Expats are included in Thailand’s vaccination plan

[Guest]

1 hour ago, vinapu said:

as rich countries are slowly but surely approaching state of full vaccination , at least for all willing to, more and more vaccines will be available  for the rest of world and we may rapid decrease in case there as well unless , God  forbid , some 'lambda ' or ' kappa' strain will appear   

That's a good point. 

For example, the UK vaccination programme is already slowing down, as almost 90% have received one dose & some of the remaining 10% will be anti-vaxxers.   There has been talk of a booster programme in the autumn, but that is likely to be a maximum of 1 dose per person and might not happen at all if recent reports of antibody levels holding up better than expected are accepted.

So it then depends on which other nations manage to procure the surplus vaccines.

Meanwhile, the Bangkok Post were previously suggesting about 60% of the vaccines would be from domestic production.  If the local source were shipping large volumes, the Thai press would no doubt be carrying high profile & very positive reports.    Maybe even with a high profile visit to maximize the good publicity ?   We are seeing no such reports.      

[vinapu]

1 hour ago, Patanawet said:

I don't understand why there aren't vaccine 'factories' springing up all over the world as there is going to be a huge demand for vaccines in the long term.

 

probably it's not as easy as it sounds , vaccine production must be quite complex process so logistic of securing supplies, and finding and training staff must be worked out

[spoon]

3 hours ago, vinapu said:

as rich countries are slowly but surely approaching state of full vaccination , at least for all willing to, more and more vaccines will be available  for the rest of world and we may rapid decrease in case there as well unless , God  forbid , some 'lambda ' or ' kappa' strain will appear   

Too late, there is kappa and lambda strain already.

https://m.timesofindia.com/life-style/health-fitness/health-news/covid-variants-difference-between-delta-delta-plus-lambda-and-kappa-variants/photostory/84336227.cms?picid=84336247

[spoon]

2 hours ago, vinapu said:

Duplicate

 

[PeterRS]

2 hours ago, vinapu said:

as rich countries are slowly but surely approaching state of full vaccination , at least for all willing to, more and more vaccines will be available  for the rest of world and we may rapid decrease in case there as well unless , God  forbid , some 'lambda ' or ' kappa' strain will appear   

I wonder why on earth the Japanese are donating vaccines to Thailand. Japan only has 17% of its population fully vaccinated and is about to host a spectator-less Olympics. It's a bit like Thailand signing a contract last year with a local manufacturer for 10 million doses of the AZ vaccine a month, only for the public to be informed just recently that at least 40% of those doses will be sent overseas. Something seems really mad here.

[spoon]

Few possibilities, with the top one would be japan prefer moderna and pfizer, and have ordered enough of those vaccines, which made their AZ vaccines unused. For that reason, donating is better than letting those vaccine expires and go to waste like some countries elsewhere. Another reason is they are donating to hard hitting countries in south east asia, while i believe japan is doing well so far keeping the virus under control in their country. Of course there is always benefit to donating in need items as a diplomatic way to strengthen relationship, and it goes a long way with asian countries.

[Riobard]

2 hours ago, z909 said:

Meanwhile, the Bangkok Post were previously suggesting about 60% of the vaccines would be from domestic production.  If the local source were shipping large volumes, the Thai press would no doubt be carrying high profile & very positive reports.    Maybe even with a high profile visit to maximize the good publicity ?   We are seeing no such reports.      

But you can read between the lines … AstraZeneca conjoined with Siam BioScience for its sole site of S/E Asia mass production. Ties to royal family, no vaccine manufacturing history whatsoever, fell short of first delivery domestically and internationally, which I believe was set at a corresponding 1:2 volume ratio. The kicker is that according to ‘majeste’ defamation law inclusive of potential prison penalty, overt critical appraisal is muzzled. I imagine that the production is chugging along as one would expect growing pains. For perspective, within production targets the initial fill-and-finish is impressive. If you judge according to the vast need it will always appear substandard.

