12 hours ago, strocube said:

"We Sent Them Samples Of A Goat, A Papaya & A Pheasant": Tanzanian President Catches WHO In Epic Lie

 

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/we-sent-them-samples-goat-papaya-pheasant-tanzanian-president-catches-who-epic-lie

 

Hopefully you are not posting this as fact, since the Tanzanian president has always been a shining example of transparency and accountability during his rule. If these are the sources for your news, I can see the basis for your conspiracy viewpoints.

3 hours ago, Pdoggg said:

“The best way to boost business now would be to change the name of Pattaya.” Her suggestion is Fagg City.

Article suggests that the number of ladyboys in Pattaya before COVID-19 was 5000.  I'd take the over on that.

Lots of quotes from Thai cabaret performers who use Western style drag show names.

I am quite skeptical that the quotes attributed to lbs are real. I have known and know quite a few lbs working the cabaret shows, and none of them used stage names like the ones in the article. Also no lb I know would consider calling Pattaya "Fagg City", as they don't consider lb punters as "fags". This seems something a bored quarantined staff writer just came up with.

It is not going to be likely airlines will go with an empty middle row - IATA the International Air Transport Association has changed that initial recommendation from social distancing for passengers to having them wear masks and temperature checks - with some airlines proposing a COVID-19 rapid test as part of check in.

The same recommendation of mask wearing goes for cabin crew - with additional wearing of gloves.

Here's the link for that news.

As for the planes - I posted about the 787 before and this also applies to the A350. All planes do have fresh air to circulate in the cabin, but it has to be pressurized, and limited to a certain percentage to be mixed with existing cabin air. IATA also has recommendations for that here

Quote

There are some improved things about the 787 Dreamliner that are not obvious. I have flown once on it recently in premium economy. The air is pressurized to a lower altitude than most airliners 6,000 feet, vs 8,000. Cabin humidity can be set up to 15% vs 4% for the older planes. In addition they have added a special gaseous filtration system that removes more odors, particles, bacteria and viruses than then older HEPA only based systems. The air used to pressurize the cabin is no longer "bleed air" from the engines, so is free from possible fuel and oil fumes.

JustSumGai, I would suggest you have a look at Duke's Thai Vlogger club - there are a number of videos by Nick, owner of Assienda Bar in Pattaya that explains the situation. Pattaya is just starting to ease the restrictions now - they just allowed restaurants to open (with restrictions), booze can be sold, but only for take away, no drinking in public areas, and there are still social distancing restrictions for the businesses as they open up again.

During the lockdown the bars had to be closed to customers and no more than 5 people inside working on maintenance, cleaning, renovations, etc.

Well, it looks like it's coming: the US will be going for actions to punish China for the COVID-19 crisis. As reported by the Washington Post April 30, 2020.

One thing to note is that civil lawsuits are being considered as part of the strategy - and of course in those kinds of law suits, the lawyers will get at least 50% of the damage awards, if they are successful.

You can likely expect this to ramp up quickly before serious campaigning starts for the elections in November.

Very impressive achievement he's deserving of all the congratulations and well wishes!

One thing that is a concern, the NHS needs donations, when it should be funded adequately by the government.

6 hours ago, strocube said:

Never said it wasn’t real; just that it’s being way overblown. The flu is real . . . It also looks to me that there are various nefarious agendas behind the global lockdown. 
Sweden did not wreck their economy and put their people through hell for the fucking flu. Millions did not die. This puts the lie to the entire FEAR NARRATIVE. 

What is the nefarious global agenda for Russia and the African countries locking down? Russia's case especially as Putin had to delay the referendum to make him President for life. With the rising deaths in Moscow and many other parts of Russia his popularity is decreasing, it was against his interests to implement the "fake" lockdown. You seem to forget that in past pandemics, the quarantine and social distancing, mask wearing (during the Spanish Flu), were all done too, but not on a global scale, but as each country got hit. Were those global conspiracies?

37 minutes ago, seven said:

Swedish official Anders Tegnell says 'herd immunity' in Sweden might be a few weeks away

Anders Tegnell, chief epidemiologist at Sweden’s Public Health Agency – the nation's top infectious disease official and architect of Sweden's coronavirus response –denied that "herd immunity" formed the central thrust of Sweden's containment plan, in an interview with USA TODAY. Yet he also said the country may be starting to see the impact of "herd immunity."

Tegnell: We are doing two major investigations. We may have those results this week or a bit later in May. We know from modeling and some data we have already – these data are a little uncertain – that we probably had a transmission peak in Stockholm a couple of weeks ago, which means that we are probably hitting the peak of infections right about now. We think that up to 25% of people in Stockholm have been exposed to coronavirus and are possibly immune. A recent survey from one of our hospitals in Stockholm found that 27% of staff there are immune. We think that most of those are immune from transmission in society, not the workplace. We could reach herd immunity in Stockholm within a matter of weeks. 

