaths in India, 1.9 million in the United States, 1 million in Brazil, 631,000 in France and 507,000 in the United Kingdom." https://apnews.com/article/covid-science-health-england-54d29ae3af5c700f15d704c14ee224b5

Heart problems from vaccines are extremely rare. Heart problems from COVID itself are not Conspiracy theorists have been exaggerating the link between COVID vaccines and heart problems. Here are the facts Published July 27, 2023 ... "Martinez also pointed out that COVID infections themselves are far more likely to cause heart problems than myocarditis caused by COVID vaccines, which is an extremely rare side effect. ... The truth is that COVID infections are quite dangerous to the human heart. A study last year by the Department of Veterans Affairs found that people reinfected with COVID were twice as likely to either die or have a heart attack as people only infected once." ... "Because nothing can be designed with 100 percent safety, it's true that vaccines can sometimes cause injuries — but the side effects of COVID vaccines are extremely rare and often manageable. On the other hand, the virus itself is far more often linked to numerous conditions from diabetes, schizophrenia, Parkinson's, the condition known as "long COVID" and of course, heart problems." https://www.salon.com/2023/07/27/heart-problems-from-vaccines-are-extremely-rare-heart-problems-from-itself-are-not/

The history of vaccines in general is that any major side effect have typically surfaced within very short time periods after vaccination, as occurred with the AZ vaccine, unlike the usage of some drugs where side effects have surfaced relatively long after. And now three years after the COVID vaccines rollout, we're long past that stage. Three things to know about the long-term side effects of COVID vaccines July 06, 2021 ... "But what makes vaccine experts such as Goepfert confident that COVID vaccines are safe in the long term? We have all seen billboards and TV infomercials from law firms seeking people harmed by diet drugs or acid-reflux medicines for class-action lawsuits.... "There are several reasons, actually. Vaccines, given in one- or two-shot doses, are very different from medicines that people take every day, potentially for years. And decades of vaccine history — plus data from more than a billion people who have received COVID vaccines starting last December — provide powerful proof that there is little chance that any new dangers will emerge from COVID vaccines." https://www.uab.edu/news/health/item/12143-three-things-to-know-about-the-long-term-side-effects-of-covid-vaccines We're now up to 13+ billion COVID vaccine doses worldwide since the start of the pandemic, and nothing of the past three years of COVID vaccine use has contradicted the facts explained above.

In reality that claim stood up pretty well in reality for the vaccine's performance against the original COVID variant. The fact that subsequent mutations of COVID later made the vaccine less effective in preventing infections doesn't change that. Published online 2021 Dec 30. Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine effectiveness against Sars-Cov-2 infection: Findings from a large observational study in Israel "BNT162b2 was found effective for the total population group for infection, hospitalization and mortality, with adjusted VE of 93·0% (CI:92·6–93·4%), 93·4% (CI:91·9–94·7%) and 91·1% (CI:86·5–94·1%) respectively. VE for infection was lower for participants aged 75 and over, and for those with hypertension, diabetes and obesity. This study strengthens the evidence that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccination is effective in preventing infection, hospitalization and mortality. ... "The results presented here measured vaccine effectiveness at a time when the British (alpha) variant was predominant in Israel. After implementing the national vaccination drive, infection rates dropped to very low levels (Leshem and Wilder-Smith, 2021), until the introduction of the delta variant in Israel." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8717697/

The example you cited above with Pfizer was many years back (almost 15 years ago) and primarily had to do with their marketing claims involving off-label uses for some drugs -- all of that having absolutely nothing to do with the established track record of COVID vaccines.

Pfizer doesn't grant approval of its own vaccines. National governments do, and they are responsible for assessing the safety, risks and benefits of medical treatments such as vaccines. And billions of doses later with Pfizer, the established track record of benefit is pretty good. "Evidence from the more than 13 billions of vaccine doses [of all types] given worldwide shows that COVID-19 vaccines have a very good safety profile in all age groups. The benefits of the approved vaccines far outweigh the possible risks." ... "As for all medicines, reports of medical events after COVID-19 vaccination (suspected side effects) are collected and continuously evaluated by the authorities. These evaluations show that in most cases the medical events were not caused by the vaccine." ... "False and misleading information about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines on social media often exaggerates the frequency and severity of side effects. Misinformation also wrongly attributes unrelated medical events to the vaccines." --International Coalition of Medicines Regulatory Authorities (ICMRA) https://icmra.info/drupal/strategicinitiatives/vaccines/safety_statement

