EXCLUSIVE: Government inaction blocking private hospital vaccine purchase despite Prayut promise

[Kiujunn]

14 minutes ago, Oxx said:

I understand the Ministry of Commerce has just announced that private hospitals will NOT be allowed to import vaccines.

Thailand plans to be the manufacturing hub for vaccines for SEA.

The production of BioScience is not only for domestic consumption,  it is for export also. 

It wouldn't make sense to import vaccines. 

[alacrity]

Bunrungrad, 8,000THB - Astrazeneca.

 

Pitsanuvej Phitsonulok, 2,000THB- same.

 

Don't dispute that the system may not be working well in some areas, but it is working. Same as many (so-called) democracies around the the world at this time. The minions have their own agenda, which works against the well-being of their own citizens.

[Fromas]

6 minutes ago, Kiujunn said:

It wouldn't make sense to import vaccines. 

 

It might not make economic sense, but it makes great sense from a public health POV.

[Jingthing]

4 minutes ago, alacrity said:

Bunrungrad, 8,000THB - Astrazeneca.

 

Pitsanuvej Phitsonulok, 2,000THB- same.

 

Don't dispute that the system may not be working well in some areas, but it is working. Same as many (so-called) democracies around the the world at this time. The minions have their own agenda, which works against the well-being of their own citizens.

Their quoted prices and they don’t have doses yet?

[bdenner]

9 hours ago, Amdesign said:

They are not military, too... Never participated in any warfare. Parquet generals only capable to manage parades and intrigues.

Not forgetting corruption, 7 years on and the good general is one of the wealthiest men in Thailand fully protected by the minister for watches and all things corrupt!

[pixelaoffy]

9 minutes ago, alacrity said:

Bunrungrad, 8,000THB - Astrazeneca.

 

Pitsanuvej Phitsonulok, 2,000THB- same.

 

Don't dispute that the system may not be working well in some areas, but it is working. Same as many (so-called) democracies around the the world at this time. The minions have their own agenda, which works against the well-being of their own citizens.

Made up figures.  

[Kiujunn]

7 minutes ago, Fromas said:

 

It might not make economic sense, but it makes great sense from a public health POV.

There are people in Thailand who care about public health. 

They had the upper hand for a long time,  but in the end they lost out.

 

In the West, however, they lost out right from the beginning, and profits trumped lives (pun intended).... so Thailand learned its lesson and is now following the West. "Let the bodies pile up" - who said that again?

[Excel]

8 minutes ago, Kiujunn said:

There are people in Thailand who care about public health. 

They had the upper hand for a long time,  but in the end they lost out.

 

In the West, however, they lost out right from the beginning, and profits trumped lives (pun intended).... so Thailand learned its lesson and is now following the West. "Let the bodies pile up" - who said that again?

Boris just denied it in PMs question time, so there

[Kiujunn]

7 minutes ago, Excel said:

Boris just denied it in PMs question time, so there

Did you expect him to admit it?

[bbabythai]

10 hours ago, pseudorabies said:

I've been considering doing the same especially now that the single dose JnJ vaccine is again available.  It would be great if Thailand would set up a special re-entry process for Thais and expats living in Thailand who travel abroad just to get vaccinated but, like private hospitals administering vaccines, I don't think the government wants this to happen.

what about all the risks of getting on a plane / long haul flight/ airports etc. All just to get a vaccine?

[Susco]

19 minutes ago, Kiujunn said:

so Thailand learned its lesson and is now following the West. "Let the bodies pile up" - who said that again?

 

The bodies don't pile up in Thailand, or neighbouring countries.

 

There are 178 deaths out of a population of 75 million.

 

Look at the death figures in other SEA countries, they are similar. Now before you get back to me and say, who can trust those numbers, it includes Singapore which is number 3 on the list of the least corrupt countries in the world.

 

How is the west faring with their death numbers?

[VBF]

19 minutes ago, Excel said:

Boris just denied it in PMs question time, so there

Wasn't it a certain Mandy Rice-Davies who said "Well he would say that, wouldn't he?" ????

[Arkady]

2 hours ago, edwardandtubs said:

It's a condition of Astrazeneca's agreement with the Oxford scientists that they wouldn't make a profit for the duration of the pandemic so I'm sure that would also apply to the technology transfer agreement with Siam Bioscience.

