SURVEY: Should foreigners in or coming to Thailand be required to be vaccinated?

[NoshowJones]

4 hours ago, bartender100 said:

2.5 million deaths and you don't class it as dangerous, that's dangerous thinking in itself, thousands of healthy fit people have caught it and died as per Stargrazer9889 post above.

 

I imagine every time a child gets its measles, mumps and other shots someone makes a profit. It's the way of the world, they spent millions developing the jabs they have to charge for it

 

 We all need to do our part to stamp the disease out so we can get back to living normally, and I can get back to Thailand???? The vaccination will save you from hospitalization at the least, imagine how much that would cost you in Thailand?

"they spent millions developing the jabs they have to charge for it".  There is a big difference between a fair profit and greed.

[jollyhangmon]

1 hour ago, possum1931 said:

"they spent millions developing the jabs they have to charge for it".  There is a big difference between a fair profit and greed.

 

... yup, not only that, in some cases governments propped up the developers nicely - perhaps some promising start-ups - with said millions as was the case with BioNtech, we're talking a phat 370 or 380 mill € from the EU if I recall correctly (or Germany?), not too far from the half billion USD mark.

 

Not too long before approval then along comes some pharma giant and buddies up or just buys them up, cha-ching ... sorry, can't see the big risk there, with pre-financed research and a captive audience for the product ... would even make a fellow professional like El Chapo fairly proud I'd wager, 5555 ...

 

[TheFreqFlyer]

On 3/1/2021 at 9:50 AM, mstevens said:

 

I do agree with you but at the same time I imagine that it will be required for those extending work / retirement / marriage visas to show they have been vaccinated. And you just know that while resident Westerners might get vaccinated for free, if there is a group of Thais and a group of Westerners and some Chinese vaccines and some American vaccines....you just know that the Westerners are going to get the Sinovac jab!

No it won't be required to extend a visa, wherever did you get that idea from? I don't see it happening. To enter the country, yes, perhaps. Besides, no one has ever been required to show proof of yellow fever vax status to extend a visa, even if asked to show proof when entering the country. 

 

Can you imagine the uproar it will create? It would literally cause riots in immigration offices!!

 

Long before that happens, it will cause a social media storm not unlike what happened several weeks back when there was a rumor about testing to extend visas, which turned out to be simply a rumor.

 

Visa agents will be able to get you out of the obligation if it ever happened, it doesn't make sense to apply it to residents already inside the country.

 

And for all your unfounded worrying about Sinovac, which uses traditional tech unlike the western mRNA vaccines, if i had no other choice I'd rather get the Chinese vax than an experimental mRNA vax that could cause serious permanent side effects that you can never recover from. Not that any vaccine is safe, but the Chinese ones are at least similar in terms of risk, to traditional flu shots. 

 

[TheFreqFlyer]

2 hours ago, Harm Hendrik Reitsma said:

Then don't take Pfizer or Astra Zenica jab, they are testvaccins and you don't know what it will do to your body.

 

Exactly. I find this anti-Chinese and anti-Russian attitude of so many farang laughable. They would rather take an experimental western vaccine with no safety data about long-term effects because they trust it more than a Chinese shot, just because it's Chinese. Even though they are pro-vaccine and have probably received several Chinese made vaccines unbeknownst to them, when they were younger. After all, a large percentage of vaccines used in the USA and other western countries are actually made in China. 

[TheFreqFlyer]

18 hours ago, Bradmeister said:

Let's stop saying foreigners as though we have a disease already....please.

 

Should anyone coming into Thailand, returning residents or citizens,,? 

 

International business travellers? 

 

Or do we mean people of other nationalities who were born in Thailand, but hold another nation's passport/passbook? 

 

Should returning Thai nationals need to be inoculated? Should all Thai residents and citizens be inoculated?  

 

Or the tourists on sexy tour who may or may not be from a boarder town in Cambodia, Laos, Burma or Malaysia and can speak, read and write in Thai? 

 

Stop asking about Them!  

 

Stop being racial! 

 

 

All intriguing questions.

