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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.

Great stuff! In Canada we had our 1st transgender Miss Universe Canada contestant in 2012, Jenna Talackova. She had also competed in the 2010 Miss International Queen contest representing Canada. Here's a photo of her I took when I was at the 2010 MIQ contest. I wish Kataluna all the best and hope she does well in the finals!

I know there are Thai ladyboy doctors, dentists, etc, but we don't hear much about them. Here is a video of Dr. Valunpath, Miss Trans Star Thailand 2019. She is an MD, specialist in Aesthetics and Laser Surgery. The Miss Trans Star is a franchise similar to Miss Universe and has contests for transgender male to female in several countries, with an annual international final.

QG, that used to be the case, but things have changed as per this March 22, 2017 article from The Nation I am not sure if local jails have implemented this, but hopefully they segregate them from the male prisoners. Your question led to look up some more information and there are interesting observations of ladyboys in the men's prison in the past. This is from The Bangkok Post Feb 3, 2013. Interesting insights that show that Thailand is yet again different than most western countries in their prison system as well.

A very concerning report from the WION Youtube channel from Gravitas - the sad statistics of the Sinovac Covid 19 vaccine. I suppose one could say what goes around comes around. The sad result of this are the countries that relied a great deal on Sinovac for reducing COVID 19 and finding it failed - including China itself. This explains why they developed an mRNA vaccine as well.

I can see this , and my rating has gone back to Newbie - must be reincarnation and a second chance!

True he didn't go to the odd Soi side of Sukhumvit, but it likely would have showed a similar amount of closed businesses. The overall conclusion would have been the same. Business have been hard hit, and it will take some time before things return to normal.

An excellent video from The Economist about the China lab leak theory. I am thinking this is a possibility now, and the recent reporting about the US NIH funding enhanced virus research in the US and China is eye opening.

Here's a recent video of what lower Sukumvit looks like now from Soi 4 (Nana) down to Asoke. It is eye opening to see how many businesses have closed due to the COVID 19 effects. It will take some time before things recover. This is from the Live Love Thailand Youtube channel.

Like many countries the problem with China is the government, not the people. Many China haters don't distinguish and it has led to problems in some countries like US and Canada where hate crimes against Asians has increased by large amounts since the Covid 19 pandemic started. What is more revealing about the Chinese government is that they are foregoing mass vaccination of their own population - only vaccinating "hot spots" in order to use vaccine "diplomacy" to try and gain influence with poor countries who cannot afford even the discounted prices for Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J. Astra Zeneca had already priced their vaccine low, but Sinovac and Sputnuk are the 2 cheapest.

If there was no other vaccine, I probably would - but as noted if Thailand's Prime Minister turned it down, as many top Chinese Communist Party officials, something sounds off. Note that I didn't say how effective it works. The countries that have used it on a wide spread basis, Chile, Brazil, Philippines have reported efficacy rates varying from 60-80%. Not so good in comparison to the other vaccines, even Astra Zeneca's, but in terms of reducing death from severe infections these countries do report some good protection rates.

There isn't much confidence in Sinovac when the Thailand's leader refused to get vaccinated with it. It does have data supporting it works - but when the leaders won't use it, there will be no confidence from the public. Now on the other hand Putin's daughter was vaccinated with the Sputnik Covid 19 vaccine - made with a deactivated virus, the same method as Sinovac - however Putin never had a news conference showing him being vaccinated with Sputnik.

The Johnson and Johnson Covid 19 vaccine is approved, but no stocks in the country yet. If things work out the private hospitals will be able to buy and sell to patients who want a choice.

Here is episode 4 from the Polymatter Youtube channel, National Insecurity China's Reckoning - this one has a bit more opinion but still a lot of factual information. I think the opinion is fairly correct about why the switch to a more aggressive, expansionist foreign policy over the past 10 years.

I would vote yes to adding Ernesto as well - too bad he probably won't know about it!

Typical of any government that looks to subvert the will of the people (both Conservatives and Liberals).

If you are using a laptop/desktop to view, go to your log in name at the top right hand of the page. Click on the downwards triangle, select "Account Settings", you will find the place where you can change your forum user name in the "display name" setting.

Ernesto was a pioneer and was happy to share - he wasn't looking for recognition/glory/reputation points. Those were the earlier days, and the reason why no member of the community followed him was because he was going to countries that often had poor tourism infrastructure. I recall he was working with some sort of film documentary company and so traveled the world combining his love of lbs, with his work and adventurous spirit. Today a lot of lb admirers want it all handed to them on a silver platter - how many times do we see newbies asking for "contact details", "how good was she in bed", "does she have a big cock", and then hardly ever posting to share their experiences and some don't even thank members who bother to answer their questions.

This is a good video by Nisamanee Nutt Thai lb beauty queen, entrepreneur and influencer with her friend Mixx doing a Q&A about not having SRS. This video has English captions, if you can see them when you start, you can turn them on.

Here's a viewpoint of China from a different perspective - this is from Gabrielle, a 20 something Chinese national master's university student. She has her "Inside China" Youtube channel. This particular video is about a survey she sent to her friends and friends of her friends about sex and dating. Some really surprising results - and of course this is not representative of all of China - but an interesting perspective of the 128 people who answered her survey.

I would have been surprised if there was a dossier that found China was NOT looking into biological warfare - we all know the US and Russia have been doing this for decades, and who knows what other "super power" nations have as well. This video is a follow up from The Rising's first segment and there is even more evidence implicating how heavily involved the US NIH was, and how the direction now seems to have been pushed to fund MORE research into augmenting viruses - possibly in "western" labs as well.

I would not be surprised if this were true - according to the Statistics Sweden the 2020 fertility rate for women was 1.67. This is below the required 2 to maintain the total population numbers. Without immigration Sweden's population will decrease, which is bad as the taxpayer base will shrink so less funds are available for their social services. This is quite similar to the demographic time bomb facing China and a number of other countries with low fertility rates.

The Sith is correct regarding comparisons - Ernesto was scanning his photos in order to upload to the forum - I recall he did get a digital camera later, but most of the photos were from his regular 35 mm film camera. He clearly was dedicated beyond most posters to share his information, so comparing to the photos of today really is like comparing apples and oranges. The reason he gave why he had to stop his trip reports was because the "love of his life" a gg I think he was married to, found his collection and demanded he stop or the relationship would end.