DogNo1

It's not true that vaccines were not available.  That was a government lie.  As of July 2nd, no foreign vaccines had been ordered.  Pfizer had offered a supply months before that.  The country went through many months of depending on the future production of AstraZeneca by Siam Bioscience.  It has turned out to be inadequate.

Yes, the threat of retaliation from China if Sinovac had not been purchased sounds plausible.  Look what China is doing to Australia!

No, it was revealed by the OAG on July 2nd that they had not teceived any contracts to review.  When they did receive a contract on July 3rd, they acted very quickly.  I can't provide a link to the Post article but the news was there.

Speaking of the Lima Prieta Earthquake - I used to hold my breath whenever I drove on the Nimitz Freeway.  After the quake, it was horrible seeing all of the people squashed when sections of the upper deck fell.  It was a disaster waiting to happen.  Fortunately, I was living in Berkeley at the time.

The Thai Government are clearly NOT trying to copy the vaccine delivery of western countries.  Their sourcing of vaccines is unique.  Their delivery of vaccinations has not prioritized the most vulnerable.  It has been motivated by greed in the attempt to get large numbers of tourists to come here.  This was in the papers on a nearly daily basis.  How could you miss it?  The US has donated $30 million and soon 1.5 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine There has not been any hint of gratitude.

The stipulation by the Americans that 20% of their donated Pfizer Vaccine was just conjecture.  There was no stipulation and the amount has now been reduced to 10% - 150,000 jabs.  

The amount for foreigners from the Japanese AstraZeneca donation reportedly will be 105,000 jabs.

Well, adding together the 150,000 of the Pfizer Vaccine and the 105,000 from the Japan-donated AZ Vaccine, the total to be administered to foreigners would appear to be 255,000.   The newspaper that the Pfizer information comes from is the leading English Language daily in Thailand.  The numbers will probably be flexible and some of the AZ actually administered to foreigners may come from other sources.  The government has always been opaque about its own AZ production and its stocks of Sinovac.  I doubt that there will be any real accounting of who gets what vaccine.  There hasn't been so far despite demands from Thais that the numbers be revealed.

Sorry.  Forum rules prohibit me from posting a link to the news paper.  The 10% in the article referred to the 1.5 million Pfizer doses donated by the US.   150,000 doses will be given to foreigners.  The AZ doses donated by Japan were not mentioned.  At this point, the sources of AZ doses used to vaccinate foreigners are not clear.

This is a country where greed strangles compassion.  I used to really love Thailand despite its faults.  The stark reality of the anti-foreigner hostility has sobered me up and the bloom is off the romance.

There is an excellent article about the jabs by Dr. Thitinat of Chulalongkorn on page 9 of today's local post.  I can't link it or quote it here but I am gratified that important Thai people share our concerns.

BTW, the Pfizer vaccine donated by America may not be given to any Americans although someone has suggested giving 20% of it to foreigners.  There no conditions set on the gift.  It seems that Americans are terrified of being called racists although it is hard to see how that could be construed in the situation if some portion of the vaccine were to be earmarked for the vaccination of Americans.

It think that it was said in today's local post that at-risk people, including foreigners, will be vaccinated during July.  I guess that your hospital hasn't gotten the word.  I hope that you get the AZ early in August.  One dose will provide some protection.  You could follow it up with a shot of Moderna or Pfizer.  

Thanks for the info about Bum.  Even though I have been a patient there for many years, they can't register me forca vaccination.  I have to struggle to register on their website.   The hospital has every bit of information that could be required to register but they won't do it for me.  What poor service!  I wonder how many hoops they think they can make me jump through.  I will try again tomorrow but I won't struggle for many days.

There is a YouTube channel - drbeen.com - that discusses every topic imaginable about COVID vaccines.  He covers mixed vaccines very well. Mixing seems to increase immunity to the virus.

Regarding being proactive, since one poster insinuated that we were not, I have called various hospitals and tried to sign up on websites but it has never worked.  It may be too late for me now since I have had the sniffles and a sore throat for two days.  It may be the early stages of COVID.  I am tempted to start taking my Ivermectin but so far I have no elevated temperature and my oxy level is 98.  I sure don't want to be put into any of those crowded hospitals.  If I do have COVID, I'll opt for home treatment and isolate myself unless I develop breathing problems.

Regarding failing systems - Bumrungrad opened an online registration system for the Moderna Vaccine at 9:00 today.  all I ever got was a 404 error, never a registration.  Around 11:45, A notice was posted that said that registrations for the day were full.  I called a nurse in cardiology who said that, although I have been requesting a vaccination for many months, the only way to register was through the online site.  She advised me to try again tomorrow.  I don't know how many doses they have and whether I will be able to register on the obviously overcrowded website or not.  

No. money to buy vaccines?  Not foreign ones.  The group "Mor Mai Thon" petitioned parliament yesterday to buy mRNA vaccines and to disclose information about the procurement and distribution of vaccines.  Good luck on that.  The government has already said that details can't be released because the prices of the vaccines must be kept confidential.

Regarding the Pfizer vaccine to be donated, The Chulabhorn chief says that it should not be given to health care professionals as a third shot since it might discourage the populus from getting vaccinated now with a non-mRNA vaccine.  That seems to be a small problem when so many people are dying to be vaccinated with ANY vaccine to avoid serious illness.  Why not publicise the information that vaccination with any of the vaccines first and an mRNA vaccine later is the best strategy to avoid serious symptoms the soonest?  Following a Sinovac shot with a shot of a different offers very good protection.

Well, according to today's local post, the details of vaccine orders to the various companies can't be revealed because the prices paid must be kept confidential.  I guess we'll never know whether the government has ordered the Pfizer or Moderna Vaccines or not.  We do know that a new order for more than 10 million doses of Sinovac has been placed.

In the meantime, Thai companies say that they are willing to pay for vaccines.   I fully expect that the money that they put up will be used to buy more Sinovac and AstraZeneca sourced in country which will probably be delivered in Q2 or Q3 2022.  Factory workers' health in the meantime?  Who cares?

Yesterday the local post said that Moderna would likely be received in October.  Today it says that it will likely arrive in January.  I am in the Moderna queue at Bumrungrad so I called them to check.  They are as confused as I am.  The paper says that the GPO has been working to buy vaccines since February 25th.  As we read in yesterday's paper, the AOG  has received no contracts to review except for Sinovac and AstraZeneca.  The government has allocated no funds to buy Moderna so it won't be ordered until people have paid up front.   The government has the money, though, to buy 28 million more doses of Sinovac.  

As kuhnBENQ pointed out, the foreign vaccines are being kept out.  The government will not spend one satang on any foreign vaccine.  I wonder how many peoples lives will be lost as a result.  Does anybody in the government care?  The GPO says that the government has procured vaccines from five manufacturers but apparently no orders have been placed for  J&J, Pfizer or Sputnik V despite the current crisis so apparently "procure" means arranged to buy, not purchased.

The other vaccines have been available but just haven't been ordered.  The Chinese vaccines are weak.  Many medical personnel with two shots have become infected anyway throughout many asian countries.

This is wrong in the case of COVID.  People with no symptoms CAN spread the virus.