BANGKOK (NNT) - In response to a question on the timing of bringing the COVID-19 vaccine to the people who are not medical personnel or in priority groups, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Disease Control, Dr. Sophon Iamsirithavorn, has confirmed that the Ministry of Public Health will begin registration of the public in May, and inoculations will start in June.

 

Dr. Sophon said Thailand has received some two million doses of the Sinovac vaccine. They are being given to frontline medical workers and people who are at high risk of severe illness or death from COVID-19.

 

Members of the public will receive the AstraZeneca vaccine produced in Thailand, in June.

 

Between February 28th and April 19th, 555,396 doses were given to people in Thailand, with 485,957 of them receiving their first doses and 69,439 others receiving the second.

 

The ministry’s vaccination plan consists of two steps. The first is to inoculate medical and public health personnel in the public and private sectors as well as volunteers, and frontline workers, such as police, immigration and military officers; people with congenital diseases, people over 60 years old and residents in areas where transmission is occurring. In the second step, provincial committees on communicable diseases are to consider ways to distribute the vaccine to hospitals.

 

Concerning images of women working at entertainment venues in Thong Lor, Bangkok, receiving vaccinations, the Bangkok Communicable Disease Committee had an urgent meeting on April 5th to discuss the vaccination plan to address the Thong Lor cluster. The committee resolved that 6,000 doses will be given to disease control officials, workers at popular venues in Thong Lor, and those who have had close contact with potential COVID-19 carriers. The vaccinations will be given outside risk areas, such as at Bang Khae Market.

 

The doses are not being taken from the quota reserved for medical personnel and frontline workers. They are from the emergency quota, for urgent situations to curb the spread of the outbreak.

 

-- © Copyright NNT 2021-04-12

 

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11 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Members of the public will receive the AstraZeneca vaccine produced in Thailand, in June.

 

I thought that the initial seed components would be delived in June (from previous reports), then would take several months for production to ramp up and then get approval from the authorities.

 

Soothing words.

12 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

The doses are not being taken from the quota reserved for medical personnel and frontline workers. They are from the emergency quota, for urgent situations to curb the spread of the outbreak.

 

Oh, that's OK then.

 

"Vaccinate the tarts!"  Can you imagine the discussion at the urgent meeting that concluded that this was a way of curbing the spread of the outbreak.  

47 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

military officers;

Nuff said....

14 minutes ago, Upnotover said:

"Vaccinate the tarts!"  Can you imagine the discussion at the urgent meeting that concluded that this was a way of curbing the spread of the outbreak.  

It's important to be non-judgemental and just distribute the available vaccine in a way that minimises transmission of the virus. It seems to me that vaccinating high-risk workers like prostitutes is an extremely good idea.

june will be around the middle/second part of the 3rd wave.

So certainly helpful for those not infected yet, but too late for some hundreds of thousands who got infected and thousands who has died.

the second dose of AZ suppose to be given after 12 weeks, so september. That gives full protection, just before the 4th wave.

 

an indian ambassador in bangkok offered 2mln of free AZ, but minister of foreign affairs refused, because for him it was not honourable to accept help

I am not going to take Astrazeneca as there are many reports of blood clots that has been confirmed as one of the side effects. Is that the only option for the public?

1 hour ago, snoop1130 said:

produced in Thailand

No thank you

11 minutes ago, EricTh said:

I am not going to take Astrazeneca as there are many reports of blood clots that has been confirmed as one of the side effects. Is that the only option for the public?

The reported cases were almost all for women under 55. So unless you are such a woman, or in danger of becoming one, the odds of you suffering from those blood clots look pretty slim.

Why will Thailand use vaccine that is not proven as effective? It will undermine confidence in vaccines.  Yes, we know other vaccines not available and may also be less effective against new variants, but there are modifications and boosters in development. I think in 4-6 months, developed world will be offering booster to inoculated people, while countries like Thailand will still be struggling. Now is time for Thailand to say, help and to get in line, even if it  means it will be at back after Africa.

