Response to Covid letter from State Dept.

[Why Me]

You probably got a mail titled "Message to American ... from Michael G. Heath" earlier today. The message is archived here.

 

I wrote what is below in response. Please respond to the message if you can too. More of us the better. Feel free to use mine if you like.

 

Greetings:

I am a US citizen currently resident in Thailand. It is admirable that our Administration "has embarked on a global effort to address this pandemic by sharing 80 million vaccine doses worldwide by the end of June and 500 million more in the coming year". This is what global leadership is about.

However, it would not be amiss to prioritize US citizens abroad in this endeavor. A simple way to do this would be to allow private contractors access to doses from our home country stockpile and to arrange logistics to distribute these to US citizens overseas for a fee.

You say "The U.S. Department of State is unable to provide vaccines to the millions of Americans who reside outside of the United States." The proposed solution is a workaround to help expats even with minimal commitment of State Department budgetary or human resources. We are loyal tax-paying citizens who, hopefully, will not be abandoned in these difficult times for simply having chosen to live abroad.  

Sincerely,

Name

Bangkok, Thailand

[Yellowtail]

Think of how little elected officials care about you, and then consider you are right to someone that has a lifetime job and zero accountability. 

 

 

[sqwakvfr]

Same letter was posted on the embassy Facebook page.  A lot of responses already and some very entertaining.  I view this latest attempt to appease the American Masses in LOS as a tragic comedy.  Lately it appears the US Government when confronted about specific issues has a 3 Prong response:

 

1. Deflect

2. Deny

3. Laugh it off.

*just look at how the current Vice President responds to questions?

 

I expected this kind of response after the French Embassy announced they were vaccinating it's citizens in Thailand who are over 55,  

 

I made my decision a few months ago by booking with ANA airlines.  Hopefully I will get my first Pfizer jab soon at my local Costco Pharmacy.  Doubt I will return because I did the entire COE, Covid 19 insurance and ASQ once this year.  "Once in a lifetime would be enough".  

[Why Me]

4 minutes ago, sqwakvfr said:

I made my decision a few months ago by booking with ANA airlines.  Hopefully I will get my first Pfizer jab soon at my local Costco Pharmacy.  Doubt I will return

I was thinking of going back for the jab too. But then turns out the one-shot J&J vax is not that good. And I don't want to stay a month for two and I have to return. Ah well, just have to wait my turn here guess. But no way am I taking Sinovax. Reports are that private hospitals are contracting for mRNA vaxes so fingers crossed. 

[sqwakvfr]

I think loosely translated this diagrams says Indonesia and the Philippines will get Pfizer deliveries first?  If looks like LOS was late to the Pfizer party.  But I can't read Thai so I am not sure exactly what it says? 

 

[metisdead]

A post containing a screen shot of a Tweet using profane language has been removed. 

[dddave]

My email to my US Senators and Congressman. (Massachusetts 8th District.

 

"I am your constituent currently living in Thailand where foreigners do not have access to US FDA-approved Covid-19 vaccines. I would urge you to sign the letter that Senators Murphy and Moran sent on June 24 to Secretary of State Blinken asking him to “take concrete steps toward vaccinating the nine million Americans living abroad.”
The current government of Thailand has to this time pointedly excluded foreigners living in Thailand from access to Covid-19 vaccination.  Though the Thai government declared that foreigners were eligible, every sign-up process introduced so far has been non-functional.  We are now told that we can not expect access to vaccines until October, 2021 at the earliest.  Currently, Thailand is experiencing a severe Covid 19 surge, including increasing appearances  of the dangerous "B" and "D" variants.   Even as a 78 year old senior, I have no current access to any one of the Covid Vaccines currently in use.   It has been painfully obvious that corrupt Thai officials have appropriated massive amounts of shipments and sold them to corporations for their own employees and to other nations willing to pay a premium.  Meanwhile, Thai provinces promised several million doses receive only several hundred thousand instead.  
That the USA is making available to Thailand and other Asian nations 500 million doses is laudable but to exclude it's own citizens from the benefit of this generosity is morally reprehensible.
The governments of China and France have provided vaccines to their citizens living in countries that have made the vaccines unavailable to non-citizens.  The US owes no less to it's taxpaying citizens living abroad."

[impulse]

4 hours ago, dddave said:

My email to my US Senators and Congressman. (Massachusetts 8th District.

