TallGuyJohninBKK

Independent is one thing. But credible is an equally important thing... The people you're talking about, in large part, are those with extended and documented histories of peddling COVID and COVID vaccine misinformation. That's why they're for the most part confined to the gutters of the internet. If there was some "political" narrative on COVID vaccines that can't be crossed, then of course the researchers here wouldn't have studied and reported on issues with the mRNA vaccines. But of course, that's exactly what they did, disproving your politics assertion.

Nice try.... Your attempted analogy above might hold, IF it were just the vaccine manufacturers with a vested financial interest in the product who are making the claim. But that's not the case here. The authors of this research on COVID vaccines are independent and in fact are reporting on details not found by the vaccine manufacturers. And it's not just those independent researchers making the claim, but other independent scientists who have reviewed their research and come to the same conclusions -- COVID vaccines are safe and have saved many millions of lives: Such as from the OP Science article above: "Rolf Marschalek, a molecular biologist at Goethe University Frankfurt, says he would like to see more evidence before he is convinced that frameshifts are a significant issue for modified mRNAs. He agrees, however, that the new work is not a reason to worry about the safety of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. “It’s a much bigger problem that people are underestimating the Omicron variant and are not getting the updated booster,” he says." And from the BBC report above, quoting one of the lead researchers on the research here: "Lead researcher Dr James Thaventhiran, from the MRC Toxicology Unit at the University of Cambridge, said: "Research has shown beyond doubt that mRNA vaccination against Covid-19 is safe. "Billions of doses of the Moderna and Pfizer mRNA vaccines have been safely delivered, saving lives worldwide."

Very sad to hear this news.... Khun Nopakun set an example for how the Thai government SHOULD communicate with its expat community in English. He did an excellent job with the regular EN language COVID briefings during very trying times, and was a rarity when it came to the Thai government communicating clearly to expats on important matters. I dealt with him personally several times, and he always was helpful and articulate -- a rarity among government officials here.

June 15, 2021 "There is no proof that spike proteins created in response to mRNA vaccines are harmful to the body, scientists have told Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-vaccine-safe/fact-check-no-evidence-spike-proteins-from-covid-19-vaccines-are-toxic-idUSL2N2NX1J6/ ...

Really? Because I'm not seeing or reading that from anyone credible in the field (and that includes the study's own authors), your unsourced claim notwithstanding. From the Science report above: 'Other scientists say there is nothing alarming about the new work, reported today in Nature, and agree that it could help improve the design of mRNA treatments still under development." And from the BBC report above: "Existing mRNA vaccines are effective and safe, they [the study authors] say." And from the study authors themselves in their report: "there are no adverse outcomes reported from mistranslation of mRNA-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in humans" And lastly from the same Science report: "There is no evidence that these mistakes compromise the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines, which saved millions of lives..." AND "The Cambridge team emphasized at a press briefing that its work doesn’t indicate COVID-19 vaccines are unsafe."

Here's the U.S. CDC's breakdown of cumulative actual U.S. COVID deaths by age group. Lots of COVID deaths of people in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, in addition to the oldest age groups. source link Percent of U.S. COVID deaths by age group (partial list from above): 30-39 -- 1.72%, 19,872 deaths 40-49 -- 4.01%, 46,250 deaths 50-64 -- 17.62%, 203,123 deaths 65-74 -- 22.35%, 257,640 deaths 75 and above -- 53.54%, 617,187 deaths Nearly half of the total U.S. COVID deaths have been in people age 74 and younger.

Here's what the real world says about Ioannidis and his COVID numbers: https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/coronavirus-excess-deaths-estimates

Perhaps Ionnidis here should have taken a lesson here from his own past comments on published research: Why Most Published Research Findings Are False John P. A. Ioannidis Published online 2005 "There is increasing concern that in modern research, false findings may be the majority or even the vast majority of published research claims [6–8]. However, this should not be surprising. It can be proven that most claimed research findings are false." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1182327/ And yet this same guy keeps publishing his own nonsense.

Well well, John Ioannidis (one of the paper's authors here) is back with more of his dubious projections... This is the same man who predicted back in 2020 that COVID might result in 10,000 total deaths in the U.S. -- when of course the world ended up at 7 million official and up to 20 million or more estimated, including 1.1 million official COVID deaths in the U.S. So hey, he was only off by a factor of about 100 -- 10,000 projected deaths vs. 1.1 million actual ones. March 17, 2020 article by Ioannidis: "The current coronavirus disease, Covid-19, has been called a once-in-a-century pandemic. But it may also be a once-in-a-century evidence fiasco." ... "If we assume that case fatality rate among individuals infected by SARS-CoV-2 is 0.3% in the general population — a mid-range guess from my Diamond Princess analysis — and that 1% of the U.S. population gets infected (about 3.3 million people), this would translate to about 10,000 deaths." https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/17/a-fiasco-in-the-making-as-the-coronavirus-pandemic-takes-hold-we-are-making-decisions-without-reliable-data/ This guy has been so wrong about the pandemic it's not even funny.... And it also brought scorn on his career: From a Dec. 2020 profile of the guy: "But his critics say the Stanford doctor is violating the principles of intellectual rigor he has spent much of his career espousing — refusing to admit his mistaken judgments and recklessly lending a scientific imprimatur to forces that defy public-health directives for irrational reasons." AND "The predictions of a second wave Ioannidis had told Fox News viewers not to trust had proved right. The 10,000 American lives he said might be lost to the pandemic were vanishing almost every week." https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2020/12/16/john-ioannidis-coronavirus-lockdowns-fox-news/

Indeed, as they further explained: "It also finds the link between school closures and academic setbacks was “not so direct.” A survey of students found about half faced closures of more than three months, but it didn’t always lead to lower scores. There was “no clear difference” in performance trends between countries that had limited closures, including Iceland and Sweden, and those with longer closures, including Brazil and Ireland, according to the report."

