Thailand’s sluggish vaccine rollout no match for super-contagious COVID strain

[Pattaya Spotter]

2 hours ago, The Hammer2021 said:

You can ignore everything certain  posters say. They have one view based on personal inadequacy translated into hatred of all things Thai. Best to ignore them or report  them for trolling.

Unfortunately you are correct...more intelligent réparti can be had talking to my bedroom wall. It's so bad that for most news items, I just read the op and don't bother with any comments.  

[Elkski]

How can anyone be proud of Thailand putting all it's eggs in the sinovac and AZ?   With all the funds to buy submarines and support one of the richest men in the World, and a need to open up tourism it would seem that  a vaccination program should have been much quicker to get in line and have a diversified vaccine approach.    I have very low faith they can make even 1 million AZ jabs in June or July.   We are talking 6 months behind the western World and many months behind neighboring countries.   I fear the sinovac is close to useless as top China health officials have risked stating.  

 

It's not Thai bashing if it's true. 

Edited April 16, 2021 by Elkski

[AndyFoxy]

Even the CCP don’t take sinovac.

[Bkk Brian]

1 minute ago, Elkski said:

How can anyone be proud of Thailand putting all it's eggs in the sinovac and AZ?   With all the funds to buy submarines and support one of the richest men in the World, and a need to open up tourism it would seem that  a vaccination program should have been much quicker to get in line and have a diversified vaccine approach.    I have very low faith they can make even 1 million AZ jabs in June or July.   We are talking 6 months behind the western World and many months behind neighboring countries.   I fear the sinovac is close to useless as top China health officials have risked stating.  

I agree it, I certainly wouldn't be comfortable taking such a risk with just the 2 vaccine brand orders,  that said if the gamble with Siam Bioscience producing AZ works then its fantastic news.

[Selatan]

28 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

I'm not sure I see what you're trying to claim? I've never seen an official report that vaccines no matter what brand will 100% stop all deaths and serious illness, have you.

 

Reduce yes, stop no. From your link

 

'The vaccine is working as expected'

These breakthrough infections are to be expected and are in line with how other vaccines work, the CDC said.

 

The new figures from the CDC also suggest that the authorized COVID-19 vaccines are nearly perfect at preventing death, as clinical trials had suggested: With 74 fatalities in 75 million people fully vaccinated, the vaccines appeared to be 99.99% effective.

 

 

Divide 74 by 75 million? Are you assuming that all the 75 miilllion vaccinated less 5800 people have been successfully prevented from getting infected? 

Please divide 400 hospitalised by 5800 infected. That's not 99.99% effective in the prevention of hospitalisation. Getting hospitalised is a failure already. If one survives hospitalisation, no one can claim that the vaccine alone has prevented death. The survival could be due to the competence of the medical workers, drugs and the all sorts of medical equipment.

Edited April 16, 2021 by Selatan

[Elkski]

It appears the AZ isn't working nearly as well as the phizer, moderna, or JJ.  Not even in the same league.  At such late stage why haven't they stated that they are trying to procure some top meds.  All three too vaccine brands have come out saying 3 rd round and yearly shots will be needed.   Any plans for that?  

[Bkk Brian]

8 minutes ago, Selatan said:

Divide 74 by 75 million? Are you assuming that all the 75 miilllion vaccinated less 5800 people have been successfully prevented from getting infected? 

Please divide 400 hospitalised by 5800 infected. That's not 99.99% effective in the prevention of hospitalisation. Getting hospitalised is a failure already. If one survives hospitalisation, no one can claim that the vaccine alone has prevented death. The survival could be due to the competence of the medical workers, drugs and the all sorts of medical equipment.

I'm not assuming anything buddy, this is data and quote from the CDC that I copied and pasted directly from the link you provided. Did you not read the whole article you linked to make your claim: https://www.businessinsider.com/infected-after-covid-vaccination-cdc-numbers-breakthrough-infections-2021-4

[VBF]

1 hour ago, DavisH said:

US infection rates are still very high but it seems the death rate is dropping. I think we will see the same here - it's reported that it's mainly the 20-30 then 30-40 year old age bracket in Thailand that are reportign beign infected. But vaccinations in the early part focus on medical staff and those with co-morbidities (and not of those youngsters getting infected). So I don't see the spread of infection decreasing drastically due to the vaccination alone, at least in the short term. Israel is starting to show good results, but it has taken a few months to do it. 