15 minutes ago, EricTh said:

I am not going to take Astrazeneca as there are many reports of blood clots that has been confirmed as one of the side effects. Is that the only option for the public?

 

I suggest you read the specific medical review, not the dumbed down  version circulating.  The blood clot data  released by EMA did not provide sex and age characteristics, so it is easy to make  incorrect assumptions. UK has the best quality data so far and it indicates;

- the overall risk of clot is roughly 1 in 250,000, based on the 20 million people reviewed for the assessment

- issue was specific to people under age 60 with concentration with those under  age 30

- females were more likely to have the  clotting but this may reflect the fact that more females than males were vaccinated. (priority groups of vaccinated were healthcare workers and the elderly and they were more likely to be  female.)

- NO indepth review of the UK  79 cases of clotting  was completed at time of report on   risk  that would identify  characteristics such as  pre-existing medical condition, birth control hormones, other medications, smoking, race etc. was done.

 

My conclusion: Otherwise healthy person not on birth control pills age 30+ can take vaccine without worry. 

 

India has administered millions of doses,  Canada has administered hundreds of thousands of  doses. Neither country has reported a clotting issue. Both have surveillance system.

 

 

35 minutes ago, Patong2021 said:

Why will Thailand use vaccine that is not proven as effective? It will undermine confidence in vaccines.  Yes, we know other vaccines not available and may also be less effective against new variants, but there are modifications and boosters in development. I think in 4-6 months, developed world will be offering booster to inoculated people, while countries like Thailand will still be struggling. Now is time for Thailand to say, help and to get in line, even if it  means it will be at back after Africa.

Why" If it keeps you from dying or becoming dangerously ill, why wouldn't you take it if no alternative vaccine was available?

I thought they had bought 70 million sinovacs... Oh switch the labels before Jun e and it is AZ ????

Another 2 Months away, what a pathetic effort by this inadequate Government... makes my blood boil. 

5 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Members of the public will receive the AstraZeneca vaccine produced in Thailand, in June.

Hold on a mo'. If they want to open up Phuket on a trial basis, rolling out vaccines in June is going to delay un-quarantine tourists for at least 2-3 months. Which will have a roll on knock on effect for everything else. I think only an idiot would book up for the quarantine free Phuket holidays in July now.

1 hour ago, RichardColeman said:

Hold on a mo'. If they want to open up Phuket on a trial basis, rolling out vaccines in June is going to delay un-quarantine tourists for at least 2-3 months. Which will have a roll on knock on effect for everything else. I think only an idiot would book up for the quarantine free Phuket holidays in July now.

I was planning to but I can hold off booking until late May and reassess the situation.

 

5 hours ago, Patong2021 said:

Why will Thailand use vaccine that is not proven as effective? It will undermine confidence in vaccines.  Yes, we know other vaccines not available and may also be less effective against new variants, but there are modifications and boosters in development. I think in 4-6 months, developed world will be offering booster to inoculated people, while countries like Thailand will still be struggling. Now is time for Thailand to say, help and to get in line, even if it  means it will be at back after Africa.

People are getting too hung up on the "efficacy." It just means how much it prevents you from getting infected. Regardless, with any approved vaccine (I believe it just needs to pass 50% efficacy), the symptoms will be milder, no hospitalization, no death, and transmission significantly reduced even if you do get infected. Just get whatever you can lay your hands on! For those living in Thailand and can afford it, I am sure private hospitals will be selling a wide variety of vaccines soon. 

6 hours ago, EricTh said:

I am not going to take Astrazeneca as there are many reports of blood clots that has been confirmed as one of the side effects. Is that the only option for the public?

Don't forget. The AZ vaccine doesn't work very well at all against the South African variant. 

7 hours ago, EricTh said:

I am not going to take Astrazeneca as there are many reports of blood clots that has been confirmed as one of the side effects. Is that the only option for the public?

You must live a very riskless life.

 

As of 2/4/21 in uk.

Rare Blood clots after AZ vaccination - approximately 0.5 in a million.