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2020/04/28/coronavirus-covid-19-sweden-anders-tegnell-herd-immunity/3031536001/

 

That sounds promising - herd immunity won't be that protective until around 70-80% of the population become immune. However if you have around 50% or slightly more immune, it makes preventing the swamping of hospital resources easier.

Most Thai lbs advertising as escorts say don`t contact them unless you are in country. What Quinn and blind boy grunt wrote is 100% accurate. Thai pay for play lbs don`t want to be contacted by people outside the country, as 99.9% of these guys will never show up to meet them. 

Pdoggg`s comment about Filipina lbs is accurate - most Filipina lbs are looking for someone to take them away from their lives of poverty, lack of opportunity and discrimination. It is very interesting that very few Thai lbs want to leave their countries, but many Filipina lbs do want to leave.

5 hours ago, seven said:

Yes, we're getting there. We started to test workers in health care now so we'll see numbers of infected rise, but hopefully not diseased.

Good to read someone  optimistic. The doom and gloom fear mongering is making more people sick than necessary.

An interesting observation is neighbouring countries Belgium and Holland. While Belgium do the totalitarian lockdown and basically shoot offenders, Holland is doing the laissez-faire approach like ours, and Belgiums numbers (registered)  are the worst in the world per capita.

Regarding the study. We had reports of people with none or very mild symptoms just collapse and stop breathing, later tested positive to covid-19, and its suspected like you say, the immune system is attacking itself. Scary shit.

Good news that your hospitals have not been overloaded!  I have a question for you - while Sweden did not impose a lockdown it did recommend that citizens and residents practice social distancing, etc. So it was voluntary. What percentage of Swedes and residents do you think actually did what the government asked?  I think it had to be a good percentage as the % and rates in Sweden did not get as bad Italy, Spain etc, but were higher than nearby countries.   I am not so sure that such a high percentage of people would comply in other countries.

Also - is there a shortage of COVID-19 tests? It would have been a good idea to test the health care workers and long term care workers all along, rather than waiting until now. That may have helped prevent the increased number of elderly deaths in the long term care centers from happening.

And now for something completely different a few videos by Vic Dibietto about his opinions on things in the US (some of it could apply to Canada too). If you don't like swearing be forewarned.

The Definition of Insanity

Nurses, Curses, Steaks and Planes

A Message to the Government

Another excellent video uploaded by Asian Boss - interview with Dr. Jerome Kim, Director General of the International Vaccine Institute. Highly recommended viewing for facts about vaccines.

The last activity Ernesto had on The Ladyboy Forums and Ladyboy Review Forum was December 2013. He is certainly legendary, not only for the exploration of the less  traveled places looking for lbs, but also in the way he treated them - in some cases paying for their medical expenses (while he was with them), treating them with good food, etc.

I recall in one of his posts saying that he had to give his lb adventures up because the love of his life (not sure if that is his wife), caught him out, and he did not want to lose her.

There are a number of people who think all this is fake and a conspiracy. If this is the case would Russia be having problems?

Russia is now having problems with the pandemic as reported a few days ago by the CBC.

Quote

Kremlin finally gives in and cancels giant party to celebrate Second World War victory — and Putin


Chris Brown · CBC News · Posted: Apr 16, 2020 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: April 17


Quite uncharacteristically, the Russian state TV host did not bury the bad news as he led off the show.
"We're now following the same model as Italy," Yevgeny Popov said in a stunning about-face from just two weeks ago, when the host of the popular Russian talk show 60 Minutes said the government was getting the coronavirus outbreak under control.
Now, Russia's most widely watched Kremlin-funded news programs are telling people they should prepare for thousands of deaths.
Along with that shift in messaging has also come a change in behaviour from President Vladimir Putin.
Shifting messages

Putin had been keeping an unusually low profile as the virus spread, preferring to make good news pronouncements such as paid holidays for workers and help for businesses, while leaving unpopular decisions such as enforcing quarantines to lower-level officials.
But this week, a concerned-looking Putin has made daily addresses, emphasizing that the situation has become dire and Russians should prepare themselves for plenty more bad news.