The AZ vaccine was never approved or EUA'd in the U.S. in the first place, so there was nothing to withdraw there. AZ was withdrawn in the U.K., because it had a very rare side effect involving blood clotting -- too rare to surface in AZ's clinical trials involving tens of thousands of people -- that began to surface after its subsequent widespread use in the U.K. and Europe. And that use was, as a result, pretty quickly suspended. And as a result, now after 3 years and 12+ billion total COVID vaccine doses later, it's the mRNA vaccines that remain in predominant and widespread use, and with an establish track record of very rare side effects that are far outweighed by the risks from COVID, according to public health authorities around the world. https://www.tga.gov.au/news/media-releases/icmra-statement-safety-covid-19-vaccines

A vaccine is no longer experimental once it has been formally approved by the jurisdiction country, as occurred around the world, including here in Thailand, with the original roll-out of the vaccines. In the U.S., the initial use of the vaccines was done under the established "Emergency Use Authorization" declaration, followed by formal approval: First Pfizer: FDA Approves First COVID-19 Vaccine Approval Signifies Key Achievement for Public Health August 23, 2021 "Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine has been known as the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, and will now be marketed as Comirnaty (koe-mir’-na-tee), for the prevention of COVID-19 disease in individuals 16 years of age and older." https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-covid-19-vaccine And then Moderna shortly thereafter: FDA Takes Key Action by Approving Second COVID-19 Vaccine January 31, 2022 "Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a second COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine has been known as the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine; the approved vaccine will be marketed as Spikevax for the prevention of COVID-19 in individuals 18 years of age and older." https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-fda-takes-key-action-approving-second-covid-19-vaccine That's why, I would imagine, the use of the term "experimental vaccine" may have been considered misleading and inaccurate.

No, it's just more of your non-credible, entirely unsourced and unsubstantiated conspiracy theory ramblings as illustrated by your comment above -- "the truth is coming out," "crime against humanity," "forces of censorship," etc. And no, this very site never flatly banned the term "vaccine injury" -- especially if the cited reference had any credible source, which typically, they did not. Because most so-inclined posters here rarely cite any credible source to substantiate anything that they're posting.

And yet you felt compelled to post relatively meaningless statistics above from Worldometers in your attempt to minimize the real and current extent of the ongoing COVID presence in the world. The most credible COVID statistics out there these days are new COVID hospitalizations and deaths, since those are more widely and credibly tracked and reported. But as the WHO notes, even those aren't being publicly reported in many places. Which is the reason we have this: The pandemic’s true death toll https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/coronavirus-excess-deaths-estimates

As the WHO repeats in every single update they post now, many countries -- including Thailand -- have simply stopped counting and reporting COVID cases/infections -- which renders the remaining numbers that are reported vast undercounts to the reality and bigger picture at the global level. "Globally, during the 28-day period from 20 November to 17 December 2023, 105 countries [out of about 200 total] reported COVID-19 cases and 50 countries reported COVID-19 deaths. Note that this does not reflect the actual number of countries where cases or deaths are occurring, as many countries have stopped or changed frequency of reporting." "From the available data, the number of reported cases has increased while deaths have decreased during the 28-day period, with over 850 000 new cases and over 3000 new deaths, an increase of 52% and a decrease of 8%, respectively, compared to the previous 28 days (23 October to 19 November 2023). ... "Trends in the number of reported new cases and deaths should be interpreted with caution due to decreased testing and sequencing, alongside reporting delays in many countries." https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/covid-19-epidemiological-update---22-december-2023

1. COVID vaccines are only effective against COVID, and not the flu, RSV or any other number of seasonal illnesses circulating right now that are making people sick. 2. Much of the Thai population, at this point, has at best two original COVID vaccine doses given up to two years ago, and nothing since. And about 20% of the Thai population never got any COVID vaccines at all... Which is not a recipe for comprehensive protection at the society level. Especially when doctors and public health agencies currently consider the definition of "fully vaccinated" to be at least THREE COVID vaccine doses. and many are recommending a fourth dose with the latest monovalent XBB-focused version. Lots of the Thai population never got that far, and the latest vaccine version being used in the U.S., U.K., and elsewhere isn't even available in Thailand thus far. https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main

