TallGuyJohninBKK

You seem to have neglected mentioning the other very pertinent part of all this, from the OP news report: "They also said that the deceased was unvaccinated..."

Given that the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines have been shown in numerous studies to be the most effective of all the currently available COVID vaccines... Have ANY Thai government purchased Pfizer or Moderna doses actually arrived for use in the government's own free for the public vaccination program as yet??? I don't think so! The original round of Pfizer doses that Thais and farangs could get in recent months was donated by the U.S. government to Thailand. And the current round of Moderna doses was acquired mainly by the Thai Private Hospitals Assn. for dispensing by their member hospitals on a pay for play basis Correct me if I'm wrong, but AFAICR, all of the government vaccine acquisitions that have made into into the government's own FREE vaccine distribution program for the public thus far (not counting plans for future deliveries) have been their own locally produced AZ (along with some other foreign AZ donations) and either donated or purchased Sinovac and Sinopharm doses from China.

Among other countries, the Pfizer vaccine has FULL approval in the U.S., not just emergency use, for adults age 16 and up. "Pfizer-BioNTech (COMIRNATY) received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval on August 23, 2021, for individuals ages 16 years and older." https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/Pfizer-BioNTech.html https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine-comirnatyr-receives-full Other countries/jurisdictions that also have normally approved the Pfizer vaccine thus far: EU, Switzerland, Canada, Brazil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pfizer–BioNTech_COVID-19_vaccine#Standard

The two main mRNA vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna, are hardly untested at this point, having first undergone international clinical trials before being given emergency use authorization internationally, and Pfizer already having been given full authorization in the U.S. And many hundreds of millions of doses already given just in the U.S. and EU over the past year. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/covid-vaccine-doses-by-manufacturer?country=~USA The US CDC seems to disagree with your attempt to liken the side effect timeframes of therapeutic drugs with those of COVID vaccines. Saying below that vaccine side effects, when they have occurred, historically have come within 6 weeks after having been vaccinated. "Serious side effects that could cause a long-term health problem are extremely unlikely following any vaccination, including COVID-19 vaccination. Vaccine monitoring has historically shown that side effects generally happen within six weeks of receiving a vaccine dose. For this reason, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) collected data on each of the authorized COVID-19 vaccines for a minimum of two months (eight weeks) after the final dose. CDC is continuing to monitor the safety of COVID-19 vaccines even now that the vaccines are in use." https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/expect/after.html

And, the young who contract it can spread the virus to the older and at-risk family members and other populations -- more readily to the unvaccinated, but also to the already vaccinated albeit at much lesser risk. The better mRNA vaccines very much protect against infection, but not 100%, and that applies especially among older people who tend to have less strong immune systems and may have a less robust response to their vaccinations, especially as time passes post vaccination.

You'd be better off trusting your immune system PLUS a COVID vaccine regimen... COVID-19: Do vaccines protect better than infection-induced immunity? The results suggest that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are around five times more effective at preventing hospitalization than a previous infection. ... According to the study authors, “These findings suggest that among hospitalized adults with COVID-19-like illness whose previous infection or vaccination occurred 90–179 days earlier, vaccine-induced immunity was more protective than infection-induced immunity against laboratory-confirmed COVID-19.” Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, TN, commented on the study during an interview with Medical News Today. He said: “For a long time, we’ve known that people [who have the infection], if they are subsequently vaccinated, will have much higher levels of antibodies than people who [have the infection] but are not vaccinated. Natural infection plus vaccination is better than natural infection alone.” https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/covid-19-do-vaccines-protect-better-than-infection-induced-immunity#What-the-team-found

The U.S. CDC has posted updated study information from sampling from 24 U.S. jurisdictions on how mostly mRNA (Pfizer and Moderna) vaccinated persons have significantly less likelihood of being infected with the coronavirus, and also much less likelihood of being hospitalized or dying due to COVID, than their unvaccinated peers. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#rates-by-vaccine-status "Summary People who were unvaccinated had a greater risk of COVID-19 infection and a greater risk of dying from COVID-19 than people who were fully vaccinated Case and death rates for people vaccinated with each of the three vaccine products (Moderna, Pfizer, Janssen) were much lower than for unvaccinated people. Unvaccinated people in all age groups had higher case and death rates than fully vaccinated people in the same age groups."

