Thailand’s vaccine director apologises for ‘slow, inadequate’ vaccine rollout, promises to join COVAX

[dallen52]

Apologies just don't fix this problem...

[IamNoone88]

The mutations were unforeseen? That is a what a virus does - it continually mutates to survive. This is 2nd year biology class. A vaccine minister and his team does not expect it to mutate..... unbelievable to say such a thing.

[ThailandRyan]

3 minutes ago, ABCbangkok said:

Thailand the land of ‘sorry’. When anything goes wrong, the first word is ‘sorry’ as if that somehow, magically, makes things all better.

 

If he is so sorry why doesn’t he quit? Why doesn’t he admit, “I’m not the person for this job”. Does an apology somehow now make him qualified to carry on?

 

That he makes the observation: “mutations of the virus were unforeseen” places him in a class of stupidity we’ve never seen before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I believe that maybe this good doctor was thrown under the bus and made to apologize, yet the man at the top still blames all and everyone else for the failure of keeping this under control.  Anutin has also been very quiet as of lately which shows he is hiding from the heat, and yet the Governments ministry of fake news is charging celebrities and such with charges based upon their making remarks regarding the vaccine rollout and the lies told so far.  Nothing like quieting your critics now is there.

[Eric Loh]

Promising to join COVAX at this dire junction of daily increasing infections and deaths and falling way short of vaccination targets are simply not sufficient. The government must allow private companies, hospital chains and province to buy vaccines directly from manufacturers. They must rescind the policies of approval by GPO which is limiting the scope to purchase more vaccines. Australia government has now allow these private bodies to buy direct. Foxconn and TSMC both giant tech companies were given the green light to buy millions of BioNTech vaccines on behalf of the Taiwanese government. Prayut need to rescind policies that limit direct purchase to allow those who can step in to buy direct and help to solve current shortages. 

[Bangkok Barry]

4 hours ago, jerrymahoney said:

So whatever the gent may have done wrong or insufficient in the past, why not just sit back and let him do his job as best he can now. Because it is HIS job, not yours.

Dear Thai Apologist

As best he can isn't good enough. People are dying. People are falling sick. People are losing their income. People are struggling to find enough to eat. People are dying of Covid in the street. Businesses are being bankrupted. People are desperate.

Doing his best means that Thailand is a year behind in trying to procure vaccines that long ago were promised to other countries who were doing better than his best and making sure they would have enough vaccines to safeguard their citizens. His best means that Thailand is 118 out of 120 in dealing with vaccinating its citizens.

Signed

A Realist

[dallen52]

5 hours ago, smedly said:

apart from the chinese vaccines you did buy - 1st generation vaccines are effective against delta you just didn't buy them AZ being the exception but 3m a month you may as well not have bothered - now you are going to have revaccinate all those that have already recieved the chinese vaccine putting the whole program back months ................................well done

And they call some farang Cheap Charlies.

Take a a closer look at what the government is doing.

[orang37]

Scapegoat decapitated, face restored. Phu Yai's party-on.

[trainman34014]

''The Cash incentives have dried up Lads; so time for us to join Covax''  !!

[Cake Monster]

Will joining the Covax Program mean that Thailand has to put Money up front for vaccines.

This is something they refused to consider before when they were invited to join the Covax Scheme, .

Refusal to join Covax initially was based on the facts that Money had to be parted with upfront, and that there were no Guarantees as to which, and how many, and when they would be delivered.

Maybe this has changed, but its at least they seem to have heeded some advice from AZ, and its an improvement in Vaccine procurement 

[RocketDog]

2 hours ago, jerrymahoney said:

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/12/03/942303736/how-rich-countries-are-hoarding-the-worlds-vaccines-in-charts

 

"When the pandemic began, rich countries went on a buying spree. Some have even called it "panic buying." These countries started making agreements with pharmaceutical companies to purchase experimental COVID-19 vaccines, even before clinical trials had finished. The details of many such agreements are not public, NPR has reported."

