kurtmartens

Hi all. Not sure were to post this question - moderators can move it it need be. My kids are dual citizens - US / Thailand. Right now I am on assignment outside of Thailand (for the next 4 months). My wife and I noticed that their Thai passports are expired - they are home in Thailand, I am in the US. For her to renew them in Thailand, I have to sign a consent form either at the Thai Consulate in NYC or via mail with the Thai Embassy in DC - of course the Embassy doesn't make this easy as they want my passport not just notarized but actually apostilled by the State Department in DC. Getting State to do this will take weeks and then mailing it to me back to the Embassy, getting them to mail be the stamped consent form and sending that back to Thailand ... I'll be home by then! Question, even though their Thai passports are expired, their US passports are fine. Can they leave Thailand with an expired Thai passport and valid US passport since they will be traveling to the US on their US passports. Or will Thai immigration at the airport kick up a fuss? Which I imagine is the case.

Nope. Arrived 2 (?) weeks ago in Boston. Had that book and the A4 page from McCormick. They looked at the A4 page in Bangkok when I was checking in for the international flight with JAL and when I was in Japan I signed the CDC declaration and that was that. Customs / Immigration at Logan stamped me home and didn't ask for anything else.

Pfizer has always been acceptable to the UK. I think the issue was Thailand being a red list country - which I think Thailand just came off of?

Are they doing the 2nd shots at the Promenade? I had my 2nd at McCormick, because they were doing the 1st jabs at the mall.

Not looking to argue, just curious where you are getting this information? Considering the info in the WHO vaccine booklet is the same as the Thai certificate (including the hospital stamp since the hospital is who fills it out) from the hospital here and frankly the certificate is much easier to fake. Of course I have the original certificate from the hospital as well.

time to move ....

Why would a hospital want to use masks with valves in them? That negates the whole purpose. (We have already had this debate that masks with valves are not intended for health care and are primarily for industrial use.) It also negates the liquid repellent coating that most hospitals want.

Totally agree. And while I am not a UN fan (having worked for them), I think the WHO vaccine book is the closest we have to universal.

What is the inside of the book like? It is similar to the WHO book? Or is it just for the covid vaccines?

It is a UN document, so any country that is a member of the UN technically needs to accept it. It is in English and French because as I said earlier it was developed originally for use with yellow fever vaccines in Africa and French is the predominant language in those countries other than English.

WOW! That just looks old and well travelled! LOL

What?? Pfizer has always been an accepted vaccine for the UK. The issue is that Thailand is still listed as a red country even though they now have the Pfizer vaccine, so the UK still requires 10 days of quarantine. Which I personally think is silly, but I'm not from the UK so ... https://www.gov.uk/guidance/red-list-of-countries-and-territories The purpose of the WHO vaccine passport is that is should be internationally recognized as valid as it is issued by the WHO (UN).

The WHO vaccine passport has been around for years. It is yellow (which is sometimes it is referred as a yellow vaccine passport) and sometimes has the country emblem that you live in or got it in on the front and sometimes just the WHO information. It must be in French and English. And was originally created (I believe) as proof of yellow fever vaccinations for traveling to Africa. https://www.who.int/ihr/IVC200_06_26.pdf I had one originally for yellow fever, but lost it with all the traveling I've done. I simply bought a new one online and when it got here had the hospital stamp my Covid vaccines in it. They were happy to do so, and I wasn't the only Farang with one. I don't know why the Thai CDC told my wife you can only put yellow fever vaccines in it, it has pages in it clearly marked for any other vaccines. Miscommunication or misunderstanding, I don't know.

Great! I have been looking for a podiatrist for years here. ???? (I just looked him up, he is affiliated with Bangkok Hospital in Chiangmai. And did a Foot/Ankle specialty at Univ of Iowa. So his English should be good as well.)

Interesting. When my wife called they told her I would need to show proof of traveling and it would take a week, etc. Rather than be "that Farang", I ended up just ordering a yellow vaccine passport from the WHO and having McCormick stamp the inside with my 2 Pfizer shots. (My wife also asked the guys at the Thai CDC is they would accept the WHO yellow vaccine passport and they told her you can only put yellow fever vaccine information in it, which is of course not the case. But, I've learned not to have these arguments.) I assume you managed in getting the Thai vaccine passport? Which is the same as the WHO vaccine passport?

Not sure if anyone is interested. But I renewed my driver's license recently. Was a breeze! I was a bit concerned as it had expired for nearly 365 days, but when my wife called the DMV they told that due to Covid as long as I renewed it before Day 365 it would be fine. Not sure either of us believed them. But, off we went with a new health certificate from Bangkok Hospital in hand. Long story short ... no issues. Long wait as the place was packed and of course not every window was open. But, left with a new 5 year license. Cost was 550 Baht.

I am not sure I would trust a clinical test of out Bangladesh conducted in a village. The CDC can barely conduct a controlled study right now. I trust the science and know N95 NIOSH masks work, but not sure this study is THE study.

Last year? LOL I am not sure a 5 pack is supposed to last that long. Even the 3M 1860s are technically single use only. Yours must smell ..... ripe mate. LOL

God that is the most annoying thing! Whenever I see that it just makes me cringe. And 9 out of 10 times it is an expat here in Chiangmai.

Why? Over this? They aren't the only airline doing this. Finnar, Air France, Lufthansa, Swissair, Croatia and LATAM have all banned cloth masks and masks with valves now. US airlines are all over the place with their bans and how they are defining what is acceptable and what isn't. Delta for example, "cloth is okay as long as it's tightly woven". Which I can imagine is just going to cause fights at the gate between passengers and agents.

At least surgical grade N95 NIOSH are aerosol resistant. End of the day, something is better than nothing as we are all saying though.

But, why not just wear a "proper" N95 without a valve? I'm honestly just curious. If the airline gate agent decides even covering the valve still means you have a valve, you are screwed. You can't argue with them.

NIOSH says it's not as effective as covering the valve from the inside of the mask. And I think we can all agree NIOSH knows better than any of us? Although a valved N95 is certainly better than a surgical mask by itself I would venture to guess.

I'm just telling you what the study reported. I wouldn't wear a mask with a valve, regardless. The 5% makes it the same as a standard non valved N95 mask. Modifications examined by researchers included covering the valve on the interior of the FFR with commonly available surgical tape, covering it with an ECG pad, and stretching a surgical mask over the outside of the FFR. Covering an FFR with a surgical mask was not the most effective modification. Covering the interior of the valve with either an ECG pad or surgical tape reduced particle emissions to 5%.

Or that the vaccine makes you into a human magnet. I must admit I was upset that when I got home this week from getting my 1st jab of Pfizer and tried to see in my keys would stick to my arm ... and they didn't I was disappointed. LOL