Baan Dusit Thani, Dusit International’s unique group of restaurants in the heart of Bangkok, is giving diners a chance to enjoy complimentary accommodation of up to two nights at participating Dusit Hotels and Resorts in Thailand.
From now until October 31, diners who spend Bt7,000 or more on food and beverage at any of the outlets in the Baan Dusit Thani complex – Benjarong Thai Restaurant, Thien Duong Vietnamese restaurant, or the Dusit Gourmet and Garden Bar – will be instantly rewarded with a Dusit Treats Stay Voucher redeemable for a midweek stay at a Dusit property of their choice through March 31 next year.
Voucher holders can choose to spend one night at Dusit Thani Hua Hin, Dusit Thani Pattaya, Dusit Thani Krabi Beach Resort, dusitD2 Ao Nang Krabi, Dusit Suites Hotel Ratchadamri, Pathumwan Princess MBK Centre or ASAI Bangkok Chinatown or two nights at Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket or dusitD2 Chiang Mai.
Voucher holders who are members of Dusit Gold will receive an exclusive complimentary room upgrade.
Gen. Gary Thomas, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps
By The Washington Post · Missy Ryan · NATIONAL, HEALTH, NATIONAL-SECURITY, HEALTH-NEWS WASHINGTON – A senior military official who was quarantining after interaction with another uniformed leader who contracted covid-19 has tested positive for the coronavirus, the Marine Corps said on Wednesday. Gen. Gary Thomas, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, received the positive test a day after he began quarantining, the service said in a statement.
“In accordance with established Marine Corps COVID policies, General Thomas will continue to quarantine at home. He is experiencing mild symptoms, but otherwise is feeling well,” the statement said.
Covid-19 is the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
Thomas is the second senior uniformed official whose diagnosis was announced this week, following news that Adm. Charles Ray, the vice commandant of the Coast Guard, tested positive on Monday. Ray and Thomas were among the senior officials who attended a meeting at the Pentagon on Friday. Another was Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper was traveling last week and did not attend the meeting.
Now, those that attended are isolating at home where, officials say, they remain able to work. Officials on Wednesday said the group, which included the top officials from the Army, Air Force and Navy, took a second coronavirus test Wednesday. If they receive three negative results, they are expected to return to their offices as early as next week.
Jonathan Hoffman, a spokesman for Esper, said in a statement that the Defense Department would follow guidelines established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for isolation and contact tracing.
“At this time we have no additional senior leader positive test results to report,” he said.
It’s not clear whether the outbreak among senior uniformed officials is related to an event the White House held on Sept. 27 for the families of fallen servicemembers, which was attended by President Donald Trump, Milley, Ray and other senior uniformed officials.
By The Washington Post · Laurie McGinley, Yasmeen Abutaleb, Carolyn Y. Johnson · NATIONAL, HEALTH, POLITICS, SCIENCE-ENVIRONMENT, HEALTH-NEWS WASHINGTON – The White House on Tuesday, after weeks of delay, approved tough new standards for coronavirus vaccines – but only after the Food and Drug Administration unilaterally published the guidelines on its website as part of briefing materials for outside vaccine advisers.
The standards, which would be applied to an emergency use authorization for a vaccine, are the same as ones the agency proposed weeks ago. In many ways, they are similar to the standards for a traditional approval. But the White House, worried that the criteria would delay authorization of a vaccine, presumably beyond the Nov. 3 election, decided to sit on the guidance.
One of the pharmaceutical companies at the forefront of efforts to develop a vaccine, Pfizer, on Tuesday declared its support for the agency in its struggle with the White House. Albert Bourla, the company’s chief executive, said on Twitter, “Pfizer has never discussed [FDA’s] vaccine guidelines with the White House and will never do so as it could undermine the agency’s independence.” He said the agency’s independence “is today more important than ever as public trust in [covid-19] vaccine development has been eroded by the politicization of the process.”