"Truly extraordinary measures are required to stop the spread of the infection," he said in an address Tuesday from a conference room at his estate outside Moscow, where he's been holed up for the past two weeks after meeting doctors who later tested positive for COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.
Officially, Russia has registered more than 25,000 cases of the coronavirus and 198 deaths, but many doctors and local officials believe those numbers don't reflect the true extent of the outbreak.
Putin, who after 20 years in power rarely reverses course on any significant policy matter, has suddenly backtracked on several.
A nationwide referendum that could allow him to serve up to two more six-year terms as president was postponed, and he stepped back from an oil price war with Saudi Arabia that he'd initiated and agreed to limit Russian oil output in a deal aimed at propping up the crashing ruble.

Victory Day parade postponed

But the biggest reversal came on Wednesday with a decision to postpone the May 9 Victory Day parade marking the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe — a hugely symbolic event, arguably more important to many Russians than even the Olympics.
Heaped in national pride and symbolism, the annual event is always a display of military might, but doubly so this year, as it was designed to be a personal celebration of Putin's long reign at the top of Russia's political hierarchy. The Kremlin had repeatedly denied it would ever consider moving the celebration.


Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the government via video link from his residence outside Moscow. (Sputnik/Alexei Druzhinin/Kremlin via Reuters)
But with the strain on Russia's underfunded health-care system now showing up everywhere, the plan to assemble tens of thousands of soldiers and spectators for the spectacle in Moscow's Red Square now appears to be too great a risk for the country's leadership.
Video posted Wednesday by the independent Echo Moscow radio station showed patients in a St. Petersburg hospital, reportedly with pneumonia, lying in the corridors on bare mattresses.
"There's no oxygen [for patients]," the medic who shot the video said in a comment that accompanied it.
In the city of Ufa, 1,500 kilometres east of Moscow, as many as 1,100 patients and staff at Kuvatov Clinical Hospital have been under quarantine for the past 10 days after COVID-19 rampaged through the facility.

In an interview with CBC News on Monday, Dr. Rimma Kamalova, who heads the hospital's rheumatology department and is quarantined in the facility, said when the outbreak started, regional health authorities refused to test patients for coronavirus.
"According to our policies ... we could not do testing on coronavirus," she said.
"We had orders, at that time, not to give this diagnosis and take the relevant [mitigation] measures."
She spoke with CBC News while awaiting the results of her own COVID-19 test, noting that she was already exhibiting high fever and other symptoms. Every single other doctor on her ward is also sick, she said.
"We were extremely worried about this. [The patients] would come into the hospital, be admitted and then treated, then discharged and they would go back to their towns, and cities and regions."
Doctors defiant

Once the extent of the outbreak became apparent, she says, the same health authorities that ordered them not to test for coronavirus accused them of letting it get out of control.
By April 6, the situation had become too extreme to ignore and the entire hospital was put into quarantine, with no one, including staff, allowed in or out.
In the northern region of Komi, the Moscow Times reports that six hospitals are under a similar quarantine.

• 'Too soon to let our guard down': How Canada has avoided a surge of COVID-19 cases in hospitals

In Moscow, 13 million residents live mostly in highrises closely packed together. The city has two-thirds of the active cases in the country.
Hospital admissions are spiking, according to the city's mayor, and widely circulated social media videos this week have shown long lines of ambulances waiting to drop off patients. Some drivers complained they had been in line for as long as 15 hours.
Increasingly, doctors are coming forward and risking their positions and reputations to speak out about the deteriorating situation.
Faulty tests

In a series of interviews, several doctors told CBC News that Russian health authorities squandered early opportunities to contain the virus, in part because testing was faulty.
"The sensitivity of the tests is about 65-70 per cent," said Dr. Pavel Brand, who works at a private clinic in Moscow.
"So we sometimes don't know if the person died from COVID or from something else. And so we put them in another part of statistics, and that's why the statistics are low."
Russia has developed its own COVID-19 tests that the government claims have been administered to more than a million people, but there have been repeated criticisms about large numbers of false-negatives.
There were also long delays with verifying positive results, as only one facility in Siberia was equipped to do it.

Infection specialist Alexei Yakovlev at the Medsi hospital in Moscow said most early cases of COVID-19 were treated as pneumonia by health authorities, and only now has Russia's government agreed to combine the tally of both.
"The numbers of patients with severe pneumonia are going up, and my feeling is that we have not reached the peak yet," he told CBC News.
He said in the days ahead he expects a dramatic spike in both deaths and active cases, once the combined figures for COVID-19 and pneumonia are released.
Businesses crushed

The Kremlin also appears to be growing increasingly concerned about the economic fallout from the shutdown of Moscow and other Russian cities.
Anastasia Tatulova, who owns Anderson Cafe catering services in Moscow, said the government put businesses like hers in an impossible position when it ordered employees to stay home from work for the month of April, yet still expected her to pay dozens of workers.
"We have no safety net," she said. "These decrees come out and, well, it seems they don't even understand the basics of how a business is set up in Russia."


