rxpharm

Fenton is right, also before human insulin became wide spread, pork insulin was commonly used for insulin dependent diabetics who became resistant to beef insulin. Pork insulin differs from human insulin by only 1 amino acid, while beef insulin (which was most commonly used before the advent of bio-engineered human insulin) differs by 2 amino acids.

Interesting theory. Sooner or later a viral pandemic would have originated with or without the possibility of human intervention of enhanced viral function. A review of what happened with the Spanish Flu is quite illuminating as there are several parallels with the current Covid 19 pandemic. You can think of the world as a big petri dish - with about 7.9 billion individuals with varying degrees of susceptibility to viral infection. If sufficiently high enough percentage of a country's population can develop immunity from an infection (hopefully by vaccination without overloading of the health care system and multiple deaths of at risk individuals), that minimizes the chances of the virus to mutate. Those who argue against vaccine mandates do not seem to understand this, and if a virus becomes more contagious and/or lethal the percentage of the population that needs to be immune needs to increase as well. Otherwise it will continue to mutate in those who are unvaccinated and possibly enough to infect vaccinated people as we have seem with Omicron (fortunately these patients do not usually get severe illness). In my opinion Covid 19 has become endemic like the seasonal flu, but will eventually mutate to the point where it will not impact people as severely as it has over the past 2 years.

It seems that understanding the difference between reduction of risk and elimination of risk seems to be a determining factor in opposition to mask wearing. Ultimately if a population doesn't comply with social distancing, self isolation and hand hygiene measures - as it interferes with their personal rights, will have higher infection rates, so a mask mandate is a tool governments and health authorities will turn to. With regard to the comment "the stupidity of the mask mandate" you have ignored the many recently published studies in favor of older or biased information to fit your personal views. Unfortunately many people have decided to go this route with the proliferation of sites that are questionable. I suppose that the hospitals that require surgical masks worn for operative procedures are also "stupid" in Sweden? What is the use of surgical staff using such masks during long operations? Would you be happy to have no masks worn during your surgical operation because your country's chief infectious disease officer made the decision that masks are not useful to stop the spread of viruses? As I've stated many times before it is risk reduction, not risk elimination. Those who argue against risk reduction seem to me to be less concerned about society as a whole and they cannot come up with alternative proposals to reduce risk for the general population, especially for one that isn't compliant with other measures.

Here's a good recent video from DW (Deutch World) that explains mask wearing benefits quite well.

There is an excellent Science Brief that was updated on Dec 6, 2021 from the CDC that summarizes the findings of 99 studies of mask usage during this current pandemic from Germany, Canada, China, USA, UK, etc. They all support the conclusion that mask use reduces transmission of Covid 19 - and note I said reduce - it will not stop the transmission of the virus. A look at the list of journals these articles are published in shows most of them are reputable and reliable. Your doctor likely decided that since you were vaccinated the risk was low enough to justify removing her mask, since she was already infected earlier and may have also been vaccinated (however if there is a Omicron spread in Sweden that is taking a chance while she and you may not get develop serious consequences from an Omicron infection - if either of you spread it to an unvaccinated person that could be problematic. She is relying on the low odds - that doesn't mean she is uneducated or irresponsible, but it means she was still taking a chance. The vaccination rate in Pattaya was stated to be over 80%, and public events require proof of vaccination to enter. In these cases people may feel it is ok to remove masks - but personally I would not.

You may have the lowest transmission rate in Europe because of the natural tendency of Swedish citizens to be more compliant with advice to social distance and self isolate. Mask mandates make sense if the health care systems are overloaded - which has been the case in many countries. Statistics quoted like there is only a 0.01% death rate, miss the fact the hospitalization rate has been higher than the regular flu - which a lot of anti Covid people argue that it should be treated as the common flu. From the preliminary data so far the Omicron version seems to be less lethal, but is definitely more infectious - but still can cause hospitalization in non-vaccinated people. This still presents problems with potential overloading of the health care system. So if a country is having this problem what is the solution? A mask mandate slows down things, the ultimate solution is an effective anti-viral (which seems to be soon available) or super efficient vaccine (which is possible, since most current vaccines from Western countries definitely reduce hospitalization and death somewhere between 60-80%). There is also the problem with services like police, paramedics, fire fighters, as well as health care workers suffering burn out due to the continuing overload of critical ICU patients, and significant reductions in capability due to the percentages of emergency and health care workers off sick. I have heard a lot of comments from my health care worker friends stating they are thinking of quitting due to these last 2 years of crisis. Mandatory overtime, delayed vacations/holidays. Belligerent patients, patients who refuse medical advice/treatment due to belief in conspiracy theories - have increased the stress levels that haven't been experienced before. Is it such a burden to require people to wear a mask if health care system is in the tipping point? If the heath care system is not overloaded, then it is a different story.

