29,000 expats in Thailand register for vaccine using Expatvac website

[friendofthai]

10 minutes ago, mfd101 said:

• Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine is just 39% effective in Israel where the delta variant is the dominant strain, according to a new report from the country’s Health Ministry.
• The two-dose vaccine still works very well in preventing people from getting seriously sick, demonstrating 88% effectiveness against hospitalization and 91% effectiveness against severe illness, according to the Israeli data.

I remember that in the era of the Alpha variant almost the same was said about the effectiveness of Sinovac. 

[mtls2005]

2 hours ago, Saltire said:

Bad news for those pre-paying for Moderna. Looks like April 2022 and October only for luckier ones. This would confirm an earlier posters private hospital apppointment.

 

From Richard Barrow

 

"Sorry to say, but private hospitals have started to send out cancellation notices to some people that had paid in advance for the Moderna vaccine. People have 7 days to claim a refund. But they add you can reserve a 2nd generation Moderna vaccine due in April 2022"

 

He's a bit of an alarmist.

 

As a result of a meeting yesterday, most private hospitals know exactly how many doses of Moderna they're getting. And they know how many they sold. So as of today, some that have oversold are advising customers of cancellations/refunds, while others are scheduling appointments (for October).

 

One of my Moderna reservations is looking good. Hospital said they have more allotted than they sold, that everyone who paid will get both doses, and that appointments will be issued within two weeks.

 

 

[mfd101]

2 minutes ago, SantiSuk said:

I've noted a few references to vaccination generally being recast as something to reduce the impact of infection, not to prevent infection.

 

 

As has been said many times, all the vaccinations reduce - at no doubt variable rates - the chances of getting infected, but none of them entirely eliminate the possibility. Their prime purpose is to reduce (but again don't eliminate) the chances of serious illness, hospitalization & death.

[FritsSikkink]

On 8/3/2021 at 10:35 AM, internationalism said:

"More than 28,000 expats in Thailand have registered for a COVID-19 vaccine using the Ministry of Public Health’s newly launched vaccine registration portal."

but it's not the ministry of health  - it's ministry of foreign affairs. That's why spokesman from this ministry made an announcement. Also says clearly on their website.

 

Now, why ministry of foreign affairs is engaged in a job clearly beyond their competence?

One explanation might be  - to gain for their particular interest. Getting their hands on vaccines, which might also include 150k pfizer. With their sticky fingers they will be able to put some aside for themselves.

 

Since May I have already registered on 3 other websites. There was no any follow up on any of them 

You are talking absolute rubbish (not for the first time): the Ministry of Labor worked together with the BOI to vaccinate Foreign workers and did a great job. So your statement that other Ministries are incompetent and only do it to get their hands on the vaccine is fake Covid news.

[SantiSuk]

16 minutes ago, mfd101 said:

As has been said many times, all the vaccinations reduce - at no doubt variable rates - the chances of getting infected, but none of them entirely eliminate the possibility. Their prime purpose is to reduce (but again don't eliminate) the chances of serious illness, hospitalization & death.

I'm beginning to think that even a first dose of 'the Chinese poison' might be worth a punt. Has anyone else noticed that despite the very heavy use of Sinovac in Thailand last month there has been a marked absence of 'I know someone who has grown three heads' postings. Also silence from the conspiracy theorists that littered the digi-waves (particularly those ridiculous individuals on a certain English language Thai capital national rag) a month ago. Hoping that results of studies based on much broader samples may give some clue as to the direction of effectiveness also.

 

Would still want my Moderna (hopefully stage 1 via THG) booking to be honoured, to function as the second dose or booster to 2 x Sinovac if that is supported by medics.

Edited August 4, 2021 by SantiSuk

[hotchilli]

55 minutes ago, 55Jay said:

Haven't seen any feedback yet about how Ministry of Foreign Affairs reaches back to individuals about unclear or missing documentation, like in your case.   Hopefully, and likely easiest for you is they send an email requesting your passport photo page, and you'll be able to attach it to the reply email and send it that way.

As you say, I haven't had any feed back either.. will wait and see.

if the two photo's were that important at the registration stage you'd think they would have had the ability to do it built in at the submission stage.

