nkg

No.

4 hours ago, madmitch said:

Yes, but the UK also has just issued a list of countries it deems safe for its citizens to visit and Thailand isn't on that list, meaning a strict 10 day self-isolation period upon return. I shouldn't think there's much chance of Britain, or any other country that has similar conditions, allowing Phuket in isolation to be added to a green list.

 

Incidentally, during previous sandbox press reports, The Maldives was sometimes quoted as an example of how mass tourism has opened up during the Covid crisis. Yesterday The Maldives went onto the UK's red list!

True, but you would expect more countries to be added to that list over time, and Thailand as a whole still has very low numbers of deaths and infections.

Anybody who is prepared to fill in all the paperwork, pay for the special Thai covid insurance, pay £100-£200 for an express covid test etc is probably coming for a minimum of a couple of months, so the 10 day self-isolation might not put them off. I hesitate to point this out, but the UK aren't actually doing anything to enforce the 10-day self-isolation ...

17 minutes ago, baansgr said:

As it's predominantly the old and at risk that have been vaccinated....it's unlikely many of this group would want to travel..May receive a few hundred tourists a month...but the tens of thousands they expect just isn't going to happen

The UK is currently vaccinating anyone who is 40 or over.

21 hours ago, webfact said:

The chief of the Private Hospital Association of Thailand has said that the Moderna vaccine against Covid-19 will definitely be available in his members'  hospitals.

So far as I'm aware, the mainstream covid vaccines are only being sold to governments. I wouldn't expect sales to private companies to start much before the end of the year.

If you know differently, I'd be interested to hear it.

40 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

A lot of us figure that's why they haven't been able to conclude a deal in Thailand.  They don't want to follow in the footsteps of Airbus, Rolls Royce and now Toyota, who are recently hit with $$ billions in fines for paying backhanders.  And without backhanders, business just doesn't happen in Thailand.  Unless, like AZ, you tie in with a well connected Thai company.  I'll leave it at that...

Military, aerospace and car manufacture are fiercely competitive industries.

The vaccine manufacturers are not competing - dozens of countries are pleading with them to buy their products. Because we live in Thailand, we sometimes have an exaggerated notion of Thailand's importance in the world.

The truth is, Thailand represents less than 1% of the world's population. Thailand isn't particularly rich - Pfizer may well be out of Thailand's price range. Pfizer have a guaranteed order book for years to come from wealthy nations.

Pfizer probably don't regard Thailand as a very important market for their vaccine. That's why there's no deal.

deleted

15 hours ago, jackdd said:

Because if Pfizer would do this and somebody would make it public, Pfizer would be blamed for price gouging in a pandemic.

So the only way to sell vaccines way above the 20USD (which seems to be the common price) and without risking negative publicity, is through secret deals and NDAs.

How does Pfizer ensure these deals stay secret? They agree to pay backhanders.

 

Come off it. Pfizer are a publicly traded stock capitalized at $217 billion. They made $9 billion profit last year before the pandemic started. What would they do with their illicit profits from their secret deals? They couldn't put the payments through their books. The money would be useless to them. When the secret inevitably came out, tens of billions would be wiped off Pfizer's stock price. Who out of Pfizer's corporate officers would be dumb enough to approve this idea?

Your scenario of secret deals, NDAs and backhanders is pure fantasy. Still, conspiracy theories exist to make people feel that they are important and "in the know", so keep believing ????

I doubt that Thailand can buy any Pfizer at present. There are a lot of other countries in the queue who approved their vaccine and placed their orders several months ago.

6 hours ago, Brunolem said:

Then, there are multiple countries in Africa, such as Sénégal for example, which are doing quite well without vaccination, just by following protocols recommended by eminent specialists, such as French professor Raoult.

If you believe the covid stats coming out of any African nation (with the possible exception of South Africa), you're insane.

Most African nations have barely done any testing, and can only estimate how many of their population have been killed by covid.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hidden-toll-of-covid-in-africa-threatens-global-pandemic-progress/

6 hours ago, zhounan said:

The biggest mistake is to consider vaccination as the only way to end this pandemic.