 

I read somewhere that AZ agreed with Oxford to sell at cost for one year.  I believe AZ's licensees had to agree to the same terms as AZ.  Some of them also had to agree to export at least half of their produce.  That happened in India until the government used its power to stop exports. Siam Bioscience was planning to export more than 50% because the government initialll only ordered about 17% of its first year production.  Things might look different now.

[Lacessit]

10 hours ago, ChipButty said:

Im wondering if this is the best a Military government can do, then how is the army run,

My experience of people who have spent their lives in the military are usually pretty well organised 

Perhaps you have missed the information Thailand has 1700 flag officers for a ratio of one to every 212 troops, whereas the USA has 920 flag officers, one for every 1430 troops. Too many chiefs and not enough Indians springs to mind.

 

Nothing to do with effective organisation, here it's all about getting the best postings, and enriching oneself.

 

[Kiujunn]

45 minutes ago, Susco said:

How is the west faring with their death numbers?

You don't understand. 

What Boris realized early on (and Putin, Bolsonaro etc) is that nobody cares if one or two hundred thousand die. It's the economy,  stupid!

Thailand just learned it.

Edited April 28, 2021 by Kiujunn

[bbabythai]

5 hours ago, Arkady said:

Out of curiosity I just looked for the Mor Prom phone app which is the government app they want Thais to use to book vaccinations from 1st May.  I found it in the Apple app store and downloaded.  It invited me to register, so I keyed in my Thai ID number and phone number and up popped my full name in English.  I clicked on the menu that said register for vaccine and registered.  Then I clicked on the icon that said book a vaccie and it suggested the venue of Samitivej Hospital for some reason,  So I accepted that and moved on to pick a date from the calendar.  That is where it stopped working. Any date I picked returned the response "no information available".   That may well be as far as I get.

 

Clearly it is not for foreign residents as it requires a Thai ID number to register.  I am not sure why it picked Samitivej as a venue.  It could be that this is part of the MoPH's plan to co-opt private hospitals in delivering the government's free vaccines as suggested in the article, rather than letting them order and sell their own.  Of course this would leave foreigners out in the cold, unless they work for large Thai companies that can order vaccines for their staff.

 

I will try the app again on the launch day 1st May but I am not holding my breath it will work any better than online 90 day reporting or the government's hotline for COVID patients which just teasing them into believing they can get help but they are just referred to another hotline number where no one answers the phone.  Some are saying that it is worth picking up a free Sinovac or AZ vaccination, if offered.  Then you can still buy a Pfizer in 6-12 months time, if they ever make it to the LOS and treat it as a booster.  I am still suspicious of Sinovac.

To answer one of your quesitons, the govt is using private hospitals to roll out the sinovac vaccines to its front line medical workers across thailand. My wife just got her first jab last week. 

 

Instead of using a useless app go to Samitivej hospital sukhumvit near thonglor bts. Go and put your name on their waiting list. 

[Maestro]

Removed an unintelligible post (CV-19)

[Is this real]

So, just to clarify the situation.  COVID-19 is bad and can kill.

Current vaccines do much in solving the problem.

Thailand government will not buy vaccines and will not let others buy them either.

More people will needlessly die.

Land of Smiles.

[Jingthing]

2 minutes ago, Is this real said:

So, just to clarify the situation.  COVID-19 is bad and can kill.

Current vaccines do much in solving the problem.

Thailand government will not buy vaccines and will not let others buy them either.

More people will needlessly die.

Land of Smiles.

Thailand will probably buy some, but who's selling? It seems Thailand because of their non-urgent planning tactic is stuck with the dregs. Yes, I mean Sinovac and Sputnik. 

[Maha Sarakham]

15 hours ago, wasabi said:

I've had enough of this circus. My wife and I are getting a Covid test this Sunday. If negative we will be back in the USA shortly after. Still love Thailand and Thai people. Their Covid response, not so much. 

 

Welcome back.  Plenty of vaccines available and things are picking up for domestic travel.  Pfizer and JnJ both available with no appointment necessary in our area.

[mbenson]

8 hours ago, edwardandtubs said:

It's a condition of Astrazeneca's agreement with the Oxford scientists that they wouldn't make a profit for the duration of the pandemic so I'm sure that would also apply to the technology transfer agreement with Siam Bioscience.

