Expats over 60 urged to register for vaccine on Thai govt site

[WaveHunter]

57 minutes ago, fcbkk said:

 

 

Expats are not being forgotten about indeed. IMO the original intention was to vaccinate Thai's first and make expats pay, as is obvious from quite a few official statements made at the time, as well as actual policies enacted. That original intention had to change in the face of pressure (from the public, international community and Thai scientists and public health officials) against the obviously discriminatory policy, besides being obvious nonsense from a scientific and public health point of view. The result was that official policy gave assurances (words) that vaccination was to be made inclusive for all. Sadly the reality (still) does not match the assurances. 

 

The obvious discrimination does not reflect all or even the majority of officials, but undoubtedly there are some in responsible positions that spoke and acted accordingly and they still influence policies and/or directly allocate resources and so on. That is why i am not confident we have seen the last of the discrimination and whether it is only a question of catching up with the lack of inclusive preparation and shortage of supply.

 

I did acknowledge and comment on the problem many Thais face and said it is equally upsetting, but it is not caused by the same problem. Here and now we all have to deal with the result of discrimination, incompetence, self-serving or bad organisation, or however you wish to call it. Remember, compared to many other countries, Thailand had many more months to prepare for inclusive organisation AND sufficient supply of vaccines, whilst infection numbers were relatively low. The lack of both shows all you need to know and those in power should be held to account for both discriminatory policies and all else, but fat chance of that i know. 

 

We are where we are, right now it's fire fighting and we can only hope for the best and wish us all good health. And pay thanks to the many good Thai people on the ground as volunteers and in health services. 
 

I just think that the REAL political decision makers here in Thailand are not stupid.  They are capable of objectively basing public vaccination policy on science not on political prejudice, becuase the latter would simply be counterproductive for the nation as a whole.

 

In a pandemic such as this it defies logic to discriminate vaccination policy by nationality.  That would be incredibly foolish since the virus does not care what a person's nationality is.   All people regardless of their nationality are not only capable of being infected, BUT ALSO capable of spreading the virus to the population as a whole.  That makes it imperative that EVERYBODY be vaccinated ASAP.  

 

I mean the overriding goal of vaccination is not to protect the individual, but to protect the population as a whole.  It's selfish and self-centered to think of it otherwise

 

IMO, there is simply is no discrimination against expats.  The criteria for the present state of the rollout is based solely on supply/demand, and consists in addressing the hot spots where cases are escalating the fastest (i.e.: around Bangkok), and focusing on the high risk groups of people (that seem to adequately be including expats in those specific geographic regions where cluster development is likely.

 

Once stockpiles of vaccine increase, which will surely happen dramatically over the coming weeks and months, I'm confident we'll see vaccinations ramp up very quickly all over the Kingdom...and even right now, Thailand's vaccination effort is actually far better than many other Asian countries...so, personally I am very confident that I will be vaccinated sooner rather than later.

Edited June 30, 2021 by WaveHunter

[fcbkk]

1 hour ago, WaveHunter said:

I just think that the REAL political decision makers here in Thailand are not stupid.  They are capable of objectively basing public vaccination policy on science not on political prejudice, becuase the latter would simply be counterproductive for the nation as a whole.

 

In a pandemic such as this it defies logic to discriminate vaccination policy by nationality.  That would be incredibly foolish since the virus does not care what a person's nationality is.   All people regardless of their nationality are not only capable of being infected, BUT ALSO capable of spreading the virus to the population as a whole.  That makes it imperative that EVERYBODY be vaccinated ASAP.  

 

I mean the overriding goal of vaccination is not to protect the individual, but to protect the population as a whole.  It's selfish and self-centered to think of it otherwise

 

IMO, there is simply is no discrimination against expats.  The criteria for the present state of the rollout is based solely on supply/demand, and consists in addressing the hot spots where cases are escalating the fastest (i.e.: around Bangkok), and focusing on the high risk groups of people (that seem to adequately be including expats in those specific geographic regions where cluster development is likely.

 

Once stockpiles of vaccine increase, which will surely happen dramatically over the coming weeks and months, I'm confident we'll see vaccinations ramp up very quickly all over the Kingdom...and even right now, Thailand's vaccination effort is actually far better than many other Asian countries...so, personally I am very confident that I will be vaccinated sooner rather than later.

 

 

If there was no discrimination then foreign nationals would be able to register for the national vaccination program for inclusion as per the common sense priorities (age, health conditions, locality). As there is no available option to register the discrimination is plain obvious and visible to everyone who wishes to see. I don't know why you prefer not to see this but it is up to you. 