 

Some people (trolls) on here will claim Thailand is a totalitarian dictatorship and that eventually everyone, and most certainly Thais, will need to be vaccinated, even though currently, there are no mandatory vaccination laws on the books unlike in many "democratic" European countries ranging from France to Germany, Italy to Poland and several other formerly Communist countries have strict mandatory vaccination policies in place for children to attend school, in addition to making schooling compulsory (in Thailand homeschooling is a legal option). 

 

My personal opinion is - they will push the vaccine most on Cambodian/Lao/Burmese migrant workers renewing their work permits although it may or may become an official rule. After all, they have been blamed for the "second wave" outbreak that originated in Samut Sakhon in December. And in general, Thailand imposes a lot of restrictions on migrant workers that don't apply to citizens, western tourists or expats, including travel restrictions, as indicated on the back of their pink ID cards (and this pre-dates Covid and has nothing to do with it).

 

Australia has indicated that in the future, all "visitors" (though in a PC country like Australia it's unclear what that means) may be required to get vaccinated to enter the country but not domestic residents, which includes foreigners currently residing there. So what do they mean by this, "visitors"? Foreign tourists/businessmen, foreigners taking up residence? International (foreign) students? New Zealanders taking up residence, permanent residents? Or also returning Australians? I can't see them mandating it for Australians to return home...although it could be that airlines such as Qantas might insist on it so it becomes redundant to ask again at the border, especially given that aside from very rare and complicated private yacht journeys, Australia is essentially only accessible by air or cruise ship. 

 

The same question can be asked of Thai nationals returning home. Can they really be required to be vaccinated to return to their own country? Somehow I don't see it happening...and unlike Australia, Thailand has land borders so Thais could come in by land from neighboring countries and I can't see them being refused entry when coming through say Kanchanaburi, Nong Khai, Hat Lek or Sadao. 

 

Of course, they might allow entry to the unvaccinated from any country, but with quarantine. However, I don't think that they will continue with the quarantine program after they switch over to a new entry system and declare the pandemic as over. The quarantine program will remain for now, but not forever. 

[TheFreqFlyer]

On 3/1/2021 at 10:37 AM, starky said:

Pretty poor choice of options for a survey. Residents should be vaccinated, ideally all tourists should be vaccinated with a reputable vaccine. And in regards to people being exempt when "most" Thais are vaccinated well let's see how long it takes to achieve that but if Thailand wants to be in line as a tourist destination I honestly think vaccination "passports" for want of a better word will be required across the board from Airlines to tourism companies to host nations as well as some multi nationals. I imagine people working for airlines  shipping companies offshore will all be getting vaccinated if they want to keep their jobs.

  The anti vaxxers and those that think this vaccine is just some massive conspiracy will just have to live a life not involving travelling far from home.

   Further to that countries like Australia, New Zealand are only going to cop you entering the country if you have had Pfizer, Moderna possibly Johnson and Johnson. You won't be going anywhere decent with sinovac or Sputnik not that I think they are dangerous or ineffective but they aren't what is considered the benchmark atm.

 

Which is why this whole program will fail, if governments discriminate on the basis of the type of vaccine you received. In some countries ONLY the Chinese or Russian ones are available.

 

I don't see your speculation as coming true.

 

Either they will impose a vaccination requirement covering any vaccine (but I can see immigration officials in some countries refusing entry to J&J recipients because that one only requires one shot while most of the others require 2, and most immigration officials aren't the brightest people so when they see one instead of two, it will be automatic refusal of entry or quarantine if they're still doing that by that time).

 

Anyway there are serious human rights concerns about all this - it's funny how people like you believe this now, when 2 years ago you would have called it a "conspiracy theory". Myself I knew this might be coming, back in 2017. It concerned me then as much as it does now, but unlike you, I've known about it for several years. 

[aqua4]

11 minutes ago, TheFreqFlyer said:

Anyway there are serious human rights concerns about all this - it's funny how people like you believe this now, when 2 years ago you would have called it a "conspiracy theory". Myself I knew this might be coming, back in 2017. It concerned me then as much as it does now, but unlike you, I've known about it for several years. 