The delayed clearance by the White House occurred days after President Donald Trump accused the FDA of being “political” in fashioning the guidance and after The Washington Post reported that White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was demanding detailed justification from the agency about the criteria. Meadows’s action raised fears the White House would thwart or block standards designed to boost public trust in a vaccine, according to individuals familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
The FDA, as requested, provided the White House with additional data, but nothing happened, according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not have permission to talk publicly about the issue. On Tuesday, tired of the delay, the FDA circumvented the White House by publishing the criteria online as part of a briefing package for a meeting with its vaccine advisory committee that is scheduled for Oct. 22.
Shortly after the standards were published, the White House approved the vaccine guidance, according to the official.
The guidance is far more rigorous than what was used for emergency clearance of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug used in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, or convalescent plasma, which is taken from people who have recovered from covid-19 and whose antibodies might offer a measure of protection to other patients. It is an effort to shore up confidence in the vaccine development process and the FDA, which has made missteps during the pandemic.
The guidelines recommend that participants in late-stage vaccine clinical trials be followed for a median of at least two months, starting after they receive a second vaccine shot – which experts said could make it difficult, though not impossible, for a vaccine to be authorized before the election.
On Tuesday night, Trump issued a tweet proclaiming, “New FDA Rules make it more difficult for them to speed up vaccines for approval before Election Day. Just another political hit job!” The president tagged FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn at the end of the tweet.
The Post reported Sept. 22 that the FDA was poised to issue a tough new standard for an emergency authorization of a coronavirus vaccine. As a sign the vaccine works, the agency said it would want to see at least five severe cases of covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, in the placebo group for each trial, and some cases of the disease in older people. Assuming there weren’t cases – or not as many – in the group receiving the vaccine, that would be a signal that a shot is working.
At a news conference Sept. 23, President Trump said the FDA plan sounded like “a political move” and warned the White House might reject it.
Even as the White House rattled sabers, the head of the FDA section that oversees vaccines repeatedly said in public he would stick to the criteria and that he had told vaccine companies weeks ago what he was looking for to grant an emergency-use authorization.
“The companies know what we’re expecting,” Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said last week at an event sponsored by the advocacy group Friends of Cancer Research. He said the publication of the guidance was in large part designed to reassure the public that the FDA would use stringent standards in authorizing a vaccine.
Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA commissioner, said at a symposium on scientific integrity and vaccines Tuesday, “There are few moments I can think of where so much political dust was created by political officials for so little actual practical effect – and perhaps negative effect.”
He added, “The bottom line is FDA is going to stick to the objective criteria that they outlined in the guidance, the [advisory committee] is going to support those principles and the sponsors are going to adhere to them.”
Marks said at the conference that the criteria spelled out in the guidance is an attempt to build trust and confidence in vaccines that receive regulatory approval.
“We’ll continue to be as transparent as we can about what we do, because ultimately we do need to make sure that regardless of where someone comes on the spectrum of their beliefs that they can at least trust in this and feel confident that what comes through our process is something, because we at FDA are comfortable giving that to our families, they will feel comfortable giving it to their families,” Marks said.
He added that the two-month time frame was chosen because data shows that the majority of side effects occur within two to three months of vaccination. For example, he said that side effects such as Guillain-Barre, when the immune system attacks the nerves, could occur about six weeks after vaccination, but an inflammation of the spinal cord would typically happen within three months.
White House signals stronger coronavirus precautions, but Trump continues to resist
Health & BeautyOct 07. 2020A member of the White House cleaning staff sanitizes in the press area on Monday. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Jabin Botsford
By The Washington Post · Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey · NATIONAL, HEALTH, POLITICS, HEALTH-NEWS WASHINGTON – The White House offered an informal nod to coronavirus best practices Tuesday, with mask-wearing prevalent after months of flouting public health recommendations and new internal guidelines for interacting with President Donald Trump, who tested positive for the virus late last week.
But the biggest source of resistance appeared to be Trump himself, who, despite having just come home from a three-night hospitalization, was defiant – lobbying to return immediately to work in the Oval Office, discussing an address to the nation as early as Tuesday evening and clamoring to get back on the campaign trail in the coming days.
