GroveHillWanderer

They only changed that because too many people were (possibility deliberately) misconstruing "immunity" to mean "sterilizing immunity" - which it does not mean, and should never have been taken to mean. As Dr. Ryan Langlois, a microbiology and immunology professor at the University of Minnesota points out in the AP fact-checking article below, earlier CDC definitions did not always use the word "immunity" (though later ones did). CDC definition of a vaccine

A vaccine is simply a medical preparation that exposes the recipient to antigens from a known disease-causing pathogen, thereby stimulating an immune system response. Ideally yes, a vaccine would confer sterilizing immunity meaning a person would not become infected on exposure to the relevant pathogen but that is not a requirement for something to be called a vaccine. Perhaps the most easily recognised example of this are the flu vaccines that many people get every year. They do not provide 100% protection against catching the flu either - by they are still vaccines. All a product needs to do to qualify as a vaccine is what I laid out in the first paragraph above. So by what measure or logic, is a CoVid-19 vaccine "not a true vaccine"?

No, you could not. As already explained by several people, to keep your extension of permit to stay valid, you must get a re-entry permit before you go, otherwise your permit to stay automatically ends when you leave. They actually put a stamp in your passport now, when you get an extension, that tells you this. It says: Otherwise, on returning without either a re-entry permit (or a new, valid, longer term visa issued while you were away) you would only have been stamped in for 30 days visa exempt (assuming you were eligible).

Firstly, I don't know what your process for getting a re-entry is, but as far as I'm concerned it's absolutely no hassle whatsoever. I just get one automatically as part of the yearly extension process. Even if I didn't, it would still only be a simple five minute process at my nearest Immigration office (admittedly I'm lucky in that it's only five minutes from my house). Maybe I'm not understanding the situation correctly with the OP or maybe they aren't (I'm not sure) but for me the re-entry permit is highly useful if not absolutely critical. Without a re-entry permit, if you're on a yearly extension of permission to stay (and I don't know why else you'd even be thinking about one) you would lose your extension - as others have pointed out it would be automatically voided. On returning, would only get a 30-day visa exempt entry. Then if you wanted to stay long-term again, it would mean starting again from scratch by converting to an O visa - which to me represents a much bigger hassle than getting a simple re-entry permit before leaving. The scrapping of the TM6 and lack of need to report on returning have nothing at all to do with the reasons for getting a re-entry permit, which is to preserve the validity of your permission to stay. Note: For some reason, my replies keep getting changed to bold text half way through. Not sure why. I could go back and retype but it doesn't seem worth the effort.

No - for herd immunity to work, it requires that immunity - whether naturally or vaccine-acquired, stop transmission somewhere around 95% of the time (or more). This is known as sterilizing immunity. As has become glaringly obvious however, neither having CoVid-19 nor being vaccinated against it, gives rise to sterilizing immunity. As Khunper pointed out, it is much more likely to be like colds and flu where relatively large proportions of the population will get infected every year - and possibly even several times a year. Any chance of herd immunity started to recede with the Delta variant, and the chances have only diminished further with subsequent variants. Now, with the increased transmissibility and immune evasiveness of Omicron and especially the BA.4 and BA.5 variants, the prospect of herd immunity is really only a distant memory.

Except that they kind of are (though not completely) since they imply that no-one tried to intervene, whereas someone did. On hearing the cries, his uncle went to try and stop the beating, but unfortunately, "The group then reportedly took the boy away on a motorcycle ..." He was later returned, but was already dead.

I've read through that report and I don't see anything in it that shows excess mortality at +83% for the 25-54 age group. I did find a Reuters Fact Check that documents false claims circulating on social media about an 84% rise in excess mortality for 25-44 year-olds, though. Is that related to what you're claiming? Fact Check-No evidence that people aged 25-44 experienced an 84% increase in excess mortality

Google Maps and Tom Tom both saying it's still closed and to go via Nakhon Pathom.

Does anyone know what the latest traffic situation is? We're due to drive to Suvarnabhumi airport from Hua Hin today and Google is saying 3h 48 min avoiding "road closures on route 35.” (normally takes less than 3 hours). Anyone driven that way this morning? Is it still closed?

Actually it was Karl Marx who said it, although he did say it in reference to Hegel. The actual words (in translation) are: The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. Karl Marx 1852

No country (as far as I'm aware) gives unlimited guarantees on bank deposits. According to the Australian Securities and Investment Commission website, in Australia: Australian Government guaranteed deposits seal So if you had $750,000 in an Australian bank, only a third of it would be guaranteed.

The UK is on the list of "green" countries for which no Covid checks are carried out by the French, so that is definitely not a factor. French government Covid information Brexit is the only reason that there is a need for passport controls and so it clearly has everything to do with Brexit.

You can also pay Electricity bills (PEA or MEA) using True Money Wallet or Rabbit Line Pay, if you have them.

It's not really the EU punishing Brits though, is it? It's the EU sticking to the agreement negotiated with the UK (and which the UK signed off on) of ending freedom of movement between the EU and the UK. I get the distinct impression some people thought this would be a one way process - it's as if they thought the UK would be able to stop free movement of EU citizens into the UK but UK citizens would keep their complete freedom of movement into EU countries. This was never going to be the case, these kinds of restrictions are an inevitable consequence of no longer being a member state of the EU. You can't cancel your membership of an exclusive club and expect to still enjoy all the same benefits that you had when you were a member. It just doesn't work that way.

That's not the mortality rate according to sources like the CDC and WHO. They put the mortality rate at between 1 and 10% depending on the clade. Monkeypox outbreak poses ‘moderate risk’ to global public health

If you're using the app, it's under the Lazazda wallet.

Those were simpler times. Everybody was a lot more relaxed about immigration back then - it wasn't till a while afterwards that the politicians made it into an issue. France wasn't particularly bothered about how long UK citizens stayed there at that time - I used to go over and stay for up to six months at a time without any issue whatsoever. I'm sure I could easily have stayed longer if I'd wanted. Other countries in Europe were similar, as far as I recall. Now immigration is a big issue pretty much everywhere, so there are many more checks and controls than there used to be, pretty much everywhere.

I use the Kasikorn Bank app also. You can pay manually, or schedule an automatic payment whereby it will deduct whatever the billed amount is each month, on the date of your choosing.

I just wanted people to be aware that just because they're not in what might be considered the high risk group currently in Western countries, doesn't mean their risk level is zero. For instance, this guy is reported in Thai PBS articles to have had sexual contact with a number of women while in Thailand which means there may be a risk of catching it from intimate contact of a heterosexual nature in this country. Thai police searching for monkeypox-infected Nigerian man

That's only in this latest outbreak in (mostly) Western countries. Historically, and in the areas in Africa where it's endemic, that's not the case.

Monkeypox potentially clears up by itself but not necessarily. For one thing, it's fatal in between 1% and 10% of cases, depending on which clade it is. Monkeypox - WHO info page

Just to correct myself, and for the avoidance of doubt, a number of articles in the Phuket News and Thai PBS World seem to establish fairly categorically that he has actually been in the country since last October.

If you're talking about going straight (rather than turning left) then it's not allowed. The people who do this are breaking the law.

Looking at the Phuket News reports, they do seem pretty definitive. Which makes it all the more puzzling that the OP here (and the Pattaya News article it was based on) were reporting him as being recently arrived. I stand corrected.

Probably not, because (unless all the official reports are wrong) he only recently arrived from Nigeria.