TravelerEastWest

is the bivalent for everyone now or only high risk groups such as over 60?

17 minutes ago, rattlesnake said:

2021-2022 rhetoric. This is 2023.

 

Neither me nor any of my unvaccinated acquaintances have caught Covid. Every single vaccinated person I know has caught it at least once. 

 

Let that sink in.

To start you might have had COVID without symptoms...

Are you and your non vac acquaintances healthy or in a high risk group?

Are your vaccinated friends going out more? Less healthy?

Endless questions could be asked to make sense of your experience...

Big question - are you saying it is a myth that unvaccinated people make up a very large percentage of those who get COVID and die or are seriously ill?

41 minutes ago, Danderman123 said:

This particular Covid wave will disappear like the rest.

 

The strategy is to limit infections, which then serves to reduce the chances of a nastier strain evolving. Every infected person serves as a biolab for Covid to evolve, so the fewer infected, the slower the virus evolves.

 

Covid Deniers and antivaxxers serve to promote infection, and thus assist the virus to evolve into possibly deadlier forms. They won't understand until its too late, and even then never comprehend the consequences of their actions. Just like Covid Deniers on their death beds claiming "its just the Flu".

Thank you, good post, I didn't understand till just now that aspect of bad strains developing...

18 hours ago, BangkokReady said:

....

 

No matter your experience, you must be able to see that foreign people are not considered to be particularly high in terms of social status in Thailand, and are often discriminated against or exploited by some Thais.  I feel like I haven't experienced this to the same extent in other countries that I have visited, which was the reason for my question.

Very politely I strongly disagree - Thais tend to respect people with money and most educated faring have money compared to Thai people...

2 hours ago, Eleftheros said:

How true that is.

 

There are still people who believe everything that governments, health bureaucrats and Big Pharma tell them, despite evidence to the contrary from a solid 3 years of hypocrisy, stupidity, false statements, and drooling nonsense emanating from governments and their tame health bureaucrats.

 

Even throwing a dart at a board would have been a better way to decide policy than the policy that was generally enacted.

 

As the 19th century UK prime minister William Lamb wisely observed: "What all the wise men promised, has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass."

Governments have lots of politicians working in them - and they often lie. I think most people know this. Bureaucrats often move slowly and make mistakes and occasionally lie again most people know this. Drug companies sometimes lie and get caught and pay fines but overall they help us again most people know this.

I was in Thailand during COVID so i don't know much about what the situation was in America but like Monday night quarter backing things can always be done better in retrospect. 

As for the overall picture that your words paint - no I don't agree and I don't know many people who would agree with you.

But actually I have only read a few of your recent posts so I don't know if you are anti vax did you take a vaccine? I took Moderna and Pfizer no side effects and no COVID yet those around me got COVID and some got very sick. Note I am in a high risk group so I would not consider not taking the vaccine...

Overall millions of lives were saved by the vaccines - exactly how many no-one knows for sure but millions roughly... again exactly how many millions is difficult to say and not important - many lives were saved.

Another option seems to be the Wallet but it is difficult to do the online signup as when I try to upload my ID the website takes a photo too fast...

4 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

All I know, is that throughout Latin America, I can be understood with my Spanish, despite how poor my grammar is. Even in places where the accents are very strong, they make a supreme effort, and their open minds and creative juice allows them to extrapolate and guess the meaning of what I am trying to convey. That is impossible for the Thai mind to perform. They simply don't have those creative faculties and if not pronounced nearly perfectly, their minds shut down 

Not completely correct about Thailand but correct with many people in Thailand who are not educated...

On 6/2/2023 at 2:06 PM, ThailandRyan said:

As I posted on another OP on Tuesday, the stepdaughter was sent home as well as the rest of her reduced class from school, as over half were out with Covid. She ended up with Covid later that day. Moving forward to today, we received a call about an hour ago from the stepdaughter who let us know that her father, her stepmother, Grandfather and Grandmother are all very sick with Covid.  In fact her Grandpa has been hospitalized as he is having a hard time breathing.  The step daughter sounds horrible still herself, she indicated she had a fever for the past 2 days but today it is gone. The hospital is seeing many new patients now she said, and Grandpa was moved ahead of the que as he needed oxygen. This is in the Sai Mai Area of Bangkok.  For those of you who think Covid is nothing and is not a problem, you better think again.  It does affect children as well.

Exactly.

Just saw the below photo which is on a form for ordering stamps from the post office using what looks like an office bank account?

Maybe this account could be used?

Thai Post free pickup service - how to pay online for the postage??

I send our ecommerce packages daily using registered airmail. My local post office is friendly and does a good job.

Recently they told me they have free pickup (5+ boxes).

Strangely the post office staff person who does the pickup told me I would transfer the money for postage online to his personal account and he would email a copy of the receipt after he paid at the post office.

This sounds strange...

Anyone know of a bettor way to pay officially online?

Thank you! 