At least nine White House employees have now tested positive for the virus, including senior adviser Stephen Miller, who got his positive result late Tuesday, a senior administration official said. Trump’s aides, allies and advisers find themselves grappling with how to implement more safety measures and precautions without displeasing their boss, who continues to say – as he did in a tweet Monday – “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life.”
In a video he recorded maskless from the White House south balcony Monday night, the president also falsely claimed that perhaps he was “immune” to the virus, said he felt “better than 20 years ago” and urged the public to “get out there.”
The result is a bifurcated culture in Trump’s White House and broader orbit, with informal and halting steps toward more rigorous health measures often undermined or upended by the president.
His team, for instance, tried to puzzle out if there was a way for him to safely return to the Oval Office on Tuesday but ultimately nixed the request, said two people familiar with the discussions, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal deliberations.
“The White House really isn’t doing anything you’re supposed to be doing in these situations,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist on the faculty of Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health.
Rasmussen added that while she agreed with Trump’s call not succumb to fear, “we also shouldn’t not take the virus seriously just because President Trump says he feels better and is flying around on Marine One and standing on the balcony like Evita.”
On Monday, the White House Management Office sent out an email to senior staff who routinely interact with Trump, aimed at protecting both the president and his advisers. The memo, obtained by The Washington Post, urges staffers to “limit all foot traffic on the first floor of the West Wing as well as in the Residence” and says that “staff should only go to the Oval Office or the second floor Residence when they are requested and expected.”
For staffers who do visit the Oval Office or the second floor of the residence, where Trump lives and holds meetings, and who expect to be within six feet of the president, the memo also requires that they wash their hands or use hand sanitizer before entering; remove any outer garments; and don personal protective equipment provided in an “Isolation Cart” – including a yellow gown, surgical mask, protective eyewear and gloves.
The White House has not changed its mask guidance and is still following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines that recommend, but do not require, wearing a mask. Several administration officials said that nearly everyone in the White House has been wearing a mask in recent days, including Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, who usually does not sport one.
Rapid coronavirus testing is still required for anyone in proximity to Trump, and the White House is also offering testing to members of the White House press corps who worry that they may have been exposed to the virus in the past week, an administration official said.
There has been minimal staffing in the White House since Trump’s positive diagnosis, officials said.
“We feel comfortable working here, those of us who are still here,” Alyssa Farah, the White House communications director, said in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday.
Privately, however, career administration officials and mid-level and junior staffers say they are scared – nervous about coming into work and wary of being the next to test positive.
Trump, meanwhile, has been pushing to give a national address of some sort, said two people familiar with his discussions. There were active negotiations Tuesday about the president speaking to the nation that night, although no plan ultimately emerged, one of those people added.
The White House Operations team, the White House Medical Unit and the chief of staff’s office have sought to present Trump with a menu of things he can safely do until he’s declared coronavirus-free, a senior administration official said.
Trump will probably continue to push out videos on social media and, at his request, increase his public visibility by a bit more each day – including offering updates on non-coronavirus topics as early as the end of this week, the official added.
Tuesday night, Trump was expected to hold a call with campaign volunteers in Georgia to urge them to continue working on his behalf, said someone familiar with his schedule.
The president wrote in a tweet Tuesday morning that he was looking forward to attending the second presidential debate – in Miami on Oct. 15 – and he has expressed eagerness to return to the campaign trail, according to several people familiar with his thinking.
Advisers are already planning campaign events with large crowds, including bus tours, airport hangar rallies, speeches at local centers and more, campaign officials said. The president’s message in the final stretch, one Republican official involved in the campaign added, is likely to be: “You can beat this. It shouldn’t stop your life.”
Asked specifically what precautions Trump plans to take before appearing again on a debate stage with Democratic nominee Joe Biden – including whether he will do so only after testing negative – Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh responded in an email, “The president intends to debate in person.”