 

I believe now (today and since a few weeks already) the majority of efforts are being directed to try catch up and provide a means to be inclusive, but cannot plug the holes quickly enough. The damage was done earlier through IMO intentionally nationalistic/racist/populist actions that were watered down or changed only after sustained pressure. Common sense eventually took over and official policies were adapted to sound inclusive and provide assurance to the international community. 

 

Not every nationalistic/racist/populist is stupid in the sense of intellectual ability. I would not disagree if you'd call it stupid - besides being ethically wrong - but I did not put this down to a lack of intellect, i simply said that IMO it was intentional and that some of the people in power and responsible position acted accordingly and i am not confident they will not be able to cause further damage. 

 

As for Thailands vaccination effort in comparison to other Asian countries: you are quite wrong. As recently as mid May Thailand's vaccination efforts were ahead of only Vietnam and the Philippines, i.e they were lagging behind efforts in Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, let along Singapore, South Korea, Japan, China. (http://www.aseanthai.net/english/mobile_detail.php?cid=14&nid=3982)
Since the larger rollout started in June efforts will have caught up by comparison, let's hope it continues to ramp up quickly for all. 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, fcbkk said:

As for Thailands vaccination effort in comparison to other Asian countries: you are quite wrong. As recently as mid May Thailand's vaccination efforts were ahead of only Vietnam and the Philippines, i.e they were lagging behind efforts in Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, let along Singapore, South Korea, Japan, China. (http://www.aseanthai.net/english/mobile_detail.php?cid=14&nid=3982)
Since the larger rollout started in June efforts will have caught up by comparison, let's hope it continues to ramp up quickly for all. 

 

 

No, Thailand hasn't caught up with the other ASEAN countries it has been trailing in terms of fully vaccinated / two shot rates among the population. Still lower than most at about 4%, trailed mainly by only Vietnam and the Phils.

 

This was the ASEAN comparison chart I pulled as of June 25, with the comparable rates for the world, U.S. and Asia at large added in for comparative purposes:

 

 

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-people-fully-vaccinated-covid?time=latest

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-people-fully-vaccinated-covid?time=latest

Edited June 30, 2021 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Got my first AZ shot at Phyathai II Hospital this afternoon. Everything went smoothly and without incident. The nurse who gave my shot estimated they were doing about 1,000 foreigners per day at the Phyathai II location at present.

 

Had a 2 pm appointment scheduled on the basis on an Intervac website registration made back on June 10 for the age 60 and older crowd. Signed up for the AZ vaccine, and received the AZ vaccine, though it looked like the hospital was doing both AZ and Sinovac at the clinic this afternoon. I arrived early at about 12:30 pm, and was out and done by 2 pm, including the mandatory 30 minute waiting time after the shot.

 

As mentioned here previously, the hospital didn't want anything from me other than my passport. All the documents that existed online in a person's Intervac website profile -- before the website became inaccessible -- were not asked for or required. As I mentioned above, I got no notification email from anyone in advance of my appointment, but did receive a confirmation SMS from Phyathai II yesterday around 11:20 am.

 

Today, I arrived via the Sanam Pao BTS Station on the Sukhumvit Line, which is just a couple hundred meters north from the hospital on the main road there. The vaccination clinic for foreigners is on the 9th floor of what they call the parking building, which is just behind the main outpatient building and the one closer to the Victory Monument BTS Station to the south. So you enter off the main road from the southern most building and then go to the rear, where you transition into the parking building, and a small elevator going upstairs.

 

Once upstairs, you go thru a series of waiting rooms and processing rooms before ultimately getting the shot, which in the end took all of about 2-3 minute with a nurse.

 

--The first was a narrow waiting room for newly arrived people where they collect your passports. There were about 30 people waiting there when I arrived at 12:30 pm.

 

 

--Then onto a adjoining room where you wait while they check your passport info and ultimately give you a queue ticket. Because it was the lunch hour and a lot of the processing staff was away, they didn't start handing out queue tickets to those already inside the second room until about 12:50 pm.

 

 

--Then you go to a nearby section of chairs in the same room where you wait for your number to be called where they check your personal info with you on a two-sided form they've printed out showing which vaccine you're scheduled to get. I had a queue ticket in the 620s, and it looked like they started the afternoon session at about #600. So my ticket got called somewhat after 1 pm.

 

 

--Then onto an adjoining area behind the computer registration desk where you're given a clipboard and a pen to fill out the form you've been given at the registration desk asking if you have any medical conditions, allergies, etc etc... After a while, they'll again call your same queue number and you go to another series of desks behind the computer registration desks where everyone gets their blood pressure checked and noted.