UK similar   https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-56769560

 

• About 130,000 people in the UK are estimated to have had coronavirus in the week to 10 April, the Office for National Statistics says

 

• That is down sharply from 185,000 people the previous week, and represents one-in-500 people having Covid-19

Edited April 16, 2021 by VBF

[Bkk Brian]

4 minutes ago, Elkski said:

It appears the AZ isn't working nearly as well as the phizer, moderna, or JJ.  Not even in the same league.  At such late stage why haven't they stated that they are trying to procure some top meds.  All three too vaccine brands have come out saying 3 rd round and yearly shots will be needed.   Any plans for that?  

Would you like some real world data?

 

"Based on data from 1.14 million vaccinations which have been administered, scientists from the University of Edinburgh have shown that both the BioNtech/Pfizer and Oxford vaccines are highly effective and that by the fourth week after receiving the initial dose shown to reduce the risk of hospitalisation from COVID-19 by up to 85% and 94%, respectively."

 

AZ not to bad eh?

 

https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2021-02-22-coronavirus-vaccination-linked-substantial-reduction-hospitalisation-real-world-data

[Selatan]

5 hours ago, AndyFoxy said:

So about .00001 percent chance of dying. I'll take my chances with the vaccine I think.

You fell for that reassurance statement by the CDC too? It's too early to jump to the conclusion that almost all the 75 million  vaccinated were protected and are still protected from infection by Sars-Cov-2. Wait another 12 months to see the real effectiveness of the mRNA vaccines.

I don't think vaccines alone are going to end the pandemic. Variants are not going to let that happen. I think lockdowns and antivirals are needed in addition to some form of vaccine mixing are needed to bring the pandemic to an end.

[Damrongsak]

8 hours ago, Damrongsak said:

Here's a convenient vaccination tracker for those who follow this stuff.  https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2021/health/global-covid-vaccinations/

 

In the USA, we got really good at catching Covid with about 31 million cases.  We had over 300K new cases reported one day in January.  Fortunately the vaccine rollout seems to be going well, with over 3 million shots administered per day.  One day we hit 4 million and are close to 200 million shots so far.  Where does one find over 3 million syringes per day?

Edit:  "Where does one find over 3 million syringes per day?".  I think I've answered my own question: in homeless camps throughout the USA.  SIGH.

[ParkerN]

15 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

As Sun Tzu would say about this Government being that they are a military group:

 

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

 

However, he would preface the last sentence in regard to how they have handled the Covid vaccine rollout and fighting the beast we see now.  They have failed and as of now are rolling over and giving in to their abject failures.

 

Give it time, that nice Mr Prayuth  will pick his moment and then announce that it was all a glorious victory after all, despite the obvious kicking  that he is taking in the meantime.

 

It's a bit like the Burmese incident: the  Burmese came in, sacked Ayutthya,  and then went home.  The Thais waited until the coast was clear and the Burmese were safely at home, then dashed up to the border shouting "and don't come back again", then went back home and claimed it all as a glorious victory.  Then they quietly moved the capital of Thailand to Bangkok.  Same same with COVID-19;  will create an appalling SNAFU; then, when all the dust settled,  they will quietly declare it a glorious victory after all.  It seems you can rely on Thais  to distort the truth when the opportunity presents itself, if it means I will look better, and keep face. 

 

It took me some years to realise this.  I really do wish I'd known it sooner.

 

 

[RocketDog]

16 hours ago, hotchilli said:

When infections are overtaking the vaccination program I believe it's going backwards... 

But hasn't that been the case everywhere since the pandemic began? 

How could it have been any other way unless we had gotten advanced warning in early 2019 from a time traveler and made the vaccine in advance? 12 Monkies kind of thing. The crucial variables are how fast vaccines can be developed and how contagious the pathogen. 