And asked about Trump’s campaign plans, including if heading back out in public will be contingent on a negative test, Murtaugh referred to the president’s own words, writing, “The president is eager to get back to the campaign trail.”
In private moments, Trump sometimes seems aware of the political problems posed by his handling of the coronavirus – both the pandemic roiling the nation and his personal cases. He recently told an adviser not to reveal their coronavirus diagnosis, as the Wall Street Journal first reported, but the adviser disclosed it anyway.
The president has also pressed his political advisers on how his hospitalization is playing politically. “How’s it working out?” he asked, according to one person familiar with his calls.
Public polling in recent days has painted a long uphill climb for reelection, including a CNN/SSRS poll released Tuesday showing Trump falling to 16 points behind Biden, who leads 57 to 41%.
A GOP group working to elect Senate Republicans conducted polling over the weekend in four states – Colorado, Georgia, Montana and North Carolina – as Trump was hospitalized. The president’s numbers dropped “significantly” in every state, falling by about five points in all four.
“The president is in real trouble,” said one of the group’s operatives, who is also close to the White House.
Many of Trump’s allies and advisers see his response to his own illness as a missed opportunity. Some had hoped that he would emerge from his hospital stay slightly humbled, with a newfound display of seriousness and empathy, and would receive a boost of public sympathy.
But so far, that has not happened. Internal Republican polling has consistently shown that the coronavirus – and not taking it seriously enough – remains the president’s electoral albatross. They believe it has caused the president to lose support among senior citizens and suburban women, both key voting blocs.
Several former administration officials said they were appalled at the president’s conduct over the past few days, as well as the behavior of the people around him. One such official described Trump’s decision to leave the hospital Sunday for a ride in his presidential limo, which required two Secret Service agents to be in the car with him, as “so monstrously wrong.”
“In my lifetime, it was the most appalling thing I’ve seen a president do for a political stunt,” the former official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share a candid opinion. “It’s genuinely unhinged.”
The approach in Trump’s orbit stands in marked contrast to that in other parts of the White House. Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, has told his team to stay home until “further notice.” And the East Wing, where Melania Trump works, has long taken more stringent precautions than White House officials have required.
Early in the pandemic, the first lady’s staff all began working from home whenever possible, coming into the office only for events and travel – and even then with just a skeletal team, an administration official said. Everyone in the East Wing wore masks, and sometimes when doing events with her husband, Melania requested that no one personally staff her, to limit the number of aides at any given event, this official added.
After last week’s outbreak, in which the first lady also tested positive, her chief of staff, Stephanie Grisham, again instructed all East Wing staffers to stay at home.
Some entire corridors of the West Wing were empty Tuesday. A number of advisers who said they’d worked in the White House in recent days did not return with Trump back in the building.
White House spokesman Judd Deere, in an emailed statement, said Trump will continue to receive “around-the-clock medical care,” provided by the White House Medical Unit, which functions “out of a state-of-the-art clinic.”
“The American people can rest assured with the president’s return that the White House is taking every precaution necessary to protect not only him and the first family, but every staff member working on the complex to support the federal government’s operations consistent with CDC guidelines and best practices,” Deere said. “Physical access to the president will be significantly limited and appropriate PPE will be worn when near him.”
But some have their doubts about whether the president and his team are really taking adequate precautions – and modeling good behavior for the nation. Referring to Trump’s maskless appearance on the White House balcony Monday, Rasmussen said the president may not have conveyed the vigor and stamina he intended.
“I supposed the message he was trying to send was that he’s super strong and defeated covid, but it was obvious even to me that he was gasping for breath, and that doesn’t suggest he has, in fact, defeated covid,” Rasmussen said. “It’s really premature to be declaring victory, and it’s also a really bad message to send.”
By The Washington Post · Amy Goldstein, Frances Stead Sellers · NATIONAL, HEALTH, POLITICS, SCIENCE-ENVIRONMENT, HEALTH-NEWS WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s tweet Tuesday that he looks forward to next week’s presidential debate alarmed some medical and public health experts, who warned that his coronavirus infection might still be contagious then and could endanger others.