Anastasia Tatulova owns Anderson Cafe catering in Moscow and has been urging Russia's government to do more to help out small businesses trying to survive the pandemic. (Alexei Sergeev/CBC)
On Wednesday, Putin responded by offering small businesses up to $160 Cdn a month per employee, as long as the company retains most of its workers.
To put that in perspective, Russia's statistics agency says average monthly wages range between $850 and $1,300 Cdn, depending on the exchange rate.

Prominent economist Alexei Kudrin, the architect of many of Russia's most successful financial reforms and now an auditor of government spending, told a Russian business publication that the economic implications of the outbreak are close to catastrophic.
He predicts more than eight million Russians may be unemployed by the end of 2020 — a threefold increase from the start of the crisis.
Compared to Canada, which has a robust unemployment system and has introduced other benefits to help during the emergency, Russia's social supports are relatively meagre.
The TASS Russian news agency reports that the amount available to a single person per month ranges from between $30 and $150 Cdn.

13 hours ago, Tomcat said:

I had no idea Pakistan had re opened all the Mosques , hugs , handshakes and all ... well there you folks  maybe Jareds view is not so extreme.  

All the Gulf Arab countries are currently in lockdown. This Includes no mosques open. Saudi Arabia announced there will be no Haj this year. All these measures are first time events in recorded history in this area.

For something completely different - a remote control airplane flying with KFC buckets for wings. Amazing, based on aerodynamic science principles.

The real problem is the response of countries to future pandemics, which are certain to come - it won't always come from China - they could originate from any country.

I am not saying it did not originate from China, but why don't they have all 3 types of Covid-19 commonly, if it did originate there? The mutations are most likely going to come off the original type A strain. Anyhow, as I said I will not spread another conspiracy theory.

Most experts say there are many more facts to come out about this, and research will continue for years.

When a lot of people start jumping on the bandwagon and blame China for deliberately spreading COVID-19 it reminds me of the Iranian Weapons of Mass Destruction. What needs to happen is a full investigation to determine the facts of what happened both in China and the countries slow to respond. When those FACTS are out, then measures can be developed to avoid or reduce the severity of future problems.

If the facts do show China deliberately started this, then they should face consequences, just as governments slow to react show face the same, especially if they were sitting on all this recently "leaked information" of the labs, which are not yet confirmed to be true.

If the slow acting countries responded like Taiwan, Korea, etc., would the problems would be as bad as they are now? Blaming everything on China conveniently eliminates their responsibilities so they don't have to change, and increases their chances to stay in power.

14 minutes ago, seven said:

I agree, but China needs to be held responsible for the cover up somehow. They are responsible for hundreds of thousands people dead and millions of people infected. This might be the worst crime against humanity ever.

Back in 1916 the Spanish Flu was determined to originate from the USA, in 2009 the `Swine Flu`originated from Mexico. Is there any blaming of those countries? There is no doubt that China covered up the reporting of the seriousness and timing of this current outbreak - it is an entirely different thing saying they caused it deliberately. Also don`t you think it is strange that the COVID type A virus strain, which is considered to be the original strain, is not the predominant strain in Asia, but it is the type B strain? The type C strain is common in Europe, and the US happens to have all 3 strains active. I am not going to indulge in repeating another conspiracy theory, but look at some facts. The speculation about the labs in China - if it was true, how does that information get out? Who would benefit from that information being released right now if it were true, and if it was fake who still benefits?

Why aren't more people asking for accountability for the late actions of their own governments who wasted the two months, while apparently having all this information in their hands from their intelligence agencies and analysts?

Yes, China needs to be investigated for the FACTS, and so do many other countries. The fact of the matter is, if there is a war, Trump would benefit the most.

I posted a Young Turks video about an opinion of a Fox host calling for war with China over this ``conspiracy`` plot.

If more people keep pushing this then we will get war which would be much worse than what is happening now.

Here`s the Fox Clip

Here`s the Young Turks opinion on it:

13 minutes ago, Tomcat said:

Emirates are testing passengers before boarding for Covid . it seems its a 10 minute results back swab test from memory. Some officials state that this may be statutory in future with all airlines.

 

Most likely mandatory surgical masks too,  then they don't have to have empty rows. The Canadian quick test is 15 minutes and costs around $30 Canadian dollars a test.

6 hours ago, seven said:

Here, rxpharm. 

Understanding how Sweden reports its coronavirus figures

Different countries report coronavirus cases and deaths in different ways, which can easily lead to confusion and makes comparing the situation complicated. Here's a look at what you need to know in order to understand how the Swedish figures are reported.