11 hours ago, Pedrogaz said:

The answer is yes. I have had it medically confirmed insofar as one can. I saw a top neurologist at Bumrungrad and had a two MRIs there. There were 5 possibilities according to her....one was a stroke (ruled out by the MRI); one was long COVID or vaccine issue; third was early onset Alzheimers but unlikely as there are no plaques in the brain; forth was blockages in the arteries of the brain (again MRI confirmed this not to be the case); and the fifth is OSA (obstructive sleep apnea) which I have had for 20 years already, and so doesn't really fit with the timing for the onset of the symptoms. I bought a new CPAP machine to be on the safe side (60,000 baht).

 

The neurologist offered some more advanced tests (very expensive) for spike protein and the like...but given there is no effective treatment, I declined to have these as I pay out of my own pocket. What use is it to have the diagnosis and not any treatment.

 

I treat it myself with NAC (N-acetyl cysteine) which I read about on the internet....again I have not derived any significant benefit from the combined use of a better CPAP and the NAC.

 

My life has been destroyed at the age of 65.  

 

 

It sounds like a top neurologist said it could be long COVID unless I am misreading your post. Also it could be your sleep apnea and just a coincidence about the timing or early onset Alzheimers but not confirmed that it was the vaccine which made you sick.

So you have not confirmed it was the vaccine and it is quite possible it is asymptomatic COVID which turned into long COVID is this correct?

I am very sorry to hear that the NAC is not significantly making you better; and since you are taking it with the better CPAP it is quite possible that the better CPAP is helping you somewhat and that apnea is your problem. So in summary a number of unconfirmed possibilities if I understand you correctly...

On 9/19/2021 at 10:01 AM, Guderian said:

People should avoid getting boosters at the moment, but not because the benefits are unknown as the article implies, it's because it would be a very selfish thing to do if you've already had two shots while many people here have not even had one yet. It's far better that as many people as possible receive at least one dose of vaccine than that a select few get three doses (although I realise that the likes of Prayut and Anutin will already have their names down for a booster, lol).

Those in a high risk group are advised to get boosters... probably everyone should I dont see any shortage of the vaccine (for free) in Chiang mai maybe other places in Thailand?

Good question!

I also would like to now...

21 hours ago, The Fugitive said:

Or any other dealership. Anywhere. They are all ripoff merchants.

I have an Isuzu and go to the dealer in CBiang Mai over ten years just routine maintenance slightly higher than a small shop but much better work is done. They go by the book and use the correct parts.

Dealers are good and bad as are small shops...

8 hours ago, ChrisKC said:

Guests come and go! I am not a guest, I am resident as many of us here are for many years and whatever the politics are we are subject to them  and have to live with them.

That entitles us to comment on them, understanding as foreigners we can't change anything in the voting process!

"easy to come up with such a comment, if you don’t face hurdles like for example the non-existent pension system in Thailand which makes you fully dependent on your kids or you simply have to work until you die."

I work here and have lived here for more than 15 years - I respect your point of view but don't agree with you. We do not vote and have no rights to change Thailand at all. If your children are citizens when they come of age they can vote as they feel is correct.

Not sure what the work until you die comment meant normally we save and invest responsibly to have a retirement income. Unless you work as a volunteer or in a job that pays very lowly...

9 hours ago, burner2014 said:

Once you get a baby this house visit is waved by some immigrations though ???? just saying.

 

Most annoying invasion of your privacy in the whole process. 

I have two kids and never a visit - that could be it...

17 hours ago, CharlieH said:

Offices can and do vary, thats Thailand.

But in the instance of an extension based on Marriage, which my comment was based on. Your understanding is wrong. The paperwork and camera photo is done at immigration,as described.

Interesting I am talking about a marriage extension - still confused single photo camera work is done at the office and house/family photos are done at home (without immigration)

My paperwork preparation (including signing) is always done in the visa service office not at immigration this is a big part of what they are paid for - saving time . Maybe you mean the actual immigration office paperwork which is normally done by immigration staff?

18 hours ago, CharlieH said:

Based solely on my own experience, given that every page is stamped AFTER initial submission by the office, then handed back to you to print your full name and sign each and every piece. I don't see where an Agent in that process would any use at all. Of course others may have different story.

Maybe I am misunderstanding what an agent is?

I thought it was a visa service by people who simply prepare the documents and get you an expedited appointment so you don't waste time at immigration and don't have a house visit. Nothing to do with money in the bank that is my job.

Signing is done at their office not at immigration.

1 hour ago, DrJack54 said:

It does. 

Then it is not expensive at all to save lots of time and headaches.

36 minutes ago, ozfarang said:

If you like getting stuffed around by Immigration, up to you.

 

It's not the money, it's being able to avoid going near Immigration

I wonder if 14,000 incudes the government fees?

On 5/1/2023 at 3:24 PM, jacko45k said:

Well expats were included in the initial vaccination rounds, and in reality did better than the locals in speed and preferred vaccine.

Exactly last week i got the Covalent version free at a government hospital.