Bill Heinecke: "Crazy to give vaccines to tourists"

[BritScot]

The UK has very quietly stopped the rollout of vaccines for all 16 to 49-year-olds who are not considered at risk. Nothing to see here move on. I also heard that it's now only being offered for elderly and people with vulnerable health issues and some would or have been saying this should have been the case from the start. Come on Thailand !!!!!

[paulikens]

Just now, webfact said:

He explained that many people are still hesitant to travel due to ongoing concerns about the virus and the possibility of new variants emerging.

Well let the bed wetting wussies stay at home where they're safe.  

[pedro01]

2 hours ago, Marc Weber said:

Heinecke: just shut up...

But don't shut up Urban Pizza - because it's the best in town!

[cardinalblue]

For people who want to travel, hard to believe they can’t get vaccines in their own country…

 

most travelers prefer to be vaccinated prior to traveling and do what is necessary to get vaccinated b/f traveling…

I don’t see a huge demand for it…China?

 

[mrfill]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

said that the government's plan to offer vaccines to foreign visitors is a step in the right direction

Which seems to have become "Crazy to give vaccines to tourists"

 

So, is the right direction to be crazy?

 

[edwardandtubs]

2 hours ago, cardinalblue said:

I don’t see a huge demand for it…China

I doubt it. They've been brainwashed about the supposed dangers of these western vaccines. Plus, it's not recommended to get a vaccine within two months of an infection and as almost all Chinese have been infected recently or will be very soon, there's no benefit for them. In fact, giving them the old vaccine could harm the hybrid immunity they got from the omicron infection.

 

Probably only a tiny handful of tourists are going to get vaccinated here. I note they haven't published any numbers yet.

Edited January 27, 2023 by edwardandtubs

[billd766]

8 hours ago, FritsSikkink said:

He is talking nonsense:

"Heinecke also highlighted that the vaccine rollout in Thailand has been slow, with only a small percentage of the population having received the vaccine so far."

More than 79.5% has at least 1 vaccination as of Sep-30 2022: Thailand: Coronavirus Pandemic Country Profile - Our World in Data 

I have had 2 Pfizer jabs last year and my Pfizer booster jab last week. Because I am an expat and registered with the local hospital, all 3 jabs were free, as are all jabs for Thais who are also registered with the government hospitals.

[billd766]

9 hours ago, pp00 said:

Would you trust your life or heath to Thais? Fake vaccine? Expired vaccine? Wrongly stored vaccine? How about complications after vaccine? What are the Thai documents worth, if get, to prove vaccination? How will it be received when Thai population is not fully  vaccinated but the dirty farangs get it for free...

Why should vaccination help tourism when after receiving vaccination you can feel sick and have fever for some days, would you do that in yoir holidays in a corrupt and unsafe place like Thailand, not if you come from a better place like central Europe...

How will they sell it to yhe unvaccinated Thais?'The dirty farangs need to be vaccinated because they make us sick??'

I think that you need to get off your bar stool and face reality.

 

quote from your post "Fake vaccine? Expired vaccine? Wrongly stored vaccine? How about complications after vaccine? What are the Thai documents worth, if get, to prove vaccination? How will it be received when Thai population is not fully  vaccinated but the dirty farangs get it for free..."

 

Do you have anything to back up your words?

 

Any tourist requiring a Covid vaccination in Thailand will pay a charge, and BTW the Chinese are farangs too.

 

Of course I trust my life and health to Thais and I have done on and off since 1993 and I have lived in Thailand full time for about 18 or more years now.

 

If I need to see a doctor I go to the local state hospital where all the doctors and a lot of the nurses and staff speak English. I pay a bit more than Thais do but certainly not much more, plus I have the advantage of knowing that I will see the doctor the same day.

 

I have had 2 Pfizer jabs last year and my Pfizer booster jab last week. Because I am an expat and registered with the local hospital, all 3 jabs were free, as are all jabs for Thais who are also registered with the government hospitals.

 

Also most farangs are NOT "dirty". The MoPH Anutin used that phrase a while ago and he has little or no idea what he is talking about.

[MrJ2U]

10 hours ago, ezzra said:

Where have you been in the last 3 years Bill that you'r decided to speak now?... 

He's written open letters to the government.   He's been quite vocal on his dismay about how they have handled the pandemic.

