Expats getting a Covid-19 vaccine in Pattaya for dummies with emphasis on expats outside the Thai system

[HashBrownHarry]

3 hours ago, Jingthing said:

The U.S. is recommending a third dose six months after the first  dose.

 

Globally that will mean mega millions of doses that the U.S  will use that will not be available to countries like Thailand in greater need.

 

I also went to Bangkok for my first dose which was Astra Zeneca and must go there for my second dose.

 

I'm fine with that.

 

But now I'm also wondering about a third dose six months later then using an mRNA brand.

 

Which begs the question will those of us on the Bangkok vaccine train be tied to Bangkok indefinitely for future doses after the initial doses?

It was n't long ago that you were absolutely against the trip(s) to BKK, what's changed?

[bookstore]

I am not sure my first dose was AZ and my second dose was today of pfizer. They offered me a second dose of Pfizer the end of next month so I am going to take it. I am not sure how long you are suppose to wait in between doses. but the way this Delta variant is tearing through the country I don't think it will hurt

[bookstore]

I live in Pattaya and just got tired of being left out of the loop. I had to go to BKK but i got my first dose of AZ the 30th of June and got my second dose today of Pfizer and a appointment for the end of next month for the second dose of Pfizer. The taxi fare was 1500 round trip but that was better than waiting any longer on these people here

[skatewash]

21 minutes ago, bookstore said:

I am not sure my first dose was AZ and my second dose was today of pfizer. They offered me a second dose of Pfizer the end of next month so I am going to take it. I am not sure how long you are suppose to wait in between doses. but the way this Delta variant is tearing through the country I don't think it will hurt

I wasn't aware that the general public was getting booster shots (only front-line medical personnel.  I'm a bit confused that you don't know what your first dose was.  Didn't you get a receipt or any documentation?  Didn't you receive an appointment at the time of the first jab for the second jab?  Is the entity that offered you the Pfizer dose aware that you have already received one jab of something?  My understanding is that the Pfizer is generally only available to people who have not received any vaccination to date (medical personnel exception noted above).  Is it possible that you have been offered the Pfizer by some entity that is unaware that you have previously received a jab of covid vaccine?  Something doesn't sound right here.  

Edited August 19, 2021 by skatewash

[jacko45k]

7 hours ago, bookstore said:

I am not sure my first dose was AZ and my second dose was today of pfizer. They offered me a second dose of Pfizer the end of next month so I am going to take it. I am not sure how long you are suppose to wait in between doses. but the way this Delta variant is tearing through the country I don't think it will hurt

Many here are currently getting 1st doses of Pfizer and the wait to the second is only 3 weeks. I read somewhere for Pfizer the sweet spot was 8 weeks delay... but I am not going to let that concern me. As to 3rd doses, I know UK people who received their second Pfizer doses in the UK many months ago.... were told a booster may be required, but not as yet done.

[topt]

13 hours ago, bookstore said:

I live in Pattaya and just got tired of being left out of the loop. I had to go to BKK but i got my first dose of AZ the 30th of June and got my second dose today of Pfizer and a appointment for the end of next month for the second dose of Pfizer.

Did you tell them yesterday that you had already had an injection on 30th June? 

 

13 hours ago, bookstore said:

I am not sure my first dose was AZ

Presumably you received some sort of paper telling you what you had - nothing about the second jab on it? Where in BKK did you get it?

Edited August 20, 2021 by topt
today replaced with yesterday

[Jingthing]

 

[bookstore]

You know some time in life you have to with hold information. As screwed up as the system is here one hand doesn't know what the other is doing. So to answer your question when I signed up for the Pfizer vaccine I did not tell them I had already received a dose of AZ. When I received AZ dose they gave me a date some time in October to receive the 2nd dose which I canceled now. When I received the dose of Pfizer the other day they gave me a appointment for the middle of September for a 2nd dose. If that's a crime then I'm guilty. The Pfizer was donated by my country  so I feel entility to 2 doses of that vaccine. Some may disagree get over it. It is what it is

[Jingthing]

2 minutes ago, bookstore said:

You know some time in life you have to with hold information. As screwed up as the system is here one hand doesn't know what the other is doing. So to answer your question when I signed up for the Pfizer vaccine I did not tell them I had already received a dose of AZ. When I received AZ dose they gave me a date some time in October to receive the 2nd dose which I canceled now. When I received the dose of Pfizer the other day they gave me a appointment for the middle of September for a 2nd dose. If that's a crime then I'm guilty. The Pfizer was donated by my country  so I feel entility to 2 doses of that vaccine. Some may disagree get over it. It is what it is

How much time between your AZ jab and the first Pfizer?