But hey, can't expect miracles.

[hotchilli]

2 hours ago, Rampant Rabbit said:

What do you mean "no  reply"  i registered and it said they would send me an appointment within 24  hours to which I must respond...............nothing so  far and 24  hours  nearly up.

I think you might have had the same reply as I did, which was an auto reply saying your application was successful.

It then say's an appointment will be sent to you in the future "to which you must reply within 24 hours or it will be cancelled".

Not it will be sent within 24 hours.

 

[mtls2005]

11 minutes ago, SantiSuk said:

Has anyone else noticed that despite the very heavy use of Sinovac in Thailand last month there has been a marked absence of 'I know someone who has grown three heads' postings.

Yes, I rarely see the three-headed people these days. ????

 

Heavy use? I think it's about 50-50 Sinovac-AZ.

 

My sense is that the aversion to Sinovac is down to perceived efficacy, and not side-effects.

 

That the regime is now redosing medicos who had 2x Sinovac, with Pfizer quite urgently, is not exactly a ringing endorsement.

 

With at least 10.3 mm more doses of Sinovac, and 5 mm doses of Sinopharm, all on order, it's Sino says for now.

 

The upside to three heads is of course, three brains, so there may be a benefit for some.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 4, 2021 by mtls2005

[CharlieH]

Misquoted post and response to it removed.

[Pattaya Spotter]

In Pattaya, if you have a health card membership with Bangkok Pattaya Hospital and are in a high risk group, they have been contacting people about getting the AZ vaccine shot. It possible this is the case with their other hospitals around the country.

[55Jay]

19 minutes ago, PAWNEESE said:

I have just succesfully registered.  No problems ... as I took the hint of some posters re the problems adding 2 photos.

 

So had prepared 1 collage pic of the 2 passports pages needed.

 

But I am a bit thick ... and also cant read all the thread.  Sorry .... but I cant see where the vax will be done. Do we know ?

 

I am in Pattaya. Will some be done here ?

 

With the train station vaxing in BKK it was crowded, superspreader chaos.  Safer to stay unvaxed

Yes, that's the idea of this ExpatVac effort so that a portion of the US provided Pfizer is allocated to foreigners who register, including those outside BKK.

 

While the MoFA registration site seems to be working well, the test will be to see how that data and coordination flows across to the MoPH, then down to the provincial MoPH offices, which I presume will be the ones to select a vaccination site nearest to the vaccine registrant (us). 

 

The other half is the physical logistics of it ^, end-state being you wind up with a Pfizer needle hanging out of your arm, at some point.

Seems like a lot of moving parts and attention to detail, so we'll see how it plays out.

 

[jomtienisgood]

On 8/3/2021 at 11:52 AM, herfiehandbag said:

Well given the complete lack of competence demonstrated so far by the Ministry of Public Health why should they not have a go?

 

Frankly the Ministry of Silly Walks would be in with a chance of doing better!

Next week it'll be TAT. 55555

[jomtienisgood]

41 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

I think you might have had the same reply as I did, which was an auto reply saying your application was successful.

It then say's an appointment will be sent to you in the future "to which you must reply within 24 hours or it will be cancelled".

Not it will be sent within 24 hours.

 

Yeah, they Copy/Paste from one email address to another. 5555

[mrjohn]

Anybody know how you fill in the birthdate?

Without scrolling through 60 odd years of their calendar.

It would appear that you can't actually type it, or is it just me

[OishiRefill]

9 minutes ago, mrjohn said:

Anybody know how you fill in the birthdate?

Without scrolling through 60 odd years of their calendar.

It would appear that you can't actually type it, or is it just me

yes, click on the month and it zooms out to show years - then click on the year and it will show ten years worth - you can then scroll through decades rather than one month at a time. 

Edited August 4, 2021 by OishiRefill

[watthong]

52 minutes ago, SantiSuk said:

Has anyone else noticed that despite the very heavy use of Sinovac in Thailand last month there has been a marked absence of 'I know someone who has grown three heads' postings

Sorry late to report, but ever since I got my 2nd Sinovac jab 2 weeks ago, I've been feeling as if I was walking on air... with expectation of my booked and paid for Moderna booster jab to arrived in a timely manner (will that put me on Cloud 9?) Must admit a twinge of envy now that Pfizer is up for grabs, but at the time I already agreed with myself that one bird in one hand is better than two, or three, in the bush, so no looking back.