 

Well said! 

[TheFreqFlyer]

On 3/1/2021 at 12:03 PM, stretch5163 said:

OK so clearly you are against compulsary vaccinations is this all compulsory vaccination or just covid. Through our lives there are vaccines that you take and accept these are compulsary but nothing gets said.

 

People throughout the world have to take compulsory vaccinations or they cannot travel to certain countries ie Yellow Fever dont hve it trvelling from certain african countries then you cannot fy to certain other countries, yet no 1 complains about this they just get on with life.

 

Personally i think its all over rated get it and travel dont get it and stay at home its your choice.

Not true. You could still travel with a yellow fever vaccine exemption certificate. And by far not every endemic country would ask for a vaccine certificate in the first place; Ecuador for example generally does not and neither does Brazil. There were ways of visiting certain countries and then not requiring a yellow fever vax certificate - for example, flying from certain endemic countries in Africa without a yellow fever requirement to enter or exit (I think Tanzania might be one example) and then to Europe, spending 6-10 days there and then continuing to Asia means you wouldn't need one. However, a direct journey from one of these same countries to Asia (Thailand, Singapore, China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, among others) theoretically would require one. So with a little creativity you could easily have avoided the mandate. 

 

And of course, if you never went to Latin America or parts of Africa, this wouldn't even be a concern, because generally speaking vaccines have not been required for most international travel, especially not since the WHO declared smallpox as eradicated in 1980. 

 

This covid vaccine to travel plan is something far more wide-reaching than yellow fever ever was, you simply can't compare the two. And it goes much further than travel. Now they're saying you might need to show proof of vaccination status to enter a bar, nightclub or potentially in the future, a mall or a restaurant, or even an office building? 

So-called "conspiracy theorists" were saying this 5 years ago but few listened and now it's becoming reality! 

[TheFreqFlyer]

On 3/1/2021 at 11:14 AM, shackleton said:

 I think at the end of the day with all or most of the Thai population Getting the vaccine.  Us foreigners expats ect won't have much choice  get the vaccine or could be problems with getting visas ect

Nah I don't see it happening that way. 

 

There is no evidence that "most" and certainly not "all" Thais will end up receiving or even wanting the vaccine. 

 

As for expats, it would cause a huge uproar if required to seek an extension. I don't see it happening.

 

To enter the country? Possibly, at least for foreigners (probably not for Thais or PR holders). 

[TheFreqFlyer]

On 3/1/2021 at 12:38 PM, John Drake said:

 

Actually, that is a pretty good idea. Go in for your extension and vaccination at the same time. You'll probably get through the vaccination line long before you're called in to complete your extension anyway.

Nonsense. Most extensions are completed pretty quickly, especially in less busy offices or you can an agent. By contrast, it might take years to finish the vaccination program.

[TheFreqFlyer]

On 3/1/2021 at 11:15 AM, Artben said:

I visit Thailand regularly and have been vaccinated but don't want to force residents unless the Thai Government requires it.  It's still Thailand and their citizens have the right to make that determination.  

I don't think the Thai government will require it, as they already said it will be voluntary for residents. Every other country, like Cambodia, has said the same thing. The WHO opposes mandatory Covid vaccines. However, in terms of entering the country that's considered a different thing.

 

I don't think Thai citizens will have any say in what happens - the government will decide probably with advice from agencies such as the WHO. 

[Sheryl]

A post with factually incorrect statement about vaccines has been removed

[Surelynot]

On 3/1/2021 at 5:03 AM, stretch5163 said:

Through our lives there are vaccines that you take and accept these are compulsary but nothing gets said.

Which vaccines are compulsory?

[VBF]

2 hours ago, Surelynot said:

Which vaccines are compulsory?

One could say that if parents take their very young children to be vaccinated, then it was compulsory for the child who had no choice.

Most people my age in UK and other Western nations had had several vaccinations by the age of, say, 10 and it was considered normal and generally unremarkable.