"WASHINGTON (AP) — Students around the world suffered historic setbacks in reading and math during the COVID-19 pandemic, with declines in test scores so widespread that the United States climbed in global rankings simply by falling behind less sharply, a new study finds. The state of global education was given a bleak appraisal in the Program for International Student Assessment, the first study to examine the academic progress of students in dozens of countries during the pandemic. Released Tuesday, it finds the average international math score fell by the equivalent of three-quarters of a year of learning. Reading scores fell by the equivalent of half a year." (more) https://apnews.com/article/pisa-international-test-scores-pandemic-4ce5780904f2e3f6f16af57912242224

Rising COVID cases there are akin to pouring gasoline on an already smouldering fire in the health system.

There are plenty of members on here who repeatedly post that there is no risk from COVID out in the world and/or they believe they personally have no risk from COVID, mountains of evidence notwithstanding. Some even deny that the COVID virus really exists. Also, the poster above wasn't commenting to you, but rather, a different COVID denier / dismisser.

Covid study: mRNA vaccines could be fine-tuned 6th December 2023 "The revolutionary messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology in some Covid vaccines given to millions of people could be fine-tuned for even greater accuracy, UK scientists say. Genetic instructions in the jab could be tweaked to avoid a harmless tiny "slip" sometimes seen as the body reads the code, the Medical Research Council team suggest. Existing mRNA vaccines are effective and safe, they say." (more) https://www.bbc.com/news/health-67625180

But some folks still wanna go outside in the pouring rain without wearing a raincoat or carrying an umbrella... Go figure....

From the OP: "a range of viral and bacterial infections all back in circulation, with COVID-19 still chief among them." AND "COVID, meanwhile, is still circulating widely. From Nov. 21 to 28, the number of COVID-19 patients in hospital increased, the latest national figures show. Public Health Ontario's respiratory virus dashboard currently shows 20 per cent test positivity for COVID, far higher than any other viral threat."

I'm saying I choose to take reasonable precautions to protect my health, and wearing a high-quality face mask when outside and among others is not unreasonable for me, especially vs. the risks from COVID. If you noticed, there really weren't any COVID threads or news reports regarding Thailand cases in the past few months... because weekly new COVID hospitalizations were in the 100s.... But now suddenly in the past two months, that weekly number has skyrocketed to more than 500 per week. For me, a common sense person would take notice of that kind of change and react accordingly.

Except when you keep getting reinfected because people don't take enough precautions: Repeat COVID infections appear to predispose patients to disease, death Repeat SARS-CoV-2 infections confer significant additional risk of adverse multi-organ medical conditions and poor outcomes such as hospitalization, diabetes, kidney disease, mental illness, death, and diseases affecting the lungs, heart, brain, blood, and musculoskeletal systems, suggests a study published yesterday in Nature Medicine. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/covid-19-scan-nov-11-2022

And 1,000+ people are dying from COVID every week in the U.S. right now, along with 300+ more per week in the U.K., with little mask wearing occurring there despite pleas from the public health authorities. Is that what you're trying to argue should be the examples to be followed? https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/deaths?areaType=overview&areaName=United Kingdom https://aseannow.com/topic/1313819-spike-in-covid-cases-as-1000-americans-die-every-week/

Immunity from prior infections is temporary and waning over time, and even more so when the virus variant from a person's original infection ends up being very different from the latest COVID variants circulating in the world. Past infections aren't any kind of ticket to COVID-free futures. But prior COVID infections do come with a potential long list of both short-term and long-term health risks and complications. Repeat COVID infections appear to predispose patients to disease, death Repeat SARS-CoV-2 infections confer significant additional risk of adverse multi-organ medical conditions and poor outcomes such as hospitalization, diabetes, kidney disease, mental illness, death, and diseases affecting the lungs, heart, brain, blood, and musculoskeletal systems, suggests a study published yesterday in Nature Medicine. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/covid-19-scan-nov-11-2022 COVID-19 can cause brain shrinkage, memory loss - study "March 8 (Reuters) - COVID-19 can cause the brain to shrink, reduce grey matter in the regions that control emotion and memory, and damage areas that control the sense of smell, an Oxford University study has found. The scientists said that the effects were even seen in people who had not been hospitalised with COVID, and whether the impact could be partially reversed or if they would persist in the long term needed further investigation." https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/covid-19-can-cause-brain-shrinkage-memory-loss-study-2022-03-08/

The latest from the CDC... the COVID trends in general are UP! And weekly COVID deaths remain above 1,000 per week, as per the OP report. Rising Emergency Dept visits and hospitalizations for COVID now usually translate into rising numbers of COVID deaths in future weeks. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home

The many studies that support masking include studies done in the real world reflecting real world experience.

Wearing face masks to prevent COVID and wearing helmets for safety while riding motorcycles are kind of akin to walking and chewing gum. The more sensible among us can manage to do both, even at the same time if desired.

I guess that's why, as RedPhoenix correctly reiterated above, I included the following details and CDC explanation of the blue versus gray sections of their COVID deaths graphic above. Even bolded it for the reading challenged: "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."