A day after the president was discharged from a three-night hospital stay, during which he was put on an aggressive mix of treatments usually reserved for the most severe cases of covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, he continued to project an image of being fully in charge and able to conduct all his regular activities.
Some outside health experts, however, said Trump’s determination to attend the Oct. 15 debate is part of a pattern of recklessness that has defined his response to the pandemic, with the president and his aides not wearing masks or observing social distancing. At least 19 people on his staff or his campaign, or who attended recent White House events, have tested positive for the virus in the past week.
On Tuesday, White House physician Sean Conley continued to give upbeat reports on Trump’s recovery, issuing a three-sentence memo saying the president “reports no symptoms” and has stable vital signs. “Overall, he continues to do extremely well,” the memo said.
Neither Conley nor other White House officials have said how they will determine when it might be safe for Trump to go out in public – for his own health, or for others near him.
Several outside medical experts suggested that the president’s actions indicate he is unchastened by his own experience contracting a virus that has killed more than 210,000 Americans – or by the spreading infections among his own staff and supporters.
Trump’s removal of his mask moments after returning to the White House on Monday evening, and his subsequent assertion that he would appear at the debate “is irresponsible and reckless, and frankly that borders on malicious,” said Michael Mina, a physician and assistant professor of epidemiology at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
“We should be throwing the kitchen sink at him, not just for treatment, but for ensuring that he is safe to be out in society and he is not imposing a risk to citizens of this country,” Mina said.
Mina noted that the president’s medical team has many ways to determine the status of his infection. Beyond administering the “PCR” test, considered the most definitive way of assessing whether someone has the virus, he said doctors could ask him to cough onto a petri dish to see whether the virus grows, swab his nose to culture the specimen, or administer antigen tests to see whether he has the virus’s protein in his nose.
“The average American doesn’t have tools to go through this,” Mina said, “but the president is a very special person. We have tools to do this.”
Guidelines from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that covid-19 patients self-isolate for 10 days after their symptoms begin. The CDC also said they should not go out unless they have been fever-free for at least 24 hours, and their other symptoms should be improving.
Covid-19 patients who were seriously ill may need to stay isolated for as long as 20 days after their first symptoms, the guidelines say.
The CDC does not define a serious case, and Trump’s doctors have withheld certain information that would provide a clearer picture of his medical condition – for instance how low his blood-oxygen levels dropped on two occasions or whether CT scans showed signs of pneumonia or lung damage.
If Trump developed symptoms late last week, the 10-day window would end before the debate.
Outside doctors debated whether the 10-day period for mild and moderate cases should apply to the president and whether it would be premature for him to go out in public next week.
Thomas File Jr., an Akron, Ohio, infectious-disease specialist and president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said that Summa Health, the company for which he works, generally follows the CDC guidelines. In all but the most serious cases, he said, “we would allow someone to go into the general public within 10 days of their symptoms appearing.”
Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said most patients are no longer infectious after 10 to 14 days. But given the known timing of when Trump began feeling ill, “he’ll be really close. All you have to do is be wrong within a day or two, and he could easily still be infected . . . it’s going to be tight.”
Rajesh Gandhi, an infectious-diseases physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, said the CDC guidelines make sense but emphasized that covid-19 cases vary widely. About 80 percent of people have no symptoms or are mildly to moderately ill. Another 15% are hospitalized with serious cases like the president’s, while the remaining 5% become critically ill, Gandhi said.
“I would reiterate on average that we are most cautious around the week or so after the onset of symptoms,” Gandhi said.
Mina said the CDC guidelines are an average for a whole population, balancing risk of transmitting the virus with the desire for people to return to jobs and other aspects of their normal interactions.
“The president is in a position he should be serving as the absolute gold standard,” he said, adding that Trump should get every possible method of testing, “given that he is the president, given that he goes to things that have so many people and have so many opportunities for transmission to occur.”
Despite some apparently labored breathing by the president, experts saw little to be concerned about in Trump’s brief appearance at the White House.