Could this mean that AZ can't make a profit but Siam Bioscience can make a profit? If no profit for Siam Bioscience, then they can only recover costs, right? Therefore it is essentially a non-profit organization at this stage of the game. Perhaps I am daft, but it seems like the prevailing narrative is that Siam Bioscience and its "allies' will all profit from this somehow. It may well be they there will nothing on-the-books to show that there is profit to go anywhere. So what then is the mechanism by which various parties are enriched by the AZ vaccine produced by Siam Bioscience? I know that there are always ways. I am just curious as to what they may be.

There certainly are other benefits to Siam Bioscience beyond the production of the AZ vaccine under the current license. For example, it will not be free forever. There is the matter of boosters as well. Finally, this will set up Siam Bioscience as a regional supplier of future vaccines in competition with India, at least to a small degree. To me that is the big winner here. Thailand gains the facilities, knowledge, and expertise to create and distribute vaccines in the future.

[mbenson]

6 hours ago, Kiujunn said:

Thailand plans to be the manufacturing hub for vaccines for SEA.

The production of BioScience is not only for domestic consumption,  it is for export also. 

It wouldn't make sense to import vaccines. 

This is where it gets interesting. (To me anyway.)

 

You are an exporter of vaccines that are made under license. I assume that it is specified in the contract how much of your production is for export and how much is for domestic. In fact, I have seen figures quoted in this forum regarding the actual numbers for the Siam Bioscience output.  In addition, there may be additional stipulations about a timetable of exports to prevent a country from taking all of the immediate production and only exporting after they have taken what they need.

 

Could  the deals allow a producer to keep all of the output of their facilities for domestic use until some number or proportion of the population is immunized? What do folks like AZ do to ensure that a producing nation does not horde all of the output for themselves? Or is this not an issue? I assume that AZ has contracts that it intends Siam Bioscience to fulfill in the region. However, could Thailand export vaccine if it is in a crisis, even if it is required to do so by contract?

India is the world's largest producer of vaccines, many under license. Now that they are in an extreme position, must they still export to fulfill contracts held by the licensor? Note that I saw that India has only fulfilled about 40% of its Covax obligations.

 

I guess the producing country can do what they want with their production should there be a national emergency, real or perceived.

[Andycoops]

This government has been inaction mode since it seized power at the end of a gun barrel several years ago, hardly news.

[Lacessit]

Some news that may be of interest in this thread.

Source: The Age, Australian media.

[madmen]

22 hours ago, pattjock said:

So foreigners here will not be able to get a vaccination ???

Errrm no! 

[RupertIII]

And today - "Course Changed! Government says private sector has no need to order vaccines"

https://www.thaienquirer.com/26993/course-changed-government-says-private-sector-has-no-need-to-order-vaccines/

[mtls2005]

U-Turn Ahead

 

Course Changed! Government says private sector has no need to order vaccines

 

“The government has informed the Thai Chamber of Commerce that it has sourced enough vaccines to meet the requirement of every citizens, therefore the private sector does not need to buy any additional vaccines.”

 

https://www.thaienquirer.com/26993/course-changed-government-says-private-sector-has-no-need-to-order-vaccines/

[herfiehandbag]

On 4/28/2021 at 9:22 AM, Excel said:

Well ask yourselves this:-  do you think the approval delays and red tape is due to the normal Thai bureaucratic process and would occur at any other times, or could it be a deliberate and concerted effort by the PM and his controller to ensure vaccines will only be purchased from an internal source ? Not withstanding the moral issues should that latter option be the case but like all monopolies here, or pseudo monopolies afforded to the very few,  this brings inflated costs that would fill the trough significantly further, to the detriment of course to the other 99% of the Thai nation.

Basically yes to the second question! Particularly as the "Czar" has now divined that the Government has sourced sufficient vaccines for the country.

 

It was a close run thing though - for 48 hours or so it looked like the monopoly might crumble!

 

That said, provide the right official(s) with sufficient "influence" and I am sure that permission to import vaccines will be forthcoming.

 

The stakes are high, so it will cost...

Edited April 29, 2021 by herfiehandbag

[Brierley]

Hmmm! Could it be that this is an attempt to ensure a captive market for the locally produced vaccine and ensure profits are not eroded by allowing private hospitals to share?

[mackayae]

“The government has informed the Thai Chamber of Commerce that it has sourced enough vaccines to meet the requirement of every citizens, therefore the private sector does not need to buy any additional vaccines.”