Well, let's see whether vaccines worked in the UK ...

In January 2021, when few people had been vaccinated, there was an average of over 1000 covid deaths per day in the UK Fast forward to May 2021, and the UK has an average of 15 covid deaths a day.

Not convinced?

23 minutes ago, Danderman123 said:

As do the Thai people. About 1,000 years ago, the Chinese and ancestors of the Thai fought it out for control of Guangdong, and the losing Thai emigrated, leaving behind a scattering in provinces throughout southern China.

 

I am speculating here, but it's possible that any immunity or mitigation of the illness provided by inheritance could come via the people who lived in Southeastern Asia prior to the arrival of the Thai, Vietnamese or Malayans, ie maybe the Mon people, who are now scattered in SE Asia after being displaced by the newer arrivals.  Or not.

 

One fact to watch: Covid-19 is very rare in Tibet. This could be due to inheritance, as well.

 

I am sure this will be a topic of research for many years.

When you look at the covid stats for Asia, almost all the countries with the lowest number of deaths are connected by a land border (Taiwan's people originate from China, Timor-Leste has a tiny population).

Can it really be a coincidence that all the least-affected countries are located in one geographical area? Countries sorted by deaths per 1 million population:

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

7 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

 

 

I love Reuters and Wiki, just would like to hear these plans presented by some government functionary.

 

In that Reuters article: 

 

The country will receive delivery from AstraZeneca ahead of schedule before the second quarter, Kiattaphum Wongrachit, permanent health secretary, said in a statement.

 

"before the second quarter"? Maybe he meant "ends"? So maybe some AZ, from somewhere, by 30 June?

 

 

 

So 61 million AZ doses on order, and some/many/most/all might be produced by SB? 

 

And these will be delivered in batches? Any detail on the bach size and delivery dates?

 

 

I guess I forgot about the 26 m order, and missed the 35 m order. Thanks for those links.

 

Or maybe he 35m "order" is for another vaccine? Why keep that secret?

 

Given the current vaccination rates it will be interesting to see how they ramp up from 10k-20k per day to a 100k+/day.

 

 

 

 

I did a bit of searching, and found this thaivisa.com article from the 5th of January. Regarding details about production from Thailand's AZ factory - I haven't found any specifics. Astra Zeneca are keeping quiet, perhaps wary of making promises after the production issues that they had with the EU's vaccines.

Quote

Thailand's prime minister said on Tuesday his country had ordered an additional 35 million doses of the AstraZeneca Plc COVID-19 vaccine, bringing its total vaccine pipeline to 63 million doses.

7 minutes ago, DLock said:

 

It's been well documented that AZ chose SB as its local manufacturing partner - just type "Siam Bioscience Astra Zenica" into Google and there are many articles that document that - I cannot link them here.

 

In terms of what will be allocated locally, I recall the initial order was 26million doses, but it gets confusing when the Government talks about AZ orders, whether they mean locally, or from elsewhere...and I am sure they have upped that order.

 

Here is one article I can post that summarizes the deal https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30401773

 

Here is another that states of the 200million SB say they will produce per year, 176million will be exported and 26million (I know the numbers don't add up) bound for Thailand https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/30401777

 

So SB may not be the Great White Knight everyone is pinning their hopes on...

 

 

According to Reuters, Thailand made an initial order of 26 million, and ordered another 35 million in January.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-thailand-idUSKBN29A0VF

43 minutes ago, webfact said:

The top countries that have members are China #1 followed by Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Russia, Switzerland, France, Australia, the US and the UK. 

Rubbish.

Are they suggesting that Singapore  has the 3rd most Elite cards out of that list, and the US and the UK are 9th and 10th?

Thailand made an initial order of 28 million doses of AZ from the Siam Bioscience factory, and followed it up with an order for another 35 million doses in January. The factory has the capacity to make 200 million doses a year.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2046003/35m-more-shots-to-be-bought-in-2021