Vaccine trials 'can't detect' virus risk reduction, says researcher
Vaccine trials 'can't detect' virus risk reduction, says researcherThe World Health Organization (WHO) has identified 42 candidate vaccines in clinical trials, ten of which are in the most advanced "phase 3" stage. PARIS: None of the trials of Covid-19 candidate vaccines can detect a reduction in serious outcomes such as hospitalisation or death, a leading public health expert said on Thursday. "None of the trials currently under way are designed to detect a reduction in any serious outcome such as hospital admissions, use of intensive care, or deaths," he wrote. The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified 42 candidate vaccines in clinical trials, ten of which are in the most advanced "phase 3" stage. He said that several pharmaceutical firms had designed their studies "to detect a relative risk reduction of at least 30 percent in participants developing laboratory confirmed Covid-19".
Source:Bangkok Post
October 22, 2020 00:48 UTC
It's time for compromise
In a national address broadcast last night, Gen Prayut said the government is prepared to revoke the state of emergency in Bangkok unless the situation worsens. Gen Prayut said every party must take one step backward and talk, while assuring that "he is all ears". All the demands should be discussed in parliament which is to convene an extraordinary session on Oct 26 and 27. On Monday the court granted a DES request to order the closure of the website operated by Voice TV. Now the government has extended its olive branch, all sides should reciprocate and be open for talks and compromise.
Source:Bangkok Post
October 21, 2020 22:41 UTC
Economy, not rallies, should worry govt
Economy, not rallies, should worry govtProtesters crowd around Victory Monument, the primary site of the rallies on Sunday. Foreign tourist income -- amounting to 2 trillion baht per year in 2019 -- is critical to the survival of the Thai economy. Roughly half of the money is left in the Thai economy. The 600 billion baht of spending in the second quarter failed to have the desired effects as the economy still contracted 12.2%. But, China's economy grew 3.2% in the second quarter and grew even further to 4.9% in the third quarter of 2020.
Source:Bangkok Post
October 21, 2020 22:41 UTC
Anti-Prayut protesters march to Govt House as police build barricade
Anti-Prayut protesters march to Govt House as police build barricadeAnti-government protesters march from Victory Monument to Government House on Wednesday. (Bangkok Post photos)Anti-government protesters are moving towards Government House after gathering at Victory Monument while riot police have built a barbed wire barricade on Sri Ayutthaya Road outside the Foreign Ministry to block them from reaching the prime minister's office. Scores of royalists confronted the anti-government protesters and skirmishes broke out before the students escaped the campus. Protesters started converging on the Bangkok landmark after organisers used social media to name it the principal protest venue on Wednesday. The student-led protesters and people loyal to the monarchy have tried to avoid direct confrontations, and rallies have remained peaceful so far.
Source:Bangkok Post
October 21, 2020 10:26 UTC
Boy, 14, caught delivering stolen motorcycle
Boy, 14, caught delivering stolen motorcycleSeized stolen motorcycles, some disassembled, at Ban Pet police station in Muang district, Khon Kaen. (Photo by Chakrapan Natanri)KHON KAEN: Police on Wednesday arrested a 14-year-old boy with a stolen motorcycle in Muang district, and found he was a member of a gang of motorcycle thieves. The boy said the motorcycle had been stolen from a village in tambon Ban Pet. This led police to the house of a man called Mon at Ban Pet village. At the house, police found many motorcycles stolen from different areas.
Source:Bangkok Post
October 21, 2020 10:18 UTC
Protest leaders 'Penguin', 'Rung' denied bail
Protest leaders 'Penguin', 'Rung' denied bailProtest leaders Parit “Penguin" Chiwarak and Panusaya “Rung” Sithijirawattanakul flash three-finger salutes against dictatorship before police take them into the Criminal Court on Wednesday. (Photo: Pongpat Wongyala)Two protest leaders, Parit “Penguin" Chiwarak and Panusaya “Rung” Sithijirawattanakul, were refused bail by the Criminal Court on Wednesday and taken to Bangkok Remand Prison. If the court allows bail, both Rung and Penguin will be released on bail today-wait to hear news together''. The court rejected a bail application for temporary release of Rung and Penguin that lecturers applied. In sum, Penguin and Rung were not granted bail."
Source:Bangkok Post
October 21, 2020 07:38 UTC
Movie Preview: Pinocchio | Bangkok Post: learning
Join the wooden boy on his adventures in cinemas from October 22. Based on the 1883 book The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, the Italian movie Pinocchio kicks off when the poor woodcarver, Geppetto, creates a wooden puppet and a miracle happens since the puppet comes to life. Geppetto names the puppet Pinocchio and takes care of him like he is his son. However, Geppetto finds that it is difficult to make Pinocchio behave. He makes lots of mistakes, encounters many misfortunes and has an adventure to search for meaning of life.
Source:Bangkok Post
October 21, 2020 05:37 UTC
Wednesday: 9 Covid cases from 6 countries | Bangkok Post: learning
(Photo: Somchai Poomlard)The government on Wednesday reported nine new cases of novel coronavirus infection - quarantined arrivals from Morocco, Oman, Portugal, South Sudan, the United Arab Emirates and the United States - raising the total to 3,709. The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration said three cases were from South Sudan, two from the UAE and one each from Morocco, Portugal, Oman and the US. The three cases from South Sudan are Thai army engineers aged 30, 32 and 36 who were quarantined in Chon Buri province. Two cases from the UAE are Thai masseuses aged 27 and 31, quarantined in Bangkok. The case from the US is a Thai woman worker aged 23 who was quarantined in Samut Prakan province.