 

When I started travelling, i chose to have loads of advisory vaccinations - last year, for the first time, I had a 'flu vac.  Now for most people, 'flu is not serious, just inconvenient, and up until last year, I had just never bothered, but with Covid about, and it being respiratory, like 'flu, decided that protection was sensible.

 

So why, after all that, would I avoid a Covid vac just because some ill-informed, attention-seeking conspiracy theorists tell me to? Just doesn't make sense.

 

And yes, I do still agree that compulsion is wrong, BUT, am happy for those who do refuse, to be denied discretionary activities like travel, entertainment and the like.

You have a choice - I've made mine.

[jak2002003]

14 hours ago, bartender100 said:

2.5 million deaths and you don't class it as dangerous, that's dangerous thinking in itself, thousands of healthy fit people have caught it and died as per Stargrazer9889 post above.

 

I imagine every time a child gets its measles, mumps and other shots someone makes a profit. It's the way of the world, they spent millions developing the jabs they have to charge for it

 

 We all need to do our part to stamp the disease out so we can get back to living normally, and I can get back to Thailand???? The vaccination will save you from hospitalization at the least, imagine how much that would cost you in Thailand?

2.5 million deaths from the virus globally is a tiny fraction of the human population. 

 

You should be more concerned by the air pollution here. Funny how the media are not whipping people into a panic about that as they are Covid 19, as respiratory disease and cancer cause nearly 14 million deaths a year globally. 

 

Why is the government not closing off places selling burgers, alcohol or pizzas and banning cakes? Heart disease kills approx 18 million a year. 

 

Most of the people who died of / with Covid 19 already had one foot in the grave. The virus just gave them the push. If you saved them from the virus they would probably die of some other painful and horrid disease shortly anyway. 

[VBF]

12 minutes ago, jak2002003 said:

2.5 million deaths from the virus globally is a tiny fraction of the human population. 

 

You should be more concerned by the air pollution here. Funny how the media are not whipping people into a panic about that as they are Covid 19, as respiratory disease and cancer cause nearly 14 million deaths a year globally. 

 

Why is the government not closing off places selling burgers, alcohol or pizzas and banning cakes? Heart disease kills approx 18 million a year. 

 

Most of the people who died of / with Covid 19 already had one foot in the grave. The virus just gave them the push. If you saved them from the virus they would probably die of some other painful and horrid disease shortly anyway. 

That may or may not be an argument against lockdowns, but it certainly does not hold water against vaccinations!

[starky]

20 hours ago, TheFreqFlyer said:

 

Which is why this whole program will fail, if governments discriminate on the basis of the type of vaccine you received. In some countries ONLY the Chinese or Russian ones are available.

 

I don't see your speculation as coming true.

 

Either they will impose a vaccination requirement covering any vaccine (but I can see immigration officials in some countries refusing entry to J&J recipients because that one only requires one shot while most of the others require 2, and most immigration officials aren't the brightest people so when they see one instead of two, it will be automatic refusal of entry or quarantine if they're still doing that by that time).

 

Anyway there are serious human rights concerns about all this - it's funny how people like you believe this now, when 2 years ago you would have called it a "conspiracy theory". Myself I knew this might be coming, back in 2017. It concerned me then as much as it does now, but unlike you, I've known about it for several years. 

People like you couldn't have known about it 2 years ago cos it wasn't here 2 years ago. People like me believed another pandemic was coming because I know enough about the world to know that to be true. People like you should reserve making assumptions about people you know absolutely nothing about apart from reading one random post in an anonymous forum.

  People like you have about as much chance as people like me in predicting the future and what outcomes will be regarding travel and vaccination. 

  People like you should take a deep breath and not make everything so personal.

[me4175]

On 3/1/2021 at 8:09 AM, jesimps said:

Not one of the choices, but I think that resident foreigners who haven't left the country since pre-covid shouldn't, but all arriving foreigners should. Saying that, I haven't left the country since 2012, but I'll be getting the vaccine at the first opportunity as long as it isn't the Chinese or Russian version.

Why not the Russian vaccine? It's one of the most effective ones. They did a good job, really.