[bookstore]

I received the 1st AZ dose on the 30 of June and the Pfizer on the 18th of August and have a appointment for the 15th of September for the 2nd dose of Pfizer

[skatewash]

15 minutes ago, bookstore said:

You know some time in life you have to with hold information. As screwed up as the system is here one hand doesn't know what the other is doing. So to answer your question when I signed up for the Pfizer vaccine I did not tell them I had already received a dose of AZ. When I received AZ dose they gave me a date some time in October to receive the 2nd dose which I canceled now. When I received the dose of Pfizer the other day they gave me a appointment for the middle of September for a 2nd dose. If that's a crime then I'm guilty. The Pfizer was donated by my country  so I feel entility to 2 doses of that vaccine. Some may disagree get over it. It is what it is

Interesting point of view. 

"As screwed up as the system is here one hand doesn't know what the other is doing."

and 

"You know some time in life you have to with hold information." "... when I signed up for the Pfizer vaccine I did not tell them I had already received a dose of AZ."

I wonder if those two statements could be related somehow?  Having the right hand know what the left hand is doing is probably aided a bit when people don't, you know, withhold information.

"I live in Pattaya and just got tired of being left out of the loop. I had to go to BKK but i got my first dose of AZ the 30th of June..."

But as of June 30th you were in the system.  Not only had you just been vaccinated with AstraZeneca just as they promised you, but you received your appointment date for your second AstraZeneca jab.  No reason to believe you wouldn't have received your second dose of AZ as scheduled either.  Instead you signed up for a program that you understood was for people who had not been vaccinated at all, and in doing so purposely withheld the information that you had received a dose of AstraZeneca already.

There are people who have still not been able to be vaccinated despite their best efforts to register.  But it's really difficult for me to see how exactly the system failed you.  

[skatewash]

29 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

How much time between your AZ jab and the first Pfizer?

The Com-Cov study out of the UK investigated the effects from a shot of either AZ or Pfizer and then followed by a shot of the other one four weeks later.  AZ first, followed by Pfizer in four weeks, was found to be the most effective scenario of the ones looked at.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-57636356

[bookstore]

Well the only thing I can say some people are lucky and some are not.  Perseverance might have  some thing to do with it to. Most people on this web site do nothing except bad mouth Thailand and complain about how screwed up it is. If it's that bad here people need to pack there bags and go home Although i did get the first dose of AZ. The American Government donated the Pfizer to Thailand for Expats. Me being American I feel entitled to the Pfizer since my country donated it. If your not American sorry about your luck go back home and get your vaccine

[skatewash]

18 minutes ago, bookstore said:

Well the only thing I can say some people are lucky and some are not.  Perseverance might have  some thing to do with it to. Most people on this web site do nothing except bad mouth Thailand and complain about how screwed up it is. If it's that bad here people need to pack there bags and go home Although i did get the first dose of AZ. The American Government donated the Pfizer to Thailand for Expats. Me being American I feel entitled to the Pfizer since my country donated it. If your not American sorry about your luck go back home and get your vaccine

Thank you for sharing your interesting point of view.  You are being much too modest:  some people make their own luck.
 

The American Government donated Pfizer to the Thai government with absolutely no strings attached (according to the Chargé d'Affaires of US Embassy Bangkok).  They left it entirely up to the Thai Government to administer as they saw fit but expressed the hope that everyone would be eligible for it, including foreigners).
 

I am an American citizen, but I'm also able to follow the rules laid out by the Thai government in their vaccination program.  I'm also lucky to be living in Phuket where it's been relatively easy for everyone to get vaccinated (some have still fallen between the cracks even in Phuket).

Edited August 21, 2021 by skatewash

[Jingthing]

I'm not going to judge people who are taking creative paths but if I tried that I would be concerned that it might be discovered and possibly cause problems. So let's say you got an AZ jab and then went for Pfizer not revealing your history. So we see reports that it wasn't detected for the first Pfizer jab. But couldn't it be detected later before the second jab? Keeping in mind we do need two jabs to get the proof of vaccination which potentially might be needed for all kinds of important things.

 

As far as the American angle with Pfizer, I would have liked our government to make some promises to us, but they didn't actually do that.

Edited August 21, 2021 by Jingthing

[bookstore]

Good then I hope you understand it has not been that easy here in Pattaya. In fact like I said I had to travel to Bangkok to get the vaccine. Plus as I understood it when the US donated the vaccine 150,000 doses was to be allocated to expats and the rest as the Thai government wanted to do with it. And some times in life you have to bend the rules a little bit. You should know living in thailand that the government might bend the rules once in awhile. What is good for the goose is good for the gander. 

[skatewash]

7 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

... So let's say you got an AZ jab and then went for Pfizer not revealing your history.  So we see reports that it wasn't detected for the first Pfizer jab. But couldn't it be detected later before the second jab? Keeping in mind we do need two jabs to get the proof of vaccination which potentially might be needed for all kinds of important things.

I would imagine at some point there will be a database maintained probably by Ministry of Public Health that will keep everyone's Thai covid vaccination history, once all the hospitals input their vaccination data.  So, of course, it could be detected.  Will it be?  I have no idea.  But, for example, when you get the Thai National Vaccination Certificate it contains a QR code that takes you to a MOPH website that lists the covid vaccinations you have had in Thailand.  I don't know what it lists for people who have participated in multiple vaccination programs.  Maybe some people will have some explaining to do.  Maybe not.  Time will tell.

