Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha should exercise his powers under the National Security Act to force Siam BioScience, the local producer of the AstraZeneca vaccine, to suspend the export of the vaccine for three months and use those doses domestically instead, to contain the accelerating spread of COVID-19 infections in the country, said Dr. Manoon Leeechawengwong, a specialist in respiratory diseases at Vichaiyut Hospital, in his Facebook post today.

 

He pointed out that no lockdown measures, no matter how rigid they are, will stop the spread of the contagion because home has become the main breeding ground for the disease, as he suggests that the lockdown restrictions should be eased to allow some businesses to resume operations before the economy suffers even more damage.

 

He predicted that, in the next 100 days, half of Thailand’s nearly 70 million population may be infected and unless 40-45 million Thais are vaccinated in the next 100 days, or 500,000 people per day.

 

Full Story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/thai-pm-advised-to-stop-the-export-of-astrazeneca-vaccine-for-use-domestically/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2021-08-12

 

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Idiot

One has to wonder how Iron clad the signed agreement is that SB has with AZ, and if there are penalties and repercussions that can be levied against SB such as canceling the contract and leaving them without the necessary ingredients to process the vaccine.  Tenuous at best. 

If international supply contracts are violated, this will certainly not be without consequences.

AZ will ot allow this

 

other options

 

- Another facility 

- expand the exiting facility

I know lets shaft our Asean friends. We don't need them, we have the CCP. This is why generals (and doctors!) should not run countries.

I hope they actually go ahead and do this, they should ban all export of any vaccines produced in Thailand until everyone in Thailand is vaccinated.

 

The result of doing this is going to be highly amusing. It will finish them off but I think it will be worth it.

1 hour ago, ThailandRyan said:

One has to wonder how Iron clad the signed agreement is that SB has with AZ, and if there are penalties and repercussions that can be levied against SB such as canceling the contract and leaving them without the necessary ingredients to process the vaccine.  Tenuous at best. 

Thailand would be playing with fire if they tried this. AZ Thailand is supplying many Asian countries right now that have all signed contracts .AZ could say we are moving somewhere else so we can honor these contracts and by the way, Thailand's contract just got canceled. Then you would see nothing but vaccines from China 

And this man has an education of a doctor? No wonder Thai education is not recognized in the international world.

One point of view is that the problem goes back to last year when the AZ production lab in Thailand was being set up. There may have been production problems encountered, major ones perhaps, and at the same time the people in power were likely ordered to ignore those problems. Then we get to the present when the facility is producing but during the period of optimism agreements were made to share. My argument is that there is almost no further reason to discuss this because the nature of Thai society is that we will never be allowed to know these details, at least for decades. We can't even discuss them. So we might as well shut up, which is what the system tells us, because it is absurd to reason in a system non-transparent.

But as for the present and future, what I said before: declare force majeure and let the chips fall. But we will never even know who has power to make that decision.

I am not sure Thai government has the power to do this. They have a contractual arrangement with Astra Zeneca which specified how much vaccine is to be supplied to Thailand and how much is for export and it would need the consent of both parties to modify this. They can't unilaterally change this without risk of voiding the contract altogether.

 

Unfortunately the Thai government's initial request to AZ was for an absurdly low quantity for domestic use.

 

 

The plant is in Thailand but its produce is for the whole SE Asia region. If the plant was in Vietnam, say, and they welched on agreements to supply Thailand everyone would be up on arms about it.

Why was export over domestic use agreed to in the first place? The Australian manufacturer of AZ produces vaccine for Australia first and foremost. I would have thought Thailand would have the same arrangement, supplying its own people first then the region later. The vaccine rollout is more incompetent than I previously thought. Where did the government anticipate that there supplies were going to come from? No wonder the country is in such  a hopeless situation. 

11 hours ago, Scrotobike said:

I know lets shaft our Asean friends. We don't need them, we have the CCP. This is why generals (and doctors!) should not run countries.

Well the perception is that otherwise they shaft their own people. I am not sure how accurate that would be, but exporting vaccines as local people die does little for the sentiment of them.

15 minutes ago, Spock said:

Why was export over domestic use agreed to in the first place? The Australian manufacturer of AZ produces vaccine for Australia first and foremost. I would have thought Thailand would have the same arrangement, supplying its own people first then the region later. The vaccine rollout is more incompetent than I previously thought. Where did the government anticipate that there supplies were going to come from? No wonder the country is in such  a hopeless situation. 

Because Thailand (some people) wanted to make money.

12 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha should exercise his powers under the National Security Act to force Siam BioScience, the local producer of the AstraZeneca vaccine, to suspend the export of the vaccine for three months and use those doses domestically instead, to contain the accelerating spread of COVID-19 infections in the country, said Dr. Manoon Leeechawengwong, a specialist in respiratory diseases at Vichaiyut Hospital, in his Facebook post today.

Prayut has no control over the AZ production or contracted deliveries.

49 minutes ago, Spock said:

Why was export over domestic use agreed to in the first place? The Australian manufacturer of AZ produces vaccine for Australia first and foremost. I would have thought Thailand would have the same arrangement, supplying its own people first then the region later. The vaccine rollout is more incompetent than I previously thought. Where did the government anticipate that there supplies were going to come from? No wonder the country is in such  a hopeless situation. 

Thailand did, they secured an early agreement with AZ to supply Thailand with 3 million doses per month, this was later raised to 6 million...

Prayut & Anutin were at the time down playing the infection rates and what was needed to vaccinate the population in a timely manner.