[vinapu]

32 minutes ago, PeterRS said:

 It's a bit like Thailand signing a contract last year with a local manufacturer for 10 million doses of the AZ vaccine a month, only for the public to be informed just recently that at least 40% of those doses will be sent overseas. 

it could be included in licensing conditions, otherwise countries without manufacturing capabilities would wait helplessly for ' omega ' variant

[vinapu]

54 minutes ago, spoon said:

Too late, there is already kappa and lambda strain already.

 

o shit, lets make it 'epsilon and 'theta'

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, vinapu said:

o shit, lets make it 'epsilon and 'theta'

We have those as well.

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/mutations-that-help-epsilon-variant-evade-the-bodys-immune-response-7397390/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SARS-CoV-2_Theta_variant

[PeterRS]

33 minutes ago, vinapu said:

it could be included in licensing conditions, otherwise countries without manufacturing capabilities would wait helplessly for ' omega ' variant

It could indeed. But my question then would be: why did the Prime Minister announce that the locally made AZvaccine  would be the only one to be used in Thailand and that it would provide 10 million doses per month. Forget that it is behind schedule. Why would the Prime Minister wait about six months before announcing that he had misled the public and that the number of doses for Thailand would in fact be less than 10 million since 40% or more would be for overseas? Even on June 2 as this article stresses the government was still saying there would be 10 million doses per month for Thailand from this month.

"AstraZeneca signed with Siam Bioscience last year to be its vaccine production and distribution center in Southeast Asia. It said that the vaccines would be ready for export to other Southeast Asian countries in July.

"As part of the plan, AstraZeneca has to deliver 6 million doses to Thailand in June, and 10 million doses monthly from July to November, with a final 5 million doses in December."

https://apnews.com/article/thailand-coronavirus-vaccine-coronavirus-pandemic-business-health-2bf0cf9f527908b214d32db3092edf89

[vinapu]

4 hours ago, z909 said:

We have those as well.

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/mutations-that-help-epsilon-variant-evade-the-bodys-immune-response-7397390/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SARS-CoV-2_Theta_variant

that's good news , with that close to 'omega " there will be no more letters and virus can't mutate any further so pandemic will be history soon

[PeterRS]

8 hours ago, vinapu said:

that's good news , with that close to 'omega " there will be no more letters and virus can't mutate any further so pandemic will be history soon

And perhaps no human race? 

[vinapu]

15 minutes ago, PeterRS said:

And perhaps no human race? 

no, that's too pessimistic

[Guest]

I presume the virus will carry on mutating for ever.    However, we will probably find a way of coping with it and living as normal. 

After vaccination, it appears death rates may be no worse than flu & before 2019 no one would have been taken seriously for suggesting we lock down the country for flu outbreaks.    So one way forward is to vaccinate those who want it, then open countries up.   This is what we are already seeing in some countries.   

There is some resistance.   Perhaps because not everyone seems capable of rationally comparing death rates for different causes of death.    The reality is, that after thousands of years, we still don't have a way of preventing all premature deaths and we never will.   So some perspective is needed.

Compared with all of history, living in the 21st century is as good as it gets.

In some of our countries, life expectancy is still better than 20 years ago. 

We're not having to deal with plagues like The Black Death which wiped out over half the population in Europe.  Also, major wars were usually far worse than covid.   

 

 

[Patanawet]

I wonder what brought the misnamed Spanish Flu to an end in 1920. No vaccines in those days.

They did use very crude masks.

[kokopelli]

People gained immunity after exposure or died.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, kokopelli said:

People gained immunity after exposure or died.

Yes.   We've had thousands of years of natural selection, which includes previous epidemics far worse than this one. 

People forget how lucky we are to have sophisticated testing, genetic sequencing and the ability to design vaccines that work first time.   

[reader]

From The Thaiger

US, other embassies offered AZ jab to citizens

Good news! Several foreign governments including the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Austria announced they would offer vaccines for their citizens currently in Thailand. But bad news – supplies ran out long before most people received any notification of the opportunity.