Actual Death from Blood clots after AZ vaccination - approximately 0.12 in a million.

 

You are more likely to be hit by lightning 8-9 times, 

You are 14-15 times more likely to die of a bee sting.

 

UK had 1580 road deaths last year - which would mean about 225 times more likely to die road accident than vaccination after clotting. More appropriate , if you are in Thailand you would be about 4000-4500 more likely to die in a road accident that die from blood clotting.

 

Had my AZ, still alive. I think you should give it some more perspective thinking. ????

 

 

The manufacturing plant here is new to producing vaccines.  Makes me a bit nervous, especially when established plants in the US, making the J&J jab, just dumped 15MM doses due to a mixup.

20 minutes ago, Jeffr2 said:

The manufacturing plant here is new to producing vaccines.  Makes me a bit nervous, especially when established plants in the US, making the J&J jab, just dumped 15MM doses due to a mixup.

Please replace bit with very. The words <deleted> up and brewery come to mind for some reason!

https://www.thaienquirer.com/23278/rejection-of-indias-vaccine-offer-adds-to-mounting-concerns-about-thailands-vaccine-program/. Yes remember this ..we have 2 million astra zeneca  vaccines   do you want .. ah no this is Thailand.   Loss of face etc 

12 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Between February 28th and April 19th, 555,396 doses were given to people in Thailand, with 485,957 of them receiving their first doses and 69,439 others receiving the second.

????‍♂️

4 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

UK had 1580 road deaths last year -

Pah!  Thailand can surpass that in 50 days.

12 hours ago, placeholder said:

Why" If it keeps you from dying or becoming dangerously ill, why wouldn't you take it if no alternative vaccine was available?

 That's the issue. The Chinese vaccine results were not public and no thorough review. What data did Thailand have to make thorough review. Chile and Brazil are having negative outcome with the Sinovac vaccine. Chile is  reporting only 56% efficacy (subject to 2X dose and several weeks waiting period), which is not good and under normal circumstances would render the vaccine not viable.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3128886/chile-covid-19-vaccination-drive-adds-sinovac-efficacy-data

 

The red flag is the " study by the University of Chile also found that one dose of the Sinovac jab was only 3 per cent effective against infection". (This would explain why the cop on Samui  became infected  after one dose vaccination.)  I don't think the Sinovac product will give immunity for more than a few months at best.

 

Chile vaccinated population thought they would be protected and now pay the price with massive infection surge. I expect the outcome would be the same in Thailand.  I do not know if the  China vaccine will keep people from dying or becoming dangerously ill.. Do you? China did not release this data. we do know from  verified clinical trial result review and real world data that the western vaccines work.  I think using  China vaccine is irresponsible and unethical if Thai government does not give specific information to people that China vaccine is practically useless.

13 hours ago, EricTh said:

I am not going to take Astrazeneca as there are many reports of blood clots that has been confirmed as one of the side effects. Is that the only option for the public?

There may be 'many reports' (and that is part of the problem, over-hyping of this by the media) but there are a tiny, tiny number of cases.

 

Also, if you're not going to take the AstraZeneca vaccine, which one are you going to take? There are similar reports of exactly the same kind of rare blood clotting condition (thrombocytopenia) with the Pfizer, Moderna and now Johnson & Johnson jabs.

 

Thrombocytopenia with Pfizer and Moderna vaccines

 

EMA initiates review of J&J’s Covid-19 vaccine over blood clot reports

So sex-workers at hi-so clubs frequented by politicians and the elite receive the vaccine first.

 

Wow, just wow. 

 

Saying any more would get me another ban, so I shall just keep schtum. 

As a expat I am waiting to hear when the private hospitals will get the vaccines what type and at what price ???? 

14 hours ago, Upnotover said:

"Vaccinate the tarts!"  Can you imagine the discussion at the urgent meeting that concluded that this was a way of curbing the spread of the outbreak.  

This makes sense to me; the girls are going to work anyway, and have much higher chances of spreading the virus than most people by the very nature of that work.  Vaccinate one girl and keep many customers safer.