Source:Bangkok Post
October 21, 2020 05:03 UTC
URC (THAILAND) receives HR Asia Best Companies to Work for in Asia 2020
URC (THAILAND) receives HR Asia Best Companies to Work for in Asia 2020Mr. Matthew Dy , HR Director of URC (Thailand) Co., Ltd. received the award from Mr. Virote Sirichanthanont, VP of Government and International Relations of PMAT at Bangkok Marriott Marquis Queen’s Park Hotel last 16 October 2020. Recently, URC (Thailand) received “HR Asia Best Companies to work for in Asia 2020” award by HR Asia, an authoritative regional publisher in the HR industry. The Awards culminate in a report published in HR Asia covering 12 markets across the region. HR Asia is Asia's largest circulating publication for senior HR professionals. HR Asia is published by Business Media International, a regional leader in B2B intelligence.
Source:Bangkok Post
October 21, 2020 04:52 UTC
NASA probe Osiris-Rex 'kisses' asteroid Bennu in historic mission
NASA probe Osiris-Rex 'kisses' asteroid Bennu in historic missionAn artistic rendition of Osiris-Rex approaching the asteroid BennuWASHINGTON - After a four-year journey, NASA's robotic spacecraft Osiris-Rex briefly touched down on asteroid Bennu's boulder-strewn surface on Tuesday to collect rock and dust samples in a precision operation 200 million miles (330 million kilometers) from Earth. If Osiris-Rex successfully comes home in September 2023, it will have collected the largest sample returned from space since the Apollo era. "We think we actually might be coming back with a baby picture of what the solar system was like, of what our chemistry was like, billions of years ago," NASA scientist Michelle Thaller said. - 'Rosetta stone' -Scientists are interested in analyzing the composition of the asteroids in the solar system because they are made of the same materials that formed the planets. Last year, Japan managed with its Hayabusa2 probe to collect some dust from another asteroid, Ryugu, and is now on its way home.
Source:Bangkok Post
October 20, 2020 23:26 UTC
Govt gets it all wrong in closing down train lines
Govt gets it all wrong in closing down train linesShould I, or should I not, take the train today?" Apart from checking if a train is running or delayed, commuters find it helps to remain flexible in case authorities suddenly order the train services to temporarily shut. The blanket and partial closure orders for train lines, which the MRT and BTS complied with from Friday to Monday, created chaos. This is not the first time the government has meddled in the city's train services (acting like it was a major shareholder). The government, which likes to control everything, successfully shut down all the city's train services and some bus routes.
Source:Bangkok Post
October 20, 2020 23:03 UTC
Stalemate cannot go on
Stalemate cannot go onMembers of parliament must fulfil their democratic duty and lead the way towards a solution to the ongoing student-led anti-government protests. The cabinet yesterday proposed a special parliamentary session next week from Oct 26 to 27. A stalemate is currently in play. There should be no illusion that an extraordinary parliamentary session will instantly wipe away the discontent which is only the visible part of the many deep-seated problems in the country. This stalemate cannot go on.
Source:Bangkok Post
October 20, 2020 23:03 UTC
Tuesday: 9 new Covid cases | Bangkok Post: learning
A health worker performs a free test in a mobile Covid-19 novel coronavirus swab testing site on Khao San Road in Bangkok on Oct 12, 2020. The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration said six of the cases were army engineers aged 25-49 who returned from South Sudan on Oct 12. Their infections were confirmed by a second test on day 3 after their arrival. His infection was detected by a second test on day 7. Of the total 3,700 cases, 3,491 (94.35%) have recovered, including three discharged over the past 24 hours, while 150 patients were in hospitals.
Source:Bangkok Post
October 20, 2020 05:37 UTC
Virus, what virus? India gets back to work
Virus, what virus? India gets back to workAs India enters the October-November festival season, there are fears the number of coronavirus infections will spike. SINNAR, India: India is on course to top the world in coronavirus cases, but from Maharashtra's whirring factories to Kolkata's thronging markets, people are back at work -- and eager to forget the pandemic for festival season. - Hunger or virus -Sunil Kumar Sinha, a principal economist at the Mumbai-based India Ratings and Research agency, said Indians faced a stark choice. If you completely take your foot off the brakes, the virus will take off too," Mukherjee told AFP.
Source:Bangkok Post
October 20, 2020 03:45 UTC
Bottle-fed babies ingest 'millions' of microplastics: study
Bottle-fed babies ingest 'millions' of microplastics: studyVery little is known about the knock-on health consequences of microplastic consumption, and the study authors warned against undue alarm. PARIS: Bottle-fed babies may ingest more than a million pieces of microplastics each day, new research showed Monday highlighting the abundance of plastics in our food products. Over a 21-day test period, the team found that the bottles released between 1.3 and 16.2 million plastic microparticles per litre. They estimated that the average bottle-fed baby could be ingesting 1.6 million plastic microparticles every day during the first 12 months of their lives. The authors told AFP that the aim of the research was "not to worry parents" about the potential health risks of bottle microplastics.
Source:Bangkok Post
October 20, 2020 00:00 UTC