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Riobard

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Everything posted by Riobard

  1. At the movies. Keeping fit, eating responsibly, staying healthy. Back to this subforum in a few weeks anticipating, not ruling out, the gong show some of the usual interlopers turn some of these seminars into.
  2. Not my take at all reading the Reynolds research team’s Cochrane-published work as well as an additional recent CoV-specific systematic review appended here. All concede a substantial risk of bias that undermines the rigour with which a randomized control trial would be best conducted. The few studies labelled RCT actually fall methodologically somewhere between observational and RCT because “control” in a genuine RCT does not simply denote the distinction between an intervention arm and a non-intervention control arm but aims to control, hold constant in multivariate analysis (meaning removal out of the equation via statistical techniques) those factors that can subvert or unintentionally but incorrectly support the outcome under investigation. In contrast, a vaccine RCT narrows the exclusive effect of the inoculation. You cannot match mask-wearers and non-wearers across the many variables otherwise predictive of infection. You cannot objectively measure adherence. The Bangladesh geo-cluster trial reported a modest benefit. This single study doesn’t necessarily support mask wearing; risk of bias permeates both desired and non-effect results. Cherry-picking is not useful in either of two orchards geared to an a priori binary viewpoint. My point is that there is probably no solid basis to either support or dismiss the merit of proper mask use in quantitative (ie, efficacy) terms. The pathogen has the upper hand, similarly immeasurable other than absolute incidence. Try reading and appraising the material without predisposition one way or another to the potential benefits of a risk mitigation concept. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10446908/
  3. I’ve never been asked to show ID along with credit card. However, cards usually function in tap mode on the device without pin, so attendants may want that prerogative if suspicious.
  4. You have the option of 2 towels or 1 towel plus a large terry cloth robe on check-in. If you spread out the robe on a vinyl mattress, not routinely swabbed between sessions because the cleaners are run off their feet and cannot track everything minute by minute that goes on in every private space, you get more cloth coverage over it. Another tip: If you rent a room that is put on your check-out tab, you have it for an hour. Write down the time from the clock at reception, making sure the attendant knows you are aware, and optionally keep the key for 55-59 minutes because you may want to fit in at least one more session. Rookie mistake is to hand back the key after 20-30 minutes and then regret it. The light dimmers generally don’t function well.
  5. The rumours r true, then. U r actually totally a B-list celeb in balls-compressing tights both on and off the ice. 😉
  6. Just transfer from Pairanoiaways to the express train for Whogivzafukistan.
  7. Socks and sucks, a crew is best.
  8. Honest shortlived mistake for a pluralist.😉
  9. Just ask him. You’d be surprised. I am guessing Nicolás Ovando (?) but Caribe Colonial is a sure bet and they’ll all know what’s up as he pretty much has his name painted on a parking spot there. As you are aware any visitor will need to produce ID to the reception. There are post notes on inexpensive tryst facilities in El Condé if you search. The subforum is not that extensive.
  10. FWIW, if you use public transport, take the commuter train westward from where it intersects from the Metro (likely Central station) and get off at the large modern Bangu Shopping. Be mindful that the track directions split at some point and you want the destination (likely marked on train or platform; Santa Cruz) with the endpoint that will have brought you to Bangu. I suggest taking Über from the shopping centre even though it is close to the sauna and will be circuitous due to the complex tangle of roads in that area. I wouldn’t take the bus alone. You probably have to get off at the maternity hospital anyway and make your way from there. Drivers will be familiar with the area due to the shopping, hospitals, and Boate Casa Grande club your destination. Perhaps others will have better or alternative suggestions, for example, don’t use public transport. Also be aware of Sunday train schedules later in the day. The Feira Livre da Glória can be loads of fun and tends to spill over to the west sidewalk around Carnival time. If you get there early enough you may have an opportunity to go up to and inside the mid-eighteenth century Church of Our Lady of Glory on the Hill as it is usually only open Sundays. In fact, you might decompress there for a few minutes following the all-nighter. The aforementioned Sunday Gloria market is formally 07:00-16:00, many of the vast array of stalls winding down earlier, but extended festivities following sales closure. It would be extremely ambitious to squeeze in Bangu same day. Safe travels.