 

 

--And then finally, at that point, with form in hand, you're ushered over to another adjoining part of the same large room where the actual vaccination cubicles are located (it looked like they had a half dozen or so). I barely sat down for a minute or two before I was called in for the shot from a very pleasant nurse and assistant.

 

--And then lastly, escorted down a hallway to another separate large room where you serve your 30-minute post shot check period. Once the time has run there, they again call your same queue ticket number and issue you your appointment slip for the followup second shot, which is my case was set for Sept. 22, which I believe works out to be 12 weeks down the road.

 

Back home now... and I'll wait on any comment about post shot side effects until tonight has passed and we're into tomorrow.

 

[fcbkk]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

No, Thailand hasn't caught up with the other ASEAN countries it has been trailing in terms of fully vaccinated / two shot rates among the population. Still lower than most at about 4%, trailed mainly by only Vietnam and the Phils.

 

This was the ASEAN comparison chart I pulled as of June 25, with the comparable rates for the world, U.S. and Asia at large added in for comparative purposes:

 

 

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-people-fully-vaccinated-covid?time=latest

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-people-fully-vaccinated-covid?time=latest

 

Thank you, the stats you posted seem to confirm what i wrote, i.e. that Thailand's efforts so far lag behind many other Asian countries. I was expressing hope when i stated that Thailand will be catching up since the supposed start of the national program. 

 

Whether Thailand is indeed catching up or not is not quite so simple to asses, but since my post in response to @WaveHunter quoted data of vaccination doses administered (not the number of 2-shot full vaccinations) i thought it might be useful to have a quick look at the recent development using the same data source as you used. 

 

Comparison is not precise as countries report data on slightly different days, but the trend should be roughly valid. Unsurprisingly it seems Thailand's efforts since mid May have increased substantially, but still lag behind other countries, e.g. half the rate in Cambodia across the period since mid May. The picture will be skewed somewhat as Thailand only started the program in larger numbers from 7-June, the rate of increase should look better by end of July. Let's hope it can be escalated more, as it should and needs to. 

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

34 minutes ago, fcbkk said:

 

Comparison is not precise as countries report data on slightly different days, but the trend should be roughly valid. Unsurprisingly it seems Thailand's efforts since mid May have increased substantially, but still lag behind other countries, e.g. half the rate in Cambodia across the period since mid May. The picture will be skewed somewhat as Thailand only started the program in larger numbers from 7-June, the rate of increase should look better by end of July. Let's hope it can be escalated more, as it should and needs to.

 

 

If you want to talk about vaccination RATES, as opposed to share of population vaccinated, this below is the chart I look at every day to see how Thailand is doing:

 

As of yesterday, they gave only barely half of the number of vaccine doses (255,734) that they need to give (513,582) in order to meet their goal of vaccinating 70% of the nation's population by the end of the year. And when you consider that the weekend numbers thus far have always dropped off considerably, they're falling further and further behind with each passing day.

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/KhaosodEnglish/posts/4460359657316265

 

[Enzian]

I think part of the reason Thailand is in the current situation is what I'm calling a for-profit motive, or a What can I get out of this? motive. Now some businesses are for-profit, but a lot of situations are or should be off-limits to the profit motive. But that is not clear to a lot of people in this society. I just scheduled a fit-to-fly PCR test, and I'm paying an arm and a leg for it, partly because the demand is high in Bangkok now. I'm usually skeptical of such theories, but it really seems that a lot of the dithering last year going into this, was because some officials were trying to figure out how to make this pay-too often that's what government is about in this culture. And so it bites us all. But I'm flying out, if I ace that PCR test.

[brucec64]

On 6/29/2021 at 3:22 PM, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Any updates from folks who had registered vaccine appointments at Phyathai II Hospital in BKK for the June 28-30 period, based on using the Intervac website before it was taken down?

 

I went there at 11:30 am for a 2pm appointment.  Waited an hour and then all foreigners were moved into the waiting room. They collected passports then handed out numbers. They started processing at 1:15. I was 8th and was done by 1:30 pm. After a 30 minute observation period I was given an appointment for sep 22. The vaccine was AZ. All in all it went very smoothly. You should get an sms the day before your appointment. 

[Vietem]

I arrived at 1.30 and was out by 2.50, including the 30 minute observation period. As described above, the organisation was orderly and methodical in dealing with the numbers there, with the local staff being calm and helpful throughout. Much appreciated!

 

The presentation in the observation room goes through possible AZ after-effects, ranging from mild to scary. As for myself, I felt slightly nauseous, but just for the first 5 minutes. I woke up this morning with a sore throat, but I have heard from colleagues of severe flu-like symptoms and feeling rough for a couple of days. 