The facts as posted and linked above still say COVID, even now, is worse than the flu: AND Data reported by the U.S. CDC for the latter part of December: "COVID was responsible for 3.3% of all deaths last week" "Across all age-groups, flu made up 0.5% of all the nation's deaths last week" https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/influenza-general/us-covid-markers-rise-flu-activity-intensifies

I think we've pretty well already sussed out that fact... But meanwhile, in the real world, the truth is, this time of year is the high season for a variety of respiratory illnesses, including COVID, the flu, RSV and others.... But that doesn't mean they're all the same and interchangeable with each other.

But more reliable than doing nothing, especially if you repeat the at-home type tests several times as generally recommended, or get an RT-PCR test from your doctor, which are very accurate. Or failing that, try to avoid making posts and claims about your supposed COVID symptoms when you don't really know you had COVID.

No, it's not... not even close: Data reported by the U.S. CDC for the latter part of December: "COVID was responsible for 3.3% of all deaths last week" "Across all age-groups, flu made up 0.5% of all the nation's deaths last week" https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/influenza-general/us-covid-markers-rise-flu-activity-intensifies AND https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/data-research/dashboard/illness-severity.html

So your comments above regarding your symptoms would seem to be based on your guess that what you have is COVID... And not on any real confirmation that what you have is actually COVID -- as opposed to a cold, the flu or who knows what else. Which renders you judgments above about the severity of your symptoms pretty much irrelevant to the discussion here of actual COVID.

I don't see anywhere in your above post where you indicated that you actually tested positive for COVID -- as opposed to coming down with any number of other possible maladies.

The U.S. COVID death count numbers cited above all involve either COVID being listed on the death certificate as the primary cause of death, or as a contributing cause. Getting run over by a bus wouldn't count in the U.S. Also, by the time people get to be older, almost everyone has some kind of comorbidity condition. But that doesn't change the facts when the attending doctor decides that COVID was the primary cause of death, or, a contributing cause among other factors. Likewise, the UK COVID death stats I posted above, as detailed on the source website, also only involve cases where the person's death certificate mentioned COVID-19 as the cause, or one of the causes.

There are rational, fact-based reasons to suspect Thailand's COVID death counts are on the low side, as I explained above, including the comparisons with the U.S. and the U.K..... But I have no basis to suggest how much of an undercount the official stats may be. "So yes, I believe Thailand's official single digit COVID death counts are suspect, especially considering the relatively lower levels of medical capability in the outlying, more rural areas where people may die at home and quickly be cremated, without any official judgment of cause ever being reached."

I believe, Thailand's reporting of COVID deaths is suspect as best. The health authorities here have previously publicly detailed a very narrow scope of what they'll consider a COVID death...basically focusing on respiratory problems, and excluding all the other various health problems that can be caused by COVID. If you look at a country with better medical infrastructure like the U.S. -- though not necessarily healthier -- you can see COVID currently generating these kinds of death tallies -- about 1,600 confirmed COVID deaths per week, meaning COVID was judged either as a primary or contributing cause. If you consider that Thailand has a population about one fourth the size of the U.S. and if the death rate was the same -- excluding variations in population age and other demographic characteristics -- that would yield about 300 - 400 COVID deaths per week here.... https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_weeklydeaths_select_00 In the UK, with a population about equal to that of Thailand, official COVID deaths right now have been running 200 - 300 per week. https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/deaths?areaType=overview&areaName=United Kingdom So yes, I believe Thailand's official single digit COVID death counts are suspect, especially considering the relatively lower levels of medical capability in the outlying, more rural areas where people may die at home and quickly be cremated, without any official judgment of cause ever being reached.

That COVID is continuing to sicken sizable numbers of people and kill a portion of those particularly among the elderly, in Thailand and around the world -- contrary to those who keep trying to deny those facts. And, regarding your comment above, that even in its current form, COVID is putting far more people in hospitals and killing more people than the flu does. Data reported by the U.S. CDC for the latter part of December: "COVID was responsible for 3.3% of all deaths last week" "Across all age-groups, flu made up 0.5% of all the nation's deaths last week" https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/influenza-general/us-covid-markers-rise-flu-activity-intensifies AND https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/data-research/dashboard/illness-severity.html