Perhaps these kinds of public outbursts are why he's a FORMER advisor on law, justicce and human rights.... He clearly lost the path regarding the "human rights" part of his former assignment.

Steven Gundry An interesting former mainstream doc who now runs a health supplements empire and espouses some questionable views: "He is best known for his disputed claims that lectins, a type of plant protein found in numerous foods, cause inflammation resulting in many modern diseases.[5] His Plant Paradox diet suggests avoiding all foods containing lectins.[6] Scientists and dieticians have classified Gundry's claims about lectins as pseudoscience.[6][7] He sells supplements that he claims protect against or reverse the supposedly damaging effects of lectins.[8]" He is the host of the Dr. Gundry Podcast on health and nutrition.[22] Gundry writes articles for Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop website which has been criticized for promoting quackery.[23] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Gundry

For anyone (farang or Thai) who hasn't received any vaccine doses yet and is willing to be vaccinated with a mixed regimen Astra and Pfizer combo, this online registration via AIS is an easy route. You don't have to be an AIS customer to use the website for registration. The website has a very good EN version with lots of clear supporting information and details. And you can live anywhere, as long as you're willing to come to BKK for the shots. https://vaccineforthais.ais.th/Reserve/Login The same website can also be used to register for a third booster dose of Astra for those who've already had two doses of either of the Sino vaxes.

OK, so I read the whole article, and, I can't find a single word in the article that says ANYTHING about what all their corp. doubletalk means for either of their existing customers.... Is it just a new two-party joint venture to focus on doing some kind of future entrepreneurial investments? Or, are they talking about changing/integrating their two separate mobile network operations?

AIS has this website for registering for both Thais and farangs. Very good EN version. My then unvaccinated Thai wife used it, and quickly got a response and registration via SMS. https://vaccineforthais.ais.th/Reserve/Login It's open to either 1. those who haven't had any vaccine yet, or 2. those who've had two Sinopharm or Sinovac doses. You don't have to be an AIS customer in order to register via this site. For the unvaccinated, this site is offering a mixed dose regimen of one AZ dose and one Pfizer dose. The location for doses is Bang Sue Grand Station in BKK, but it's open to people who live/reside anywhere.

The medical and scientific communities would disagree with your opinion, and the facts don't support your judgment. Considering we're now just two years into what quickly became a worldwide pandemic with a new virus, vaccines have been developed and deployed that substantially reduce the risk of infection, and even more substantially reduce the risks of hospitalization and death from COVID, even for the current and most troublesome Delta variant. "Unvaccinated people are 11 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than those who are fully vaccinated, new research has found, bolstering evidence that the inoculations continue to provide powerful protection, even against the delta variant. The latest studies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released on Friday also found that vaccinated people were nearly five times less likely to get infected and 10 times less likely to get so sick they ended up in the hospital." https://www.npr.org/2021/09/10/1036023973/covid-19-unvaccinated-deaths-11-times-more-likely https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7037e1.htm No, the current crop of vaccines don't provide 100% protection against contracting and spreading COVID, especially with the Delta variant. But the initial protection rates are still very high, especially with the mRNA vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna. In large part, they're keeping fully vaccinated people from getting seriously ill and from dying from COVID. It's hard to call that disappointing. What I'd call disappointing is the substantial minority of anti-vax folks in some societies who are refusing vaccines that would significantly protect their own health and the health of those around them, often based on either political judgments or gross medical/scientific misinformation. Thus prolonging the pandemic for everyone.

I don't know what exact guidelines the TH MOPH has the private hospitals following on that.... But I read just yesterday, that in the U.S. at least, yes, the Moderna booster shots are less. "The EUA for a single booster dose for individuals 18 years of age and older for the Moderna (administered as half of the dose of a primary series dose)..." https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-fda-expands-eligibility-covid-19-vaccine-boosters "in the case of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine booster shot, it is half the dose of the vaccine people get for their primary series." https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/booster-shot.html