 

"I am your constituent currently living in Thailand where foreigners do not have access to US FDA-approved Covid-19 vaccines. I would urge you to sign the letter that Senators Murphy and Moran sent on June 24 to Secretary of State Blinken asking him to “take concrete steps toward vaccinating the nine million Americans living abroad.”
The current government of Thailand has to this time pointedly excluded foreigners living in Thailand from access to Covid-19 vaccination.  Though the Thai government declared that foreigners were eligible, every sign-up process introduced so far has been non-functional.  We are now told that we can not expect access to vaccines until October, 2021 at the earliest.  Currently, Thailand is experiencing a severe Covid 19 surge, including increasing appearances  of the dangerous "B" and "D" variants.   Even as a 78 year old senior, I have no current access to any one of the Covid Vaccines currently in use.   It has been painfully obvious that corrupt Thai officials have appropriated massive amounts of shipments and sold them to corporations for their own employees and to other nations willing to pay a premium.  Meanwhile, Thai provinces promised several million doses receive only several hundred thousand instead.  
That the USA is making available to Thailand and other Asian nations 500 million doses is laudable but to exclude it's own citizens from the benefit of this generosity is morally reprehensible.
The governments of China and France have provided vaccines to their citizens living in countries that have made the vaccines unavailable to non-citizens.  The US owes no less to it's taxpaying citizens living abroad."

 

With all due respect, that's way too many words for anyone with a busy schedule to read.

 

[Yellowtail]

3 hours ago, impulse said:

 

With all due respect, that's way too many words for anyone with a busy schedule to read.

 

 

Busy doing what, soliciting donations for their re-election?

 

Do you think they actually read the letters? They have staff for that. All those elite donors have to have some place for their elite kids to work using their elite degrees from elite universities where they learned to weave elite baskets. 

 

They do not give a happy-rat's *** about us, or anyone but themselves for that matter. 

 

 

 

 

[dddave]

4 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

 

Busy doing what, soliciting donations for their re-election?

 

Do you think they actually read the letters? They have staff for that. All those elite donors have to have some place for their elite kids to work using their elite degrees from elite universities where they learned to weave elite baskets. 

 

They do not give a happy-rat's *** about us, or anyone but themselves for that matter. 

 

 

 

 

They actually do keep score, especially Congressmen who have to be much more responsive to constituent concerns if they want to keep their seat.  My niece (most certainly not from a privileged background) did a Congressional internship and her main task was a daily constituent contact report, detailing issues raised and the amount of mail on individual issues.  Individual letters and emails that were of particular interest were flagged and the Congresswoman read each one of them, usually sending the annotated document back to staff for action.

 

"Thomas ""Tip"" O'Neil,  former Speaker of the House and Congressman from Ma. once said: "All politics is local."   Every Congressional election cycle there are surprise defeats of Congressional members who get a big head and forget the homefolk.

The truth is that if anybody's Congressperson is half decent and gets 20 or 30 contacts in a short timeframe about a particular concern such as the expat vaccination issue, he or she will probably get a senior aid to look into it and if other Congressional members are getting similar mail, then it can start to gain attention and possibly action.

 

Writing and sending an email to your Congressional members takes 5 minutes. Just type their name into Google. You'll get a link to their Congressional home page with a "contact" button.  Hit that and you get a simple email form

Edited June 30, 2021 by dddave

[impulse]

9 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

13 hours ago, impulse said:

With all due respect, that's way too many words for anyone with a busy schedule to read.

Busy doing what, soliciting donations for their re-election?

 

That's their highest priority.  Doesn't matter what they're doing.  3 sentences and about 25 words would have expressed the guy's position, been more impactful, and possibly made it past the gate keepers (interns) and directly to the elected official.  Novelettes become a check mark on someone's tracking spreadsheet.

 

[Why Me]

4 hours ago, impulse said:

Doesn't matter what they're doing.  3 sentences and about 25 words would have expressed the guy's position, been more impactful, and possibly made it past the gate keepers (interns) and directly to the elected official. 

 

2 sentences is what dddave's opening para below is and it gets the point across even if they don't care to read the rest of it:

23 hours ago, dddave said:

"I am your constituent currently living in Thailand where foreigners do not have access to US FDA-approved Covid-19 vaccines. I would urge you to sign the letter that Senators Murphy and Moran sent on June 24 to Secretary of State Blinken asking him to “take concrete steps toward vaccinating the nine million Americans living abroad.”

 

Instead of commentating on another's effort it would help the cause to pen your own "3 sentences and about 25 words" and mail it in. The time taken would be less than to post multiple times on this thread.

Edited June 30, 2021 by Why Me

[impulse]

25 minutes ago, Why Me said:

Instead of commentating on another's efforts it would help the cause to pen your own "3 sentences and about 25 words" and mail it in. The time taken would be less than to post multiple times on this thread.

 

Your assumption there is that I agree.  I don't.  The long term consequences around the world (not just Thailand) of the USA sending out vaccines just for US citizens would linger for decades.

 

Imagine sending food to a famine racked country to feed only US citizens, while allowing the locals to starve.  Now picture all those starving locals looking through a fence at a US picnic.  That's the picture I see when I envision vaccines sent to Thailand, just for US citizens.  Keep in mind it's not just Thailand.  It's pretty much the entire 3rd world.