 

Consider myself to be in the lucky minority of being fully vaxxed and PROTECTED. My advice to those who hesitate and still window shop, the best vaccine is the one that gets into your arm the soonest! Me think of the (way way) earlier days of electronics when people were pulling their hair out deciding whether to spend a good chunk of money on 64k, 128k or 256k of RAM for the heavily order-backlogged IBM PC (base RAM 16k, storage option: 1 or 2 floppy disk drives!)!

[hotchilli]

51 minutes ago, mtls2005 said:

The upside to three heads is of course, three brains, so there may be a benefit for some

Not if the brain is the same size as a peanut.

[GroveHillWanderer]

2 hours ago, friendofthai said:

What exactly is misleading? I just read the article which said that "Israel says Pfizer Covid vaccine is just 39% effective as delta spreads".

If you think that CNBC is spreading any misleading information you should discuss it with them, not with me.

The thing is, you have to read beyond the headings of articles, which are indeed often misleading.

 

The data from Israel that this article refers to showed that in a recent delta variant outbreak, the Pfizer vaccine was only 39% effective against infection.

 

Firstly, I think it's important to note that the article also pointed out the vaccine:

 

"still works very well in preventing people from getting seriously sick, demonstrating 88% effectiveness against hospitalization and 91% effectiveness against severe illness"

 

Secondly, efficacy figures are not universal - they are only valid for the time and place specified.

 

So, as the article also pointed out, the Israeli data:

 

"conflicts with data out of the U.K. that found the shot was 88% effective against symptomatic disease caused by the variant."

[friendofthai]

3 minutes ago, GroveHillWanderer said:

Firstly, I think it's important to note that the article also pointed out the vaccine:

 

"still works very well in preventing people from getting seriously sick, demonstrating 88% effectiveness against hospitalization and 91% effectiveness against severe illness"

This is an example of double standards. Here in thaivisa you can see a lot of discussions where people said Sinovac was about 50% effective about 6 months ago. Nobody said that this was "misleading! Sinovac demonstrated about 80% effectiveness against hospitalization". But now - in the era of delta variant - when Pfizer demonstrates similar characteristics - it is not allowed to say that its effectiveness in Israel is 39%, right?

[NevNic]

Some help please:

Does anybody know how to re-arrange or cancel an appointment at Bangsue confirmed via Expatvac?

Also, a week or so ago, I think someone explained on ASEAN NOW  how to find out where a vaccine was produced. Does anyone have that post please?

I read recently that the UK and EU will not accept the Astra Zeneca vaccine produced in India for travel purposes.

[friendofthai]

15 minutes ago, GroveHillWanderer said:

So, as the article also pointed out, the Israeli data:

 

"conflicts with data out of the U.K. that found the shot was 88% effective against symptomatic disease caused by the variant."

I would accept it if it were data from such countries as Afghanistan, Somali or North Korea. But Israel is a very respectable country. Its data are not simply a garbage for sure.

[GroveHillWanderer]

5 minutes ago, friendofthai said:

This is an example of double standards. Here in thaivisa you can see a lot of discussions where people said Sinovac was about 50% effective about 6 months ago. Nobody said that this was "misleading! Sinovac demonstrated about 80% effectiveness against hospitalization". But now - in the era of delta variant - when Pfizer demonstrates similar characteristics - it is not allowed to say that its effectiveness in Israel is 39%, right?

Of course you're allowed to say it, but as with everything, it has to be put into context.

 

Also, I can recall a number of posts pointing out exactly what you just did, about SinoVac.

[Srikcir]

8 hours ago, smedly said:

put the jpegs you want into a folder once you have identified them (optional)

 

use the browse button 

 

navigate to the folder that contains your chosen jpegs

 

click on each while holding the cntrl key (which should select them all)

 

then hit the open key to finish - all the jpegs you have selected should appear on the form 

 

If the jpegs are too big open in MS paint and resize down 50% and save 

Not aware of that solution. Thanks.