[fcbkk]

17 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

If you want to talk about vaccination RATES, as opposed to share of population vaccinated, this below is the chart I look at every day to see how Thailand is doing:

 

As of yesterday, they gave only barely half of the number of vaccine doses (255,734) that they need to give (513,582) in order to meet their goal of vaccinating 70% of the nation's population by the end of the year. And when you consider that the weekend numbers thus far have always dropped off considerably, they're falling further and further behind with each passing day.

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/KhaosodEnglish/posts/4460359657316265

 

 

 

Well i posted the comparison of rates, as you said in your previous post that Thailand wasn't catching up. From that quick comparison it looks like they have been catching up a little, at least compared to Indonesia and the Phillipines. But the rates administered in that period are still slower than all the other Asian countries in the chart. 

Anyhow, that quick overview comparison is a little skewed, as Thailand only started their larger rollout on 7-June. Perhaps the catch-up was greater since then. The trend will be represented more accurately with an updated comparison in a few weeks time. 

 

But besides maybe an interest in being informed it does not really matter. What matters is that many people in many countries face an anxious wait and some countries are doing far better than others in their efforts - and Thailand so far is one of the worst performers in Asia. 

 

Thanks for posting your stats and source. The target of 70% by end of 2021 was the positive message (political posturing) and will  obviously be missed by a mile or two, unless the responsible people somehow find a way to escalate. Besides some of the responsible people themselves the greatest bottleneck seems supply of vaccines, rather than administration capacity on the ground. 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

On 6/30/2021 at 4:16 PM, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Back home now... and I'll wait on any comment about post shot side effects until tonight has passed and we're into tomorrow.

 

So, regarding the after effects of my Wednesday afternoon AZ first shot vaccine at Phyathai II Hospital in BKK:

 

I felt normal and just fine from the 2 pm time of the shot until after midnight last night.

 

And then at that point, started to notice feeling quite achy in the body and some minor soreness at the spot of the shot, but nothing other than that.

 

Woke up this morning, and felt really achy still and quite fatigued, and ended up sleeping on and off up until about dinner time tonight, where I finally began to feel better and back toward my regular self.

 

So for me, it was about 15 hours of achy body and fatigue, but nothing else. No chills, sweats, fever or anything like that.  All things considered, I'd say I got off reasonably well.

 

[FritsSikkink]

It is a joke, 2 household members under 60 have their vaccinations already but the tax paying foreigner doesn't even have a working website to make an appointment. BTW where are those 1.5 million Astra vaccines that should be there in June?

[fcbkk]

3 hours ago, FritsSikkink said:

It is a joke, 2 household members under 60 have their vaccinations already but the tax paying foreigner doesn't even have a working website to make an appointment. BTW where are those 1.5 million Astra vaccines that should be there in June?

 

 

Not a funny joke unfortunately, but many Thais are waiting too. 

 

The added delivery of AZ was announced for receipt this week not in June i believe. They will then be quality checked and distributed. If all happens as hoped then a new batch should be available from some time next week i suppose. I'd suggest you keep an eye on the news and the thailandintervac websites.

 

Other than this all we can do is stay healthy and keep our spirits up. 

 

Oh and perhaps interrupt our embassies over their afternoon coffee (if they do read emails at all). i've written again and asked what they are doing to ensure equal treatment of all nationalities, and with what right western taxes are used to support initiatives in a country where the government uses nationalistic/racist criteria for the vaccine registration program. Presumable they will have another coffee rather than respond, but perhaps it helps to keep up the pressure through their official channels. 

[White Tiger]

On 6/8/2021 at 6:25 AM, Nemises said:

 

They (Srinagarind Hospital KK) are giving you the chinese vaccine correct?

No - Srinagarind Hoospital gave me the Astra Zeneca vaccine. On Friday 23 July. They also made me an appointment for my 2nd dose in October.

[White Tiger]

On 6/7/2021 at 1:59 PM, Excel said:

That's excellent. Let us know how it went. Unfortunately 3 of my colleagues were not so lucky in Udon Thani  given the vaccine shortages here.

They cancelled that appointment.  Gave me a new appointment for last Friday (23rd July) and they gave me my first dose of Astra Zeneca vaccine last Friday. They also made a follow up appointment for me in October to get a 2nd dose of Astra Zeneca then.

 

It all went ok although I suffered some side effects for about 24 hours - fever and aches and pains. Treated myself with rest, paracetamol and water - which is the advice they gave on the day of the jab when they warned about possible side effects.  I'm fine again now.

Edited July 27, 2021 by White Tiger