I am in favor of assisting Thailand in any way they'll accept during the pandemic.  And I wouldn't be averse to offering any financially strapped US citizens some help getting home to get their free jab.  But the optics of sending US only vaccines to a country that's not locked down, and allowing people to freely leave?  Put me in the no column.

 

If France wants to do it, fine.  Nobody cares what France does.  In 6 months, nobody will remember what France did.  The USA is always under a microscope.

 

Edited June 30, 2021 by impulse

[dddave]

56 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

Your assumption there is that I agree.  I don't.  The long term consequences around the world (not just Thailand) of the USA sending out vaccines just for US citizens would linger for decades.

 

Imagine sending food to a famine racked country to feed only US citizens, while allowing the locals to starve.  Now picture all those starving locals looking through a fence at a US picnic.  That's the picture I see when I envision vaccines sent to Thailand, just for US citizens.  Keep in mind it's not just Thailand.  It's pretty much the entire 3rd world.

I am in favor of assisting Thailand in any way they'll accept during the pandemic.  And I wouldn't be averse to offering any financially strapped US citizens some help getting home to get their free jab.  But the optics of sending US only vaccines to a country that's not locked down, and allowing people to freely leave?  Put me in the no column.

 

If France wants to do it, fine.  Nobody cares what France does.  In 6 months, nobody will remember what France did.  The USA is always under a microscope.

 

Read my email again.

At no point did I in any way suggest or advocate that vaccines supplied by the USA should be restricted to US citizens in any way. The whole point of my email was that the US Government should assure that US citizens have equal access to vaccines supplied by the US, NOT exclusive access as you imply.

[Why Me]

1 hour ago, impulse said:

If France wants to do it, fine.  Nobody cares what France does.  In 6 months, nobody will remember what France did.  The USA is always under a microscope.

Jeez, I am American too but I am not as puffed up with self-importance as you seem to be. And no I don't think any country will begrudge the US prioritizing its own citizens. In fact, they'll laud us for taking care of our own just as they would theirs.

 

Heck, Asians, Thais in particular, might start thinking as highly of the US as they do of France if they saw us trying to solve our own problems instead of running around trying to save the world.

[stevenl]

11 hours ago, dddave said:

Read my email again.

At no point did I in any way suggest or advocate that vaccines supplied by the USA should be restricted to US citizens in any way. The whole point of my email was that the US Government should assure that US citizens have equal access to vaccines supplied by the US, NOT exclusive access as you imply.

Your email could have been much better by using some white space on occasion.

 

On top of that, it is incorrect. On Phuket expats do have access, free of charge, to vaccinations. A 'severe surge' can be debated very much, with daily cases still being far less than what e.g. the UK is experiencing with a comparable population size. Pointing the finger and accusing Thai officials of being corrupt in the appropriation of vaccines is also not doing your case any good.

[cmarshall]

The US, which is currently producing at least 500 million doses per month, should send enough vaccines for Americans in Thailand and also enough for every Thai citizen as well.  They should keep sending excess supply throughout the world until the virus is contained.

[Why Me]

1 hour ago, cmarshall said:

The US, which is currently producing at least 500 million doses per month,

Seems fantastically huge number. Source?

[cmarshall]

1 hour ago, Why Me said:

Seems fantastically huge number. Source?

 

Work your own search engine.

[Why Me]

Just now, cmarshall said:

 

Work your own search engine.

I did before responding. You are lying or misinformed.

[WayWokeWhiteGuy]

16 minutes ago, Why Me said:

I did before responding. You are lying or misinformed.

What did you come up with?

[stevenl]

18 hours ago, WayWokeWhiteGuy said:

What did you come up with?

Trying to turn the argument around are we? You make a claim, that claim is disputed, backup your claim please.

 

Sorry, not you but cmarshall should backup.

Edited July 2, 2021 by stevenl

[WayWokeWhiteGuy]

20 minutes ago, stevenl said:

Trying to turn the argument around are we? You make a claim, that claim is disputed, backup your claim please.

 

Sorry, not you but cmarshall should backup.

What are you, a kindergarten teacher?

 

I made no claim. Dude called him a liar and claimed he did the research. I was only asking what he had found. 
 

I agree, I think it’s much lower. 
 

 

[stevenl]

12 hours ago, WayWokeWhiteGuy said:

What are you, a kindergarten teacher?

 

I made no claim. Dude called him a liar and claimed he did the research. I was only asking what he had found. 
 

I agree, I think it’s much lower. 
 

 

You clearly are not reading very well since you missed my last sentence.

[WayWokeWhiteGuy]

8 hours ago, stevenl said:

You clearly are not reading very well since you missed my last sentence.

So doubling-down on our condescension are we?