Hua Hin Forum

An update from out in the sticks (Ban Krut in Bang Saphan). Heard yesterday that the owner of our local restaurant is one of the vaccine registration volunteers and could help us register. All that would be needed was a Thai ID, or, in my case, a passport plus telephone numbers. My Thai landlord and I went this morning, gave her our ID /passport etc and off she zooms on her moped to what we understood to be the village public health office. 5 mins later she returns and says my Thai landlord is registered and will be contacted with an appointment time and place but I could not be registered as it’s still Thais only.

No great surprise but on the bright side at least we know the process is slowly being put in place in more rural areas

Osandpo wrote: ↑Tue May 18, 2021 1:10 pm An update from out in the sticks (Ban Krut in Bang Saphan).
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5 mins later she returns and says my Thai landlord is registered and will be contacted with an appointment time and place but I could not be registered as it’s still Thais only.

Another example of the massive inconsistencies with everything here. We're not far from you in the same amphur and they're encouraging farangs to register at the local clinic. Remains to be seen if any of us will ever get a jab though.

An elderly Thai neighbour who registered yesterday was given a vaccination date in August. Looks like it'll be a while yet before we are even seriously considered!

That's ridiculous and goes against everything this so-called government is spouting.

Maybe I’m more of an optimist.

I simply see it as evidence of (1) poor advance planning & policy execution (2) that warped version of krengjai where nobody wants to tell people the inconvenient parts of the truth, which leads to misleading over-promising.

I still believe we will be vaccinated (once sufficient supplies are available and the political risk is lower) and that they are trying to figure out how to do that, given all the wide variety of legal (and illegal) non-Thai residents here.

caller wrote:Good to see that Thailand is achieving results above the norm. Thai people must be special.

They don't seem all that special when it comes to the AZ vaccine. UK had similar results in larger samples.

More than 90% of Britons develop antibodies to coronavirus after having one dose of the AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccines, and almost 100% do so after their second jab, research shows.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... tudy-finds

Prayut puts brakes on walk-in jabs
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has put the brakes on walk-in services for Covid-19 vaccinations to prevent people flocking to the inoculation sites and becoming upset if they fail to secure a jab, a government source said.

During a cabinet meeting held via videoconference, Gen Prayut said he disagreed with vaccination walk-ins because people would turn up in droves causing chaos at the selected locations, particularly in Bangkok which has a large population, the source said.

The prime minister wanted a new vaccination format such as on-site registration, the source quoted the PM as saying.

Currently, the Mor Prom app serves as the main channel for people to book their appointments, and concerned agencies have been instructed to work on preventing any technical glitches that may leave the app unable to work properly, the source said.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... lk-in-jabs

Transalation: the govt does not want people to get angry because they've been lying all along and do not have enough jabs for everyone.

I agree with putting the brakes on the walk-in service. It sounded so easy/attractive, but was always fraught with potential problems. The official reason is just one of many. We are talking the management of vaccination of 66M people twice.

Before the vaccine, Thailand being Thailand needs to know a shit load of information. If all of this has to be done at the vaccine centre it will be an administration nightmare. What will happen to that information? How many walk-inners will know, or reveal their medical history? How will they know the accuracy of the information? In theory, walk-in sounded simple. In reality, when combined with the Thai love for paperwork, it is totally impractical. How will they keep track of who has had and who hasn't had a vaccine? Yes, a simple IT would do it, but simple IT and Thailand shouldn't be in the same sentence. I can see the analyst now............... I've got a QR Code, how can I write an application to record people that will incorporate my shiny QR Code?

In an instance like this, surely they should be looking at buying a proved booking system similar to the UK. Of course, to do that there will need to be some sort of joined up heath care system sitting behind Thai Health to start with.

caller wrote: ↑Mon May 17, 2021 6:52 pm Good to see that Thailand is achieving results above the norm. Thai people must be special.

Those results are not above the norm. The figures of people developing antibodies (at least for the AZ vaccine, haven't seen figures for SinoVac) is as per the clinical studies.

They have been doing walk in vacs where my other half works in Bkk. The event hall that is being used looks the size of a footy pitch! Anyway, hardly anyone has been turning up, so today 20 of her staff were vaccinated and no doubt other staff took advantage as well. I presume it won't open tomorrow.

caller wrote: ↑Wed May 19, 2021 6:21 pm They have been doing walk in vacs where my other half works in Bkk. The event hall that is being used looks the size of a footy pitch! Anyway, hardly anyone has been turning up, so today 20 of her staff were vaccinated and no doubt other staff took advantage as well. I presume it won't open tomorrow.

Any idea what vaccine was given? Was this walk in for Thais only?

sateeb wrote: ↑Wed May 19, 2021 6:58 pm
Any idea what vaccine was given? Was this walk in for Thais only?

I was just coming back to add that. Sinovac only, which might explains why not many are turning up. I asked about whether I could just turn up and was told it was meant to be for Thais only. Apparently they are not getting AZ until the end of June, but it's all immaterial now that Prayut has stopped it.

Sinovac only, which might explains why not many are turning up.

And Prayut stopped it on concerns of safety with huge numbers turning up at once!!!

Covid-19 vaccines have spawned nine new billionaires
Profits from Covid-19 jabs have helped at least nine people become billionaires, a campaign group said on Thursday, calling for an end to pharmaceutical corporations' "monopoly control" on vaccine technology.

"Between them, the nine new billionaires have a combined net wealth of $19.3 billion (15.8 billion euros), enough to fully vaccinate all people in low-income countries 1.3 times," The People's Vaccine Alliance said in a statement.

The alliance, a network of organisations and activists campaigning for an end to property rights and patents for inoculations, said its figures were based on the Forbes Rich List data.

"These billionaires are the human face of the huge profits many pharmaceutical corporations are making from the monopoly they hold on these vaccines," said Anna Marriott from charity Oxfam, which is part of the alliance.

In addition to the new mega-rich, eight existing billionaires have seen their combined wealth increase by $32.2 billion thanks to the vaccine rollout, the alliance said.

Topping the list of new vaccine billionaires were the CEO of Moderna Stephane Bancel, and his BioNTech counterpart Ugur Sahin.

Three other neobillionaires are co-founders of the Chinese vaccine company CanSino Biologics.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/21188 ... aign-group

I would imagine a number of Thai politicians and oligarchs have made a fair bit out of it also

The galling part is that governments subsidize the pharmaceutical companies to do the research then, the pharmas charge the govt. exorbitant prices to buy the drugs and at the end of the year the cos. pay no taxes.

I won't go into the revolving door between the FDA and the drug makers.