There is a significant difference between a certified N95 mask and the general surgical masks that have been recommended. The surgical masks were primarily used to reduce the droplets expelled by the wearer - to reduce transmission of the Covid 19 virus from the mask wearer to another person. While many anti-mask advocates focus on they don't protect the wearer that much (which is true), they miss the main point. Video studies and lab studies have clearly demonstrated there are less particles emitted from surgical mask wearers than non-mask wearers when coughing, sneezing or generally speaking. N95 masks on the other hand protect both the wearer and the surrounding people. They are tight around the mouth and nose and are specially designed to filter tiny particles out of the air you are inhaling (or exhaling). At the beginning of the pandemic conflicting advice was given by some country's health authorities that masks (both surgical and N95) were not helpful (which was false) in order to preserve the supply for medical personnel. The truth should have been announced and masks reserved for the medical staff and people at risk. As for those who say all it takes is one person not to wear a mask properly to cause the spread - they are missing the point that if 95% of people wear masks, it does reduce the speed of the spread of the virus. It doesn't make sense to not promote mask usage on the basis of a small percentage of people not wearing masks correctly.

I managed to get through the rigamarole of Thailand Pass and land in Thailand Thursday afternoon. Last night I went over to Nana Plaza to see what is going on. I can report that only gg bars on the ground level are open. There are no bars open on the upper levels of Nana Plaza (gg or lb). Unfortunately Obsessions remains closed on the ground floor. I did notice a few postop lbs mixed in with the gg staff for the open bars. The ground level bars have moved most of their seating outside (social distancing I presume), and are having "snacks" to get around bars not opening before the official date. The "beer garden" set up in the main court is not open, and has been mostly taken up by the ground level bars outdoor seating. I also observed many freelancers both gg and lbs from 9 pm onwards from Soi Nana to Asoke, on the odd number Soi side of Sukhumvit. I have not yet checked Soi Cowboy, and will report later on that, and what is going on in Patpong. Check In Bar on Sukumvit Soi 10 is open and has some business.

If you remember years ago, there was a Thai movie called "Beautiful Boxer", which was based on Nong Tum's life.

Sorry for going off topic - one needs to remember the asking price is the starting point of negotiations and I seem to recall gg's had a higher rate than lbs (except possibly for the "superstars"). Reality will hit soon enough if they cannot get enough customers with the new high starting point. If you think that they likely had no income from p4p work for the better part of 2 years, it is unfortunately human nature to want to make up for it as soon as possible. I think that these new asking prices won't last that long.

The oil situation in Canada has been tremendously affected by politics and the green movement. The tar sands, which is the bulk of proven Canadian oil reserves (estimated to be 10% of world's proven reserves), has been branded as "dirty oil" by the green movement. This is due to the additional energy required to extract and refine it (since it is heavy oil). The cancelled pipelines had the serious effect of restricting the export market for tar sands oil - which resulted in major international oil companies pulling out of the tar sands development agreements and leaving the Canadian companies on their own. This of course slowed down further expansion, and also the lower prices resulted in decreased production (when the Saudi's tried to corner the market and force the shale oil companies into bankruptcy). The other problem is there are few Canadian refineries that can process the heavy tar sands oil. So basically the oil production in Canada is wrapped up in a hot political/green morass. There is no strategic reserve in Canada as it is exempt for the IEA (International Energy Agency) requirement of its member countries to have a strategic petroleum reserve equal to 90 days of the the previous year's net oil imports for the respective country. Net oil IEA exporting members are exempt from the strategic petroleum reserve requirement. (so is the US, but they voluntarily maintain it due to the Arab oil embargo from the 1970's).

The major source for US oil production for energy independence were the shale oil companies. They are still skittish from increasing production as many of them were burnt when Saudi increased production to increase their market share by decreasing the price oil below economic cost recovery for shale oil companies (around $40-50 USD/barrel). Now the price is well above that they also face another problem, banks are reluctant to finance them as they are seen as "risky" without adding a premium to the loan percentage. One last problem is that insurance companies are increasingly reluctant to cover new shale oil wells as well due to increased risk. If oil can stay around +$60 USD for another several months, the shale oil companies might start exploration and production again.

You're welcome BigTel, she is definitely not the average ladyboy. I had some Malayasian lb contacts many years ago, and they told similar stories of how the religious authorities give them such a hard time. Here's wishing Nur Sajat a better life in Australia!