Interesting study on that point just published by the U.S. CDC, looking at vaccinated vs unvaccinated infections, hospitalizations and deaths in the Pacific Northwest in 2021 amid Delta. For every anti-vax-type anecdote that gets posted here, the actual credible scientific/medical research continues to show otherwise. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7046a4.htm "Among persons aged ≥12 years enrolled in a Pacific Northwest health plan, unvaccinated persons with SARS-CoV-2 infection were approximately twice as likely to receive ED care or to be hospitalized than were vaccinated persons with COVID-19." Note - they're not comparing the entire population in the hospitalization and death info presented here. They're just comparing the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups in that health system that BOTH happened to be diagnosed with confirmed COVID infections. So those comparisons don't deal with the folks who never contracted COVID, where the fully vaccinated would have had a major advantage in avoiding the virus in the first place. " Unvaccinated persons with SARS-CoV-2 infection were more than twice as likely to receive ED care (18.5%) or to be hospitalized (9.0%) than were vaccinated persons with COVID-19 (8.1% and 3.9%, respectively). The crude mortality rate was also higher among unvaccinated patients (0.43 per 1,000) than in fully vaccinated patients (0.06 per 1,000)." "Surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 infection was conducted within Kaiser Permanente Northwest (KPNW), an integrated health care system in Oregon and Washington. Persons aged ≥12 years with continuous health plan enrollment during the July 4–September 25, 2021 surveillance period were included."

Sorry, it's been some months since I attempted their process, so I don't recall exactly what order of things is required.

Just by way of background -- The U.S. formally joins the COVID vaccine boosters train for all adults: [U.S.] CDC Expands Eligibility for COVID-19 Booster Shots to All Adults Media Statement For Immediate Release: Friday, November 19, 2021 "Today, CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, M.D., M.P.H., endorsed the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ (ACIP) expanded recommendations for booster shots to include all adults ages 18 years and older who received a Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine at least six months after their second dose. The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) authorization and CDC’s recommendation for use are critical next steps forward in our country’s booster program – a program which will help provide increased protection against COVID-19 disease and death. (more) https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2021/s1119-booster-shots.html

For the Gibraltar guy: Looks like something there is preventing there from being a lot of COVID deaths, or even any rising rate of them lately. https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/countries-and-territories/gibraltar/

In my read, it's worse than that... Here's the takeaways I found in the article he cited and linked above: "Though COVID-19 is a new illness, a few clinical trials have explored the possibility that supplements may be effective. And, unfortunately, most of the evidence is unconvincing." AND "When it comes to preventing or treating COVID-19, I’d rely more on the recommendations from the CDC than on unproven supplements."

From your cited source, with my attention focusing on the last sentence below: "How well it works on virus mutations: Novavax says the vaccine is 93% effective against “predominantly circulating variants of concern and variants of interest.” But it’s important to note that the study was conducted in the U.S. and Mexico, when Alpha was the predominant strain in the U.S., although other variants were on the rise. More data is needed to determine the effectiveness of Novavax against the Delta variant. "

After reading the AA forum the past few days, my impression is the Chula vaccine researchers probably could find more than enough anti-vax / no doses previously received candidates right here! ????

I don't know about elsewhere, but I can personally vouch for the fact that Samitivej Hospital in BKK during the past week has begun dispensing Moderna doses to those who registered and prepaid with them previously. My wife got her first shot there yesterday. And the hospital has indicated their first priority for the Moderna doses they have are those among the prepayers who haven't received ANY vaccine previously. Third shot booster shot hopefuls such as myself are going to have to wait...

So I guess the answer, for now, to the question I posed above is YES! As usual, they're trying to rely on start-up / not widely approved locally produced vaccines instead of established ones with substantial track records that they'd have to import from abroad and pay for.

Is he saying in the OP article that future booster shots in Thailand are primarily going to come from vaccine sources such as Novovax, Baiya and Chula that haven't actually been approved even for emergency use as yet by any of the major regulators? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccination_in_Thailand#Vaccines_in_trial_stage And Novavax: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novavax#COVID-19_vaccine_candidate https://theconversation.com/novavax-covid-vaccine-is-nearing-approval-but-what-impact-will-it-have-171647

Anutin's 60 million AZ doses supply for Thailand next year would appear to assume 5 milliion doses per month from their local AZ production operation, which was originally supposed to provide 10 million doses per month for Thailand. But at any rate, is it just me, or has the current government seem to have gone pretty quiet on the details and quantity arrivals of their local AZ doses making it into the local vaccine supply chain? Every time they buy or get Sinovac doses donated from China, the government always pushes that out as a big local news item. But when it comes to locally produced AZ arrivals, it seems more like crickets. Is it possible there's something they're not especially keen to advertise?