 

In many respects this pandemic is like others in history. People get sick, we find out why, develop a vaccine, administer it, and immunity starts growing. All the while people are getting infected. 

 

Also, we're shooting at a moving target as new variants keep popping up. In this case we can only always be behind the curve. 

Solving problems before they appear has never been humanity's strong point. Look at climate change. 

 

I'm not defending the Thai government but this is hardly the only country to totally botch the pandemic response measures. Funding is not the only issue but an important one as well. 

 

It seems that this time the game can change because with mRNA vaccine the steps can be greatly shortened and close the time gap between identification and administration. 

 

In the end it will be (for the time being) up to people to go in for a vaccination or not. That is the fatal flaw in the herd immunity plan with vaccines short of massive sickness and death of those susceptible. 

America may be the poster child for countries that have a plan whose citizens refuse to follow. Group think, diviseness, self interest, and nationalism remain hallmarks of the world's poor response to this shared threat. 

 

Give me liberty or give me death? 

 

All of that said, I will wait until I can get the Vax I want here; right now Moderna is my choice. Things are changing every day. In my case it is very easy for me to stay largely isolated so my infection risk is low. This is just not possible for many folks.

I hope vaccination remains a personal choice for everybody but that may not be viable if extremely contagious/deadly strains evolve. 

 

 

[RocketDog]

7 hours ago, Selatan said:

You fell for that reassurance statement by the CDC too? It's too early to jump to the conclusion that almost all the 75 million  vaccinated were protected and are still protected from infection by Sars-Cov-2. Wait another 12 months to see the real effectiveness of the mRNA vaccines.

I don't think vaccines alone are going to end the pandemic. Variants are not going to let that happen. I think lockdowns and antivirals are needed in addition to some form of vaccine mixing are needed to bring the pandemic to an end.

Agreed. Cooperation however is the real magic ingredient that we're still missing. That's what really needs to change. 

[Stargeezr]

I hope that the private hospitals and clinics can get some Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for you

expats., and for the Thais who also want it.   I hope to get my 2nd jab of Pfizer in May.  If it looks like the majority of Thai and Expats in Thailand

had been vaccinated by this coming December, I may return to Thailand for my Winter break, if not

next Winter. I do also hope that the variants are knocked out as well, as those strains are killers as well

as the original COVID strain.  Good Luck all

Geezer

[sirineou]

2 hours ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

I hope that the private hospitals and clinics can get some Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for you

expats., and for the Thais who also want it.   I hope to get my 2nd jab of Pfizer in May.  If it looks like the majority of Thai and Expats in Thailand

had been vaccinated by this coming December, I may return to Thailand for my Winter break, if not

next Winter. I do also hope that the variants are knocked out as well, as those strains are killers as well

as the original COVID strain.  Good Luck all

Geezer

Good luck to you with your second shot, got my second shot of Pfizer a couple of weeks ago, and we should be coming back to Thailand in a couple of weeks. My visa was approved and should have my stamped passport back Monday.  

I believe that as  the US and other major countries get vaccinated, hopefully in the next few months, a lot of the vaccine produced there will become available to the rest of the world and we will begin to see a strong recovery from covid. Let's keep our fingers crossed. 

[shdmn]

On 4/16/2021 at 3:41 AM, The Hammer2021 said:

You can ignore everything certain  posters say. They have one view based on personal inadequacy translated into hatred of all things Thai. Best to ignore them or report  them for trolling.

Definitely lots of haters here. If they hate Thailand so much they should go back to were ever they came from.  You have been in Thailand too long if it gets to you that much imo.  

 

Seems to be lots of China haters here as well.

Edited April 17, 2021 by shdmn

[shdmn]

On 4/16/2021 at 7:06 AM, Elkski said:

It appears the AZ isn't working nearly as well as the phizer, moderna, or JJ.  Not even in the same league.  At such late stage why haven't they stated that they are trying to procure some top meds.  All three too vaccine brands have come out saying 3 rd round and yearly shots will be needed.   Any plans for that?  

I guess you should check your sources then.