Here is a Youtube video that has a bit more about her. Interesting that there are photos of her doing either Umra or Hajj in Saudi Arabia with her family.

Interesting interview - although she leaves out her bar work - likely she was doing that part time. I think the interpreter is pretty foxy, Alexandra!

They are very concerned about these effeminate men:

Thanks for your comments soiboy and cobber32. You are right that most of the ladyboy interviews on Youtube are not too interesting - but this one was for a couple of reasons, we don't know much about Taiwan ladyboys, the interviewer did a good job and asked some questions lb fans are interested in, and her answers were candid. Also it helped that she is good looking.

Here is a recently uploaded Youtube video interview with Taiwanese ladyboy Meng Meng. Very interesting as we don't hear much about ladyboys there (except for the Thais and Filipinas who go there for work). A no holds interview even gets into her sexual activities and preferences.

Thanks for the continuing updates Papa Sam. She must be in her late 20's or early 30's now, and yes you are right, she still looks great! Unfortunately it isn't just the p4p ladyboys in this situation - I have seen a few videos and even 7-11's are closing due to lack of business, and of course many other businesses that rely on tourism. It's a sad state of affairs and I think things won't be better until late 2021 early 2022, unless they do some amazing increase in the vaccination program to ramp it up a whole lot.

It seems that your spare time is reading sites that prefer to promulgate these "theories". A major thing they do not explain is that magnetic waves (necessary for this control of graphene) are subject to the inverse square law - which means that the field strength decreases as the distance from the source increases. To control the brainwaves of someone who has had graphene injected it would require a significant amount of graphene and a magnetic field of significant strength - think an NMR scanner. If there is going to be that kind of magnetic field generated to control brainwaves it would also cause major issues with anything that will also be affected by magnetic fields - computers, CPU's, memory chips, etc.

seven, don't count your chickens before the eggs hatch - Sweden currently doesn't have much Covid19 Delta variant - if that happens, it is a completely different situation - as Singapore, Taiwan and Korea have demonstrated. Since Sweden has decided to open up for vaccinated tourists - the risk becomes higher. I hope that the Covid 19 Delta variant doesn't affect your country the same as it has many others.

The German lady who said she was sitting beside the Covid +ve man, who had a big family of 11 (including children). They were Arabic and boarded the plane at Dubai. Note that all adult passengers had to provide a -ve Covid 19 test no longer than 72 hours of arrival time or they would not be allowed to board the plane. So what does this show? There are a few possibilities - the Thai test was a false +ve, the test in Dubai was a false -ve, or the Dubai man was incubating the virus and it had not reached high enough levels to be detected until he arrived at Phuket. As for the possibility of bribing for a -ve Covid 19 test results - there are severe penalties for anyone issuing such a test report the in the Arabian Gulf countries, and for anyone making the bribe.

That forecast is likely taking into the account the current Covid 19 delta surge in Thailand, and the government's slow vaccination program. There have already been revisions of Thailand's GPD to be at least 1% lower for this year, and also a downward revision for 2022. If things continue to get worse - and without major progress in the vaccination program (unlikely at this point, plus they are saddled with a large number of Sinovac vaccines), Covid 19 will be likely be a problem until mid-late 2022.

It is PD's opinion - but I think there is a good chance he is right. Thailand is performing poorly in getting its population vaccinated, and what is worse is they will be using the Sinovac/Sinopharm vaccines for a significant % of that. If they were using Astra Zeneca/Pfizer/Moderna/Johnson & Johnson, etc I would think he would be overly pessimistic. Since Thailand started late ordering vaccines due to their success in keeping numbers low in the earlier waves, the government became complacent probably feeling vaccinations might not be necessary. The delta variant is proving them wrong. One only has to read about what has happened in India, and what is happening in Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar to see what the worse case scenarios could be. Hospital ICUs overflowing, insufficient oxygen supplies, overflowing morgues - that is not being alarmist, that is reality in countries that could not flatten the curve.

I have been vaccinated, and with the delta variant being widespread now, I have decided to keep wearing a mask when I am out and about - and if on crowded public transit an N95 mask. Still sanitize hands - which is a good idea even if Covid 19 wasn't around. While the mRNA vaccines plus AZ have demonstrated good protection against serious illness from Covid 19 Delta - it has not protected against getting infected nearly as well. May have to wait for a booster for the delta for better protection - or hope it mutates to a less contagious/virulent strain. For those who think this overly cautious, remember one never wants to in the smaller percentage that happens to be susceptible.