[skatewash]

12 minutes ago, bookstore said:

Good then I hope you understand it has not been that easy here in Pattaya. In fact like I said I had to travel to Bangkok to get the vaccine. Plus as I understood it when the US donated the vaccine 150,000 doses was to be allocated to expats and the rest as the Thai government wanted to do with it. And some times in life you have to bend the rules a little bit. You should know living in thailand that the government might bend the rules once in awhile. What is good for the goose is good for the gander. 

Quote

"Our vaccines do not come with strings attached," Heath [US Chargé d'Affaires Michael Heath] said in a Facebook statement. "We have the singular objective of saving lives and we know that none of us is safe until all of us are safe. As such, we are happy to hear that the Royal Thai Government has committed to distributing these vaccines equitably to all residents of Thailand and to prioritising those most at risk."

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40003974

The US government could very easily have specified who should receive their vaccines.  After all China, France, and Switzerland managed to do that quite nicely.

[Jingthing]

29 minutes ago, skatewash said:

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40003974

The US government could very easily have specified who should receive their vaccines.  After all China, France, and Switzerland managed to do that quite nicely.

Could have but didn't. 

[couchpotato]

44 minutes ago, skatewash said:

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40003974

The US government could very easily have specified who should receive their vaccines.  After all China, France, and Switzerland managed to do that quite nicely.

Two different scenarios.

China, Switzerland and France specifically imported vaccines (in conjunction with the authorities) for their

own citizens and distributed through private hospitals.

 

The USA donated vaccines to Thailand with the only stipulation that a certain percentage must be used for front line medical staff, and the rest up to the relevant agency (although it looks like many foreigners have been receiving Pfizer jabs during the past week or so).

[skatewash]

7 minutes ago, couchpotato said:

Two different scenarios.

China, Switzerland and France specifically imported vaccines (in conjunction with the authorities) for their

own citizens and distributed through private hospitals.

 

The USA donated vaccines to Thailand with the only stipulation that a certain percentage must be used for front line medical staff, and the rest up to the relevant agency (although it looks like many foreigners have been receiving Pfizer jabs during the past week or so).

So you agree the US (like China, Switzerland, and France) could have specifically imported vaccines (in conjunction with the authorities) for their own citizens and distributed through private hospitals.

But decided not to do that.

Those are two different scenarios because the US government decided not to follow the scenario that China, Switzerland, and France followed.  Entirely the decision of the current US administration.  The result of that decision is that there are American citizens in Thailand who will not be receiving Pfizer doses that have been sent to Thailand.  Doses that American taxpayers paid for through their taxes.

Edited August 21, 2021 by skatewash

[topt]

2 hours ago, bookstore said:

The Pfizer was donated by my country  so I feel entility to 2 doses of that vaccine.

No idea of your age or any health issues but having managed to secure a dose far earlier than most foreigners, for which I salute you,  you then come out with this statement - "I feel entitled".......

With so many struggling to get a vax, let alone 2, that sounds like either guilt and an excuse or you really do feel that way. If the latter, whilst not judging as JT mentions, I hope I don't know you 

 

 

[fredscats]

The question for receiving a Pfizer after receiving the AZ earlier was" have you received a covid vaccination in the last two weeks"

[fredscats]

Just now, fredscats said:

The question for receiving a Pfizer after receiving the AZ earlier was" have you received a covid vaccination in the last two weeks"

Plus purchases of two pfizers are or were on offer  up to one day ago  3300 both

[topt]

1 minute ago, fredscats said:

Plus purchases of two pfizers are or were on offer  up to one day ago  3300 both

really - where?

via expatvac I received Pfizer FOC as did I guess everybody else who was at Central Festival this last week.......

[couchpotato]

4 minutes ago, fredscats said:

The question for receiving a Pfizer after receiving the AZ earlier was" have you received a covid vaccination in the last two weeks"

Sorry can you elaborate on that statement....who asked the question, when and where. 

Thank you.

[fredscats]

6 minutes ago, couchpotato said:

Sorry can you elaborate on that statement....who asked the question, when and where. 

Thank you.

Collected questionaire at reception........."have you ever" blah blah blah   12 xs over  all tick boxes   when and where is my business

[fredscats]

10 minutes ago, topt said:

really - where?

via expatvac I received Pfizer FOC as did I guess everybody else who was at Central Festival this last week.......

Look Im not here as information czar,up to yesterday medpark

[couchpotato]

9 minutes ago, topt said:

really - where?

via expatvac I received Pfizer FOC as did I guess everybody else who was at Central Festival this last week.......

I have been contacted for FOC Pfizer next week at central pattaya also.

If you have time could you describe the procedure (where to go, forms to fill out, many people waiting etc).

Also what is the time interval for the 2nd shot.

Thank you.

[couchpotato]

1 minute ago, fredscats said:

Look Im not here as information czar,up to yesterday medpark

Thanks anyway for the provided info...