The statistics show the number of people in Sweden who have died with Covid-19. That's everyone who has died after testing positive for the virus; it doesn't mean that the virus itself was a cause of death for all these cases.

This is different from how other countries report their death tolls. Some countries such as France also include deaths from nursing homes, a change to their figures that was made on April 2nd. Other countries, including Spain, Italy and England, currently only include deaths that take place inside hospitals in the official tolls. 

https://www.thelocal.se/20200414/understanding-swedens-figures-on-the-coronavirus

Thanks for that seven - although the statistics aren't translated into English, I can see enough to make out what most of them mean. I guess the proof will be if the hospital system doesn't get overwhelmed, as that is one of the biggest concerns with COVID-19.

You should check out notime2bsad Youtube videos. Chuck is an American living in Thailand and describes the process of his quarantine, and how people were getting checked on - and the kind of attitude the Thai have making this control effective even though their resources are limited

2 hours ago, Hard1 said:

I am convinced that the US will not forgive China.

I suspect that another president in office would not be focusing so much on blaming another country until after the crisis in his own country was addressed. Remember the "Weapons of Mass Destruction?" It is a very convenient distraction to the question of why 2 months of time was wasted by many countries. If China did tell the truth another month would have been gained, and this is assuming they would have acted immediately on that information, instead of what actually happened. I am not making excuses for China, but you should note more criticism is coming now when it is clear how badly the US is dealing with the situation. Distractions are needed from the criticisms the Trump administration are facing, and the same for other countries who had a slow response.

3 hours ago, seven said:

I'm sure you understand  the statistics depends on how you want to interpret them. In Italy for example all accounted fatalities are from hospitals, not people who died in their homes, did  they die because of  Covid or/and did they die of something else but were infected with Corona.  The numbers and stats are too unreliable yet to make any judgement calls.

I was comparing Sweden's statistics to Finland, Norway and Denmark. So what you are saying is Sweden is over reporting deaths, and also the percentage of elderly deaths, as compared to Finland, Norway and Denmark.

The reporting may not be 100% accurate, and I do hope that Sweden's choice was correct. I would be sad to see the Swedish hospitals overloaded as we've seen in France, Italy, Spain, and some US cities.

There is no doubt world economies are going to fall off a cliff, but if we did nothing would that have a similar effect? All the ICU's packed, doctors, nurses, ambulance staff, police and firemen exhausted and overloaded, businesses with around 30% absenteeism due to people sick for 2-3 weeks.

The ones modeling economic disaster death and destruction don't take those possibilities into account. No, I don't advocate lockdown for several months - but there will be a way to open things up gradually without overloading the medical system and essential workers. Testing has to be part of it, and many countries are on that path, a vaccine is probably the best solution, the next thing would be an effective proven drug treatment, but those will take time. Contact tracing and isolation of actively sick, positive tested , and exposed people will have to be the most effective way forward until the vaccine and/or drug treatment comes around.

I feel that 6% figure is inaccurate as there are only a few countries that have 6% GDP growth. The US has been around 3.2% and Canada around 2% with no increase in death rates. The only thing that can come close to this situation is the great depression in the 30's, that lasted 10 years, and the next closest was the great 2007 financial crisis.

Here's an abstract of an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America October 13, 2009:

Quote

      Abstract

Recent events highlight the importance of examining the impact of economic downturns on population health. The Great Depression of the 1930s was the most important economic downturn in the U.S. in the twentieth century. We used historical life expectancy and mortality data to examine associations of economic growth with population health for the period 1920–1940. We conducted descriptive analyses of trends and examined associations between annual changes in health indicators and annual changes in economic activity using correlations and regression models. Population health did not decline and indeed generally improved during the 4 years of the Great Depression, 1930–1933, with mortality decreasing for almost all ages, and life expectancy increasing by several years in males, females, whites, and nonwhites. For most age groups, mortality tended to peak during years of strong economic expansion (such as 1923, 1926, 1929, and 1936–1937). In contrast, the recessions of 1921, 1930–1933, and 1938 coincided with declines in mortality and gains in life expectancy. The only exception was suicide mortality which increased during the Great Depression, but accounted for less than 2% of deaths. Correlation and regression analyses confirmed a significant negative effect of economic expansions on health gains. The evolution of population health during the years 1920–1940 confirms the counterintuitive hypothesis that, as in other historical periods and market economies, population health tends to evolve better during recessions than in expansions.

Makes for very interesting discussion - plus we don't know if this depression will last for 10 years, if there is world wide cooperation, (however unrealistic that may seem), the recovery could be a lot less than 10 years.