Bottom line is that government instructions for providing pictures (drag or browse for pics) is not universal nor fully descriptive, requires some "helpful instructions" as you cite.

[55Jay]

6 hours ago, macnmotion said:

Did all of the emails come from: [email protected] -- I want to white list it if so.

First two did for me.  Maybe the person who got a vaccination appointment email already, can confirm it came from the same address.  Waiting for mine, keeping an eye on my Spam inbox as well, in case it comes from a separate Ministry of Health email address.

[NevNic]

4 minutes ago, 55Jay said:

First two did for me.  Maybe the person who got a vaccination appointment email already, can confirm it came from the same address.  Waiting for mine, keeping an eye on my Spam inbox as well, in case it comes from a separate Ministry of Health email address.

My appointment confirmation came from [email protected]

[55Jay]

4 minutes ago, NevNic said:

My appointment confirmation came from [email protected]

Roger, thanks. 

 

FYI: @macnmotion

Edited August 4, 2021 by 55Jay
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[DualSportBiker]

13 hours ago, riclag said:

Did you register for a vacc, on the site in this thread , expatvac ?

I did. The site crashed initially so I waited 20 mins, tried again, struggled with the date field and eventually got a success.

[bkkcanuck8]

1 hour ago, watthong said:

Sorry late to report, but ever since I got my 2nd Sinovac jab 2 weeks ago, I've been feeling as if I was walking on air... with expectation of my booked and paid for Moderna booster jab to arrived in a timely manner (will that put me on Cloud 9?) Must admit a twinge of envy now that Pfizer is up for grabs, but at the time I already agreed with myself that one bird in one hand is better than two, or three, in the bush, so no looking back.

 

Consider myself to be in the lucky minority of being fully vaxxed and PROTECTED. My advice to those who hesitate and still window shop, the best vaccine is the one that gets into your arm the soonest! Me think of the (way way) earlier days of electronics when people were pulling their hair out deciding whether to spend a good chunk of money on 64k, 128k or 256k of RAM for the heavily order-backlogged IBM PC (base RAM 16k, storage option: 1 or 2 floppy disk drives!)!

I think a bit of the window shopping can be from the point of view of weighing the risks/benefit.  Up until a few weeks ago risks were very low, and although I would be happy to be immunized, China (IMHO) would have to qualms to not even following the three phase approach to vaccine development (I could easily see them running in in parallel and on prisoners).  I also could see China 'approving' it - even without meeting minimum efficacy/risk feeling that internally it was worth more to get society back to normal even if they ended up having to hid more failures.   That said, I don't think at this point there is any evidence of higher risk of receiving sinovac, but there is evidence that the first dose has a half-life of about 40 days (not sure what it is after two), and it very likely will reduce considerably the risk of requiring hospitalization if you caught COVID.   If the area where you live is not in a hotspot, and/or if your lifestyle is more hermit than social - people may weight risks different than what you necessarily do.  I just wish people would stop giving fringe quacks more weight than ongoing research by qualified researchers (some of the 'quoted' antivax 'sources' are actually antivax in general [The life expectancy has almost doubled in the last century, and that is largely the result of vaccines].  That said, IMHO, it should still be up to the individual to weigh the risks for themselves. 

 

I had been weighing all of it when the website went live I signed up.  I would prefer receiving pfizer vaccine, but if for some reason it ends up being sinovac then AZ, I will probably go for that as well. 

 

I do wonder if they have cleaned up the database (of 28,000 signups) of people who may have signed up 3, 4 or more times when it was giving an error (with an email), but then did not follow up on a few of those once they were able to sign up on one.  (I think I used 3 or 4 emails which I did not continue, one when it started working). 

 

 

 

 

[smedly]

I had sent a message to BPH a few days ago enquiring about getting a vaccine as there were some people had been contacted and were given appointments.

 

BPH replied advising me to use this mechanism to register - so it would seem thet BPH is part of this program and those in Pattaya may well get appointments there for the jab through this process - just sharing 

[brianthainess]

2 hours ago, friendofthai said:

But Israel is a very respectable country.

No it is NOT.