Western cultures forsee potential problems and move to minimize them.

Eastern cultures, in general, and Thailand in particular, do not. There is no excuse for the entire government's lack of foresight and action. It's a combination of ineptitude and greed.

 

Your post simply proves Lemon's point.

 

Quit while you're behind.

[jerrymahoney]

8 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

5 hours ago, jerrymahoney said:

So whatever the gent may have done wrong or insufficient in the past, why not just sit back and let him do his job as best he can now. Because it is HIS job, not yours.

Dear Thai Apologist

I'm no apologist. They screwed up. But you want someone else to do the job? Great. Me too. Other than posting on here, what are you doing to that end?  

[jerrymahoney]

8 minutes ago, RocketDog said:

 

Quit while you're behind.

I'm behind because you say so. thank you.

 

If his point was that they screwed up, I agree. Now what other than to discern the vicissitudes of eastern and Western culture>?

[Bangkok Barry]

2 minutes ago, jerrymahoney said:

I'm no apologist. They screwed up. But you want someone else to do the job? Great. Me too. Other than posting on here, what are you doing to that end?  

You're an American, aren't you. Your repeated attempts to defend your ridiculous post is a trait I've sometimes seen before on this site, and the people who do so are always Americans. I find that interesting. You might even have posted before under a different name and got removed. That wouldn't surprise me.

Anyway, take a look at all the responses to your posts today. That might tell you something, except you probably think everyone is wrong except you. Asking what I am doing to that end, appointing someone else to the job, just shows how far removed you are from reality.

[jerrymahoney]

The reality is this is where we are today and, at least for the time being, not too much interested in how we got there. I want to know where do we go from here.

 

And whether my past is ridiculous or not don't mean. Jack-S. This is just a website.

[ABCbangkok]

19 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

I believe that maybe this good doctor was thrown under the bus and made to apologize, yet the man at the top still blames all and everyone else for the failure of keeping this under control.  Anutin has also been very quiet as of lately which shows he is hiding from the heat, and yet the Governments ministry of fake news is charging celebrities and such with charges based upon their making remarks regarding the vaccine rollout and the lies told so far.  Nothing like quieting your critics now is there.

Sure he’s a tool. But he knows what he is doing. He’s complicit in the crimes of this government and everyone knows it. He needs to take responsibility for his actions. He doesn’t get any passes with the defense ‘just following orders’.

 

Also, he could have taken a page from Dr Fauci in the US who also had a demanding unreasonable boss.

 

What kind of idiot says, ‘who knew viruses mutate?’ Is this guy even a doctor?

 

 

 

 

[mtls2005]

13 minutes ago, jerrymahoney said:

I'm no apologist. They screwed up. But you want someone else to do the job? Great. Me too. Other than posting on here, what are you doing to that end?  

 

Excellent form, moving from denial to deflection.

 

The junta judges award you a 9.9.

 

 

And anyone who has to preface a comment with "I'm no apologist" is projecting.

 

Agree with RocketDog, stop digging while you're behind.

 

 

 

 

[Deerculler]

I hope everyone feels better after all the blowing.

Because it will not make one bit of difference what you think.

 Come to grips with the situation and get on  with life.

[AJR3RD]

"Unforeseen?" There is blood on your hands, sir. 

[jerrymahoney]

5 minutes ago, Deerculler said:

I hope everyone feels better after all the blowing.

Because it will not make situation and get on  with life.

Thank you. However for some, this IS their life.

[keithkarmann]

2 hours ago, phetphet said:

I am surprised that in the early stages of the pandemic " virus mutations were unforeseen."

I mean...it's not like it's an annual thing with the flu virus. Or hasn't happened before. It's how viruses survive.

Yes other countries have been talking about mutations and variants since the Pandemic began but as usual in this country they will not listen as they believe nothing sensible is said outside its borders. Still in the flat earth brigade 

[AJR3RD]

3 minutes ago, jerrymahoney said:

Thank you. However for some, this IS their life.