Many countries had claimed it was impossible to assist their expats in Thailand in getting vaccines, while France and China were easily able to offer vaccines to their citizens. Now a tiny supply came and went without a chance for most to get access to vaccination.

The US Embassy finally responded to angry expats who complained they pay US taxes (one of the few countries in the world that taxes citizens living abroad) but don’t even get vaccines as the US donated millions to Southeast Asia and Thailand. They posted around 8:30 am a notice that AstraZeneca vaccines would be available tomorrow at 4 pm in Bangkok, but the online registration form was closed within 2 or 3 hours.

Australia offered a similar flash sale on vaccines, posting this morning that vaccines would be available tomorrow at 1 pm for anyone who registered before 10 am, though the form remains open this afternoon. They say any application received now would be rejected.

Citizens in New Zealand got 2 extra hours to grab their spaces, though that window has closed already as well. Registration was through email, so there’s no registration page to check to see if it remains open or not. Similarly, Austria made an announcement this morning but accepted emails until 2 pm to try to receive one of the 100 vaccines allotted for Austrian citizens.

Vaccinations are set to be given tomorrow at 4 pm in the Bang Sue district of Bangkok at SCG Headquarters, which stresses that anyone without a confirmed appointment will not be given a vaccine. The vaccination opportunity seemed to materialize out of thin air with no information being shared in advance of registration and no details on how the quick window came about.

No one seems to know if this is a one-off chance for foreigners, offered and expired in just a few hours after months of expats struggling and begging for help procuring vaccines. There is nothing scheduled as of yet for future vaccinations for the people who missed this opening.

https://thethaiger.com/coronavirus/us-nz-oz-austrian-citizens-brief-shot-at-covid-19-vaccines

 

[anddy]

5 hours ago, reader said:

to try to receive one of the 100 vaccines allotted for Austrian citizens.

Wow, that's a staggering number, finally an embassy that REALLY helps it's citizens!!!

WTF, that's actually an insult, not a help! What are they thinking? Ridiculous....

[TotallyOz]

Starting 11AM 1 August, the Consular Affairs  Dept, MFA, will launch this new website for online registration for Covid-19 vaccine for foreign residents in Thailand of all age groups and provinces.

https://expatvac.consular.go.th/

[PeterRS]

1 hour ago, TotallyOz said:

Starting 11AM 1 August, the Consular Affairs  Dept, MFA, will launch this new website for online registration for Covid-19 vaccine for foreign residents in Thailand of all age groups and provinces.

www.expatvac.consular.go.th

Given the rate at which several other expat-oriented websites set up by the government have crashed or been offline for many weeks, I wonder who holds out much hope this one will not go the same way.

[TotallyOz]

13 minutes ago, PeterRS said:

Given the rate at which several other expat-oriented websites set up by the government have crashed or been offline for many weeks, I wonder who holds out much hope this one will not go the same way.

@PeterRS Don't fret. The PM has said Covid will be a think of the past by end of August. I believe him. Just like I believe the new boyfriend loves me after our first date.   

I do hope they can get the site working. Hell, I could have done better with no programmers helping me. It wasn't rocket science.

[PeterRS]

1 hour ago, TotallyOz said:

@PeterRS Don't fret. The PM has said Covid will be a think of the past by end of August. I believe him. Just like I believe the new boyfriend loves me after our first date.   

I do hope they can get the site working. Hell, I could have done better with no programmers helping me. It wasn't rocket science.

In the immortal words of Albert Einstein, "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one!"

[TotallyOz]

3 hours ago, PeterRS said:

Given the rate at which several other expat-oriented websites set up by the government have crashed or been offline for many weeks, I wonder who holds out much hope this one will not go the same way.

You are going to be shocked. But, the site is not working for most. And, a full data breach in the first hour. I know this is not typical of Thailand websites.