“What I saw was that he took a couple of deep breaths standing up there. He had just climbed up two flights with a mask on his face,” said David Hager a specialist in pulmonary and critical-care medicine at Johns Hopkins. “I think he looks well.”
Other doctors thought it might be premature for Trump to be making plans for his own health, simply because of the unpredictable course of the disease. John Zerlo, chief of the infectious-diseases division of Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health, said that any plans the president makes could change, depending on the progression of a disease that sometimes fools physicians and patients alike.
People who look and feel well can suddenly crash and need to be put on ventilators, Zerlo said. “If [the president’s doctors] are not waiting at the ready to do that, they would be foolish. This infection is pretty capricious.”
Kevin Sheth, a critical-care neurologist at Yale Medicine, said that the president should be monitored and tested for cognitive issues. “You want to survive the respiratory piece,” he said, “but we know there are neurological complications.” Those can include problems such as stroke and inflammation and longer-term cognitive changes.
“For somebody in a leadership position, that’s what I’d be concerned about,” Sheth said. “Clearly the virus in some patients is having effects on the brain.”
Many public health officials and some physicians said they were angered by the symbolism of the president’s tweets and actions since his diagnosis – and the damage they think he has inflicted on the safety messages they have been trying to convey to curb the nation’s worst public health crisis in more than a century.
Hours before his discharge Monday, Trump tweeted: “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life.”
His tweet also said, “I feel better than I did 20 years ago!” Outside physicians noted that the treatment Trump has been receiving includes dexamethasone, a steroid used to treat inflammation that has been shown to increase the survival rate among the sickest covid-19 patients. The drug’s side effects can include insomnia, irritability or a feeling of euphoria.
“He really probably does feel a lot better,” said Keith Hamilton, an infectious-disease specialist and associate professor of Clinical Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. “Steroids make everyone feel better.”
Several physicians said they had seen patients on the steroid become angry, confused or manic, but that such instances were rare and typically occurred when people received high doses.
Al Sommer, former dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who has used the public health tools to wage global battles against diseases such as smallpox, said, the president is thinking short term, about his own recovery and reelection.”But the pandemic has far from run its course.”
Trump displays “an outrageous, irresponsible disregard of the advice of our best, most informed medical knowledge and public health practice,” Sommer contended.
Peter Beilenson, director of Sacramento County’s Department of Health Services, where coronavirus cases have seesawed, called the president’s actions “totally irresponsible” as he described his own efforts to counter people’s desire to do away with public health measures as the dangers seem to wane.
“This is a guy who got taxpayer-funded world’s best treatment, acting as if it were no big deal and we should deal with it,” Beilenson said. Beyond the 210,000 deaths, he noted, are countless patients known as long haulers – “people who have extensive problems, respiratory, cardiac, neurological, for months, maybe permanently. We don’t know.”
Josh Sharfstein, vice dean for public health practice and community engagement at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said that even if the president wins his own battle against the virus, he is damaging Americans’ well-being. The confusion he causes is to the benefit of the virus,” Sharfstein said.
การขยายขอบเขตของลูกค้าอุตสาหกรรมของโครงการโรงไฟฟ้าแบบ Small Power Producer (SPP) เป็นวงกว้างขึ้น และเพิ่มประสิทธิภาพโครงการผลิตไฟฟ้าโดยเอกชนที่ผลิตไฟฟ้าใช้เองหรือจำหน่ายให้ลูกค้าตรงโดยไม่ขายเข้าระบบของการไฟฟ้า (Independent Power Supply: IPS) โครงการผลิตไฟฟ้าด้วยพลังงานทดแทน
Baan Dusit Thani 
8 ตุลาคม 2563 – 16:54 น.
8 ตุลาคม 2563 – 09:22 น.
A member of the White House cleaning staff sanitizes in the press area on Monday. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Jabin Botsford 
6 ตุลาคม 2563 – 00:47 น.
6 ตุลาคม 2563 – 00:40 น.
SootinClaimon.Com 