I'm going to bet you all would not be so cavalier with your put-downs if members of YOUR family were among the dead and dying as the result of government incompetence. 

[Joe Mama]

What were they thinking a year ago...forget about the current Covid-19 D variant situation!  Did they really think they could control the viral epidemic completely via only lockdowns?   I would say joining COVAX is a really nice gesture at this point, but you're a little bit late to the dance, & waiting until the the 1st quarter of 2022 is way too late...by then 1/2 the population of Thailand could become infected with untold amounts of deaths!  There are already reports of dead bodies from Covid infections lying in the streets of Bangkok!  The hospital are overwhelmed & folks are dying at home!  The future is looking really grim for Thailand at this point!  Thai people need effective Vaccines, & they need it now!

[rwill]

It's nice that they admit messing up the vaccine rollout.  But then they have to fabricate an excuse for it.

[jerrymahoney]

4 minutes ago, AJR3RD said:

I'm going to bet you all would not be so cavalier with your put-downs if members of YOUR family were among the dead and dying as the result of government incompetence. 

So criticize the government all you want for their incompetence. What does that change?

[watthong]

5 hours ago, smedly said:

apart from the chinese vaccines you did buy - 1st generation vaccines are effective against delta you just didn't buy them AZ being the exception but 3m a month you may as well not have bothered - now you are going to have revaccinate all those that have already recieved the chinese vaccine putting the whole program back months ................................well done

Excuse me, jus one SMALL correction: 1st generation vaccines, regardless of their efficacy or lack thereof against delta, are ALL effective (in the high 90 %) in preventing death and hospitalization. Whether it is AZ or Sinovac, after you've got that, if delta or whatever other variants gets you (under the surface it's still good old Sars-cov2 virus) what you will have is a "mild flu" (instead of "wuflu.") You can recuperate in the comfort of your home, instead of having a tube shoved down your chest and lying in a bed (if you are lucky) in the ICU.

 

To those having their hair on fire whenever the word "Delta" is spoken: A variant is like a mask/maneuver that the virus puts on in order to evade the vaccine-induced antibodies. Some variant is better at doing its job vs some vaccines (and the antibodies that they triggered) are better at doing their job.  So restart your argument from there.

[mtls2005]

18 minutes ago, Deerculler said:

I hope everyone feels better after all the blowing.

Because it will not make one bit of difference what you think.

 Come to grips with the situation and get on  with life.

 

So you're complaining about other people complaining.

 

We call this the "Classic" here.

[Paiman]

 

He brings back memories.

 

 

[Almer]

2 hours ago, TheFishman1 said:

All these people in the government involved with the vaccine rollout should be ashamed they lied they cheated and they stalled it’s been over a year and the rollout is a total disgrace to this government TIT

Ashamed, when they start taking the pay cheque there is no shame and not just in Thailand

[AJR3RD]

2 minutes ago, jerrymahoney said:

So criticize the government all you want for their incompetence. What does that change?

You're seriously asking that question? First, in democracies, young men and women have sacrificed their lives for the right of citizens to criticize the government. It is a right that not all people have, and many are willing to die for. Asking that question is like asking, "So, vote all you want, what does that change?" It can change EVERYTHING. Sometimes one voice can make the difference, sometimes it takes millions. But the idea of not speaking out against government malfeasance and incompetence? If you go that route, seems to me you might as well just throw in the towel and go live in N. Korea. 

[worldview]

WAY too little and WAY too late! - The variant had little to do with the current situation - had the variant not materialized, Thailand would still have been way behind the curve - they never even tried to reach out for other sourcing, and when the private hospital groups did try, the government shut them down - I don't believe there are enough negative adjectives in the dictionary to describe the pathetic and uncaring response by the government to the pandemic and the vaccine distribution.  And, they continue to deflect justified criticism to others - what pathetic leaders they are!