11 hours ago, ukrules said:

I hope they actually go ahead and do this, they should ban all export of any vaccines produced in Thailand until everyone in Thailand is vaccinated.

If they tried to do this they would be hung out to dry in court battles.

They thought they wouldn't need this vaccine as other countries were donating vaccines to Thailand

 

10 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

Thailand did, they secured an early agreement with AZ to supply Thailand with 3 million doses per month, this was later raised to 6 million...

Prayut & Anutin were at the time down playing the infection rates and what was needed to vaccinate the population in a timely manner.

I think you have hit the nail on the head, If you think back over twelve months ago the infection rates in Thailand were minimal.

 Prayut, Anutin and whoever were advising them obviously thought Covid would bypass Thailand or the effects would be minimal.

I don’t believe that there was any conspiracy it was incompetence.

Earth shattering revelation!!! Save your country men/women and children FIRST! 

Gosh why didn't someone else think of that OBVIOUS solution? 

 

OH WAIT, a lot of us "white devils" have been screaming our n*pples off saying just that!!

 

Open the darn GYMS also = so those sensible people with a IQ above room temperature can exercise "safely" and maintain our standard of health. 

Oldish overweight unhealthy people are MORE susceptible to covid, "duh"! 

1 hour ago, Spock said:

Why was export over domestic use agreed to in the first place? The Australian manufacturer of AZ produces vaccine for Australia first and foremost. I would have thought Thailand would have the same arrangement, supplying its own people first then the region later. The vaccine rollout is more incompetent than I previously thought. Where did the government anticipate that there supplies were going to come from? No wonder the country is in such  a hopeless situation. 

Looking at the Australian situation with vaccination rates almost as poor as here in Thailand that hasn't worked well has it, just locked down 400000 in Canberra after finding 2 cases. 

1 hour ago, Spock said:

Why was export over domestic use agreed to in the first place? The Australian manufacturer of AZ produces vaccine for Australia first and foremost. I would have thought Thailand would have the same arrangement, supplying its own people first then the region later. The vaccine rollout is more incompetent than I previously thought. Where did the government anticipate that there supplies were going to come from? No wonder the country is in such  a hopeless situation. 

The answer to your first question is complacency. Initially March and April 2020 Thailand was lucky and the low infections and deaths drove this complacency.. Thus, where was the need and urgency to mass purchase what was not needed? The rest of the world did the sensible thing and now Thailand finds its self up the proverbial without the paddle. Why is anyone surprised by this, in a land where no one fails??   

3 minutes ago, Surasak said:

The answer to your first question is complacency. Initially March and April 2020 Thailand was lucky and the low infections and deaths drove this complacency.. Thus, where was the need and urgency to mass purchase what was not needed? The rest of the world did the sensible thing and now Thailand finds its self up the proverbial without the paddle. Why is anyone surprised by this, in a land where no one fails??   

Thailand are not unique in being complacent. Look at the low vax rates in Japan, Korea, Oz and Vietnam plus others in this neck of the woods.

38 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

Prayut has no control over the AZ production or contracted deliveries.

I would also question whether Prayut has the power to counter decisions made by the Head of State, ie., with regard to exportng Thailand produced AZ. 

1 minute ago, champers said:

Thailand are not unique in being complacent. Look at the low vax rates in Japan, Korea, Oz and Vietnam plus others in this neck of the woods.

True enough, but as the discussion is about Thailand. I don't see your point.

37 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

If they tried to do this they would be hung out to dry in court battles.

It's happened before. Hopewell, Walter Bau plane seizure etc. They pretty much do what they want and then end up losing with international arbitration i.e. ICJ ruling on Preah Vihear. 

My guess is, the Thai Govt. are selling the Astra vaccine at a much higher price than they pay for it domestically, thus either getting their share for free or perhaps making a profit on the vaccine that's sold internationally !

4 minutes ago, Surasak said:

The answer to your first question is complacency. Initially March and April 2020 Thailand was lucky and the low infections and deaths drove this complacency.. Thus, where was the need and urgency to mass purchase what was not needed? The rest of the world did the sensible thing and now Thailand finds its self up the proverbial without the paddle. Why is anyone surprised by this, in a land where no one fails??   

I was here and super proud of Thailands very small covid numbers in 2020, BUT the moronic buffoons at the head of Government totally misread our run of LUCK. The mini second wave should have been a huge warning for the GOV to secure vaccines. But NO they became ostriches and stuck their heads in the sand! 

Where is the one million vaccines PER DAY IN AUGUST that out illustrious GOV "promised"!!!???

 

 

9 minutes ago, Surasak said:

The answer to your first question is complacency. Initially March and April 2020 Thailand was lucky and the low infections and deaths drove this complacency.. Thus, where was the need and urgency to mass purchase what was not needed? The rest of the world did the sensible thing and now Thailand finds its self up the proverbial without the paddle. Why is anyone surprised by this, in a land where no one fails??   

Australia was in the same situation and didn't order enough vaccine. Then the locally manufactured Astra Zeneca, already not producing sufficient quantities, was undermined by an AZ blood clot scare, and the government banned its use for under 60s. Then with rising cases, the government reversed its ban, but the PR damage meant the country became awash with unused AZ. There is more of an uptake since it has become obvious that lockdowns will be a permanent feature of Australian life until 80% vaccination is reached. Thailand and Australia actually have quite a lot in common in terms of the rollout, with Thailand displaying an even greater level of incompetence as well as being totally overrun by cases.