  11. It is now partnered with The Waterside Inn in UK and Chef Alain Roux. I needed no antidote to great local cuisine but it hit the spot as part of a broad range of options and alerted me to Baan Phraya at the hotel’s spa across the river.
  12. Erratum: remove the word for, 2nd from last line above post.
  13. Paradoxically, in the above research PrEP users had higher rates of Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, and Syphilis, all but Syphilis statistically significant, but perhaps an artefact of more frequent behavioural risk events among those on PrEP because greater condom use for STI mitigation among those not on PrEP for would not explain that subgroup’s higher HIV infection rates at 5% or 1 per 30 person-years.
  14. Re: HIV The prevalence of HIV in key populations is so high that the average at-risk person, in incidence terms, will theoretically have seroconverted by the 20-year mark of their sexual activity. Obviously, in contrast to the aforementioned STIs, this is not subject to recidivism. —— Evidence in a recent Bangkok and Pattaya study reveals HIV negative sex workers can certainly obtain and reap benefit from PrEP uptake. Of course, those that are poz can go the antiretroviral TasP route with transmission prevention based on viral suppression.
  15. Re: STIs outside of HIV, though co-morbidity is common … There are a lot of published epidemiological data if you know where to search. Various peer-reviewed journals thematically related to Infectious Diseases; IAS conference oral and poster abstracts; consensus development initiatives comprised of experts gathering together (aka customized Delphi process) pooling data findings critically appraising statistics, impressions, observations; estimating progress towards 2030 global goals, etc. The STI incidence and prevalence among key risk populations (eg, MSM, TG) is staggeringly high and up to minimally a hundred-fold if not the higher end thousand-fold the general Thai population depending on the bacterial or viral pathogen. Prevalence is established cross-sectional-wise at point-of-care testing among candidates presenting for routine screening and/or based on symptoms precipitating assessment. The denominator is the absolute number of those tested. The positive rates are extremely high. Incidence is established where time duration is available, tending to be subgroups willing to enrol and be followed in programs, within which surveillance of infection incidence is tracked. Incidence is depicted as number of infections within a cohort per 100 person-years. This enables an estimate of the average number of new infections for any single high-risk person, say, over a 25 year period of sexual behaviour, example age 20-45. The trend reveals a new infection every few years among key at-risk population individuals. Co-infection is not uncommon. It is likely that gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis are more routinely treated compared to HIV that requires more focused and sustained adherence.
  16. Hahah. Living here, you’d know. Gotta be a better place.
  17. Hunhhh? You are the meaning of patronize if one were to need an apt illustration.
  18. Excluding SARS-CoV-2 time frame wherein most deals were off for uncomplicated travel anywhere, Brazil has had an aggregate of all of two years of visa exemption across decades, hardly a meaningful duration and no appreciable difference in tourist stats June 2019 to March 2020, or 2022 -ish on. But when smoke is incessantly blown out of jackasses blighted by Dunning-Kruger it is bound to obscure the landscape of reality for themselves.
  19. Funny thing is, nobody I know would go to Thailand based on your content here. One would need, in fact needed, to suspend assumptions about the destination’s merit if relying solely on your perspective. That said, there are chaps here without your degree of emotional disturbance that don’t question my visit history and material resources.
  20. And don’t you exemplify it? Yes. That among the worst candidates someone would hold themselves out as a role model? … what a stinking load of hooey.
  21. The chat board is structured in such a way as to easily access those details in a few clicks. You can also access your own.
  22. Not long before COVID Barcelona enforced strict rental platform licensing. It drove down inventory that naturally inflated prices. The city is not fooling around. The license code must be on a listing. Inspectors, a few dozen, armed with apps to track and find attempts at illicit listings.
  23. For some the demand has exited. Sleep is accessed well. No need for nodding off reading. If struck with insomnia I can request the endless ledger depicting his strangely conceived check marks about who has actually been where they say they were.
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