[Lizzy Duang]

This bloody fool again. We have excess deaths around the world due to the vaccine, and practically no one except the fragile and very old  is scared of variants that can be inactivated with a drug like Ursolin now. But many are fed up with the vax promises and lies.

https://theconversation.com/a-liver-disease-drug-could-be-repurposed-to-protect-against-covid-new-research-195876

Edited January 27, 2023 by Lizzy Duang

[Blumpie]

It boggles my mind how pathetic Thailand is sometimes, and I question some who think this is no big deal.  Does this happen to some in retirement - your brain turns to utter mush?  

To travel to Thailand and get an AZ inoculation which no real civilized country uses is ludicrous and idiotic.  

[internationalism]

In the whole article he never said "crazy" or anything even remotely similar. 
he said "step in the right direction". 
 

and those vax are not goingbto be given away to tourists. There is already published price list, around 1300b for pfizer and moderna. 
 

he is wrong, that many countries are implementing strong anti-covid measures. Some few countries have pre-arrival pcr for chinese (thailand has compulsory insurance for chinese and indian). 
 

There nothing can be done to stimulate domestic travel, unless public money is spend (and wasted, partly on deeply corrupted projects). Asking for more is just pouring public money into private pockets. 
 

he is filthy rich, and still begging for the government handouts. He is entitled to pilfer country dry.
His yellow tie says about his political affiliations. Certainly he is a monarchist. 
 

 

Edited January 27, 2023 by internationalism

[Dan O]

This article is out of touch with the current situation in so many ways. Seems like Heinecke may want to spend some time actually out in public and not behind his desk to get a better understanding of what is really going on. 

 

The posts titled is very misleading as the title quote wasn't mentioned at all in the article anywhere.

[geisha]

10 hours ago, PCUSHING said:

You will now be delighted to know that the Chinese are scuttling round Pattaya in their droves.

The tour groups arrive next month.

 

A friend from Phuket called to tell me not to come   .Last year Jan FEV March spent 3 months there ,I left because I was bored stiff plus daily storms . This year it’s over run with Russians and other tourists, great problem for the restaurants who can’t cope, beaches crowded with chairs everywhere, so I won’t go back there. I’ll be in Jomtien in a quiet area, super small building and great pool , been many times in the past . And so not to spend Songkran in Thailand , will be leaving to Bali . With all my respect to Bill Heinecke, Thailand seems very busy . I don’t see why the Thais should give free vaccins tô tourists , its free in our own country. So they must be for the Chinese ??  Or are they old vaccins end of date ?  This years vaccin is specially for new omicron variants .

[spermwhale]

I guess Bill has turned into the grumpy old farang. Old coot

[StayinThailand2much]

13 hours ago, webfact said:

In conclusion, while the government's plan to offer vaccines to foreign visitors is a step in the right direction, it may not be enough to revive the country's struggling tourism industry

Just read here recently that 'TAT celebrates higher tourist number than expected'... 11 million tourists isn't bad for an Asian country of Thailand's size, but I guess all those Malaysian, Laotian, and Indian tourists are no big fans of Mr. Heinecke's pizza and hotels...

Edited January 27, 2023 by StayinThailand2much

[tukadadoll]

17 hours ago, ezzra said:

Where have you been in the last 3 years Bill that you'r decided to speak now?... 

This seems like a story from 2021 that has accidentally been published.

[wombat]

Curious logic grasshopper.

Tourist comes and has a covid injection then spends the next 3 to 5 days sick as s dog in a hotel room instead of out being a quality guest spending money?

Bad economics there on someone's part.

[Pouatchee]

19 hours ago, webfact said:

Heinecke believes that there are several other measures that need to be taken in order to attract tourists back to the country, such as implementing strict health protocols and promoting domestic tourism.

... and charging foreigners more for a room than Thais. Even if this guy were to make any sense I would go against his ideas. I despise the guy.

[Eleftheros]

1 hour ago, tukadadoll said:

This seems like a story from 2021 that has accidentally been published.

Very possibly. Many of the responses to the story, though, shows that coronaphobia is still alive and well in 2023.

[SiSePuede419]

Successful, Rich "Poo Yai" Thai Immigrant...who is not a Virologist SME* nor even a Medical Doctor (only a high school degree)...

 

Has an opinion. ????

 

*If you're smart enough to be a SME in Virology, then you're smart enough to know what 'SME' means

 

Edited January 28, 2023 by SiSePuede419

[metisdead]

A post with false and misleading information has been removed.

 

A post commenting on moderation has been removed.

Edited January 29, 2023 by metisdead

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

On 1/27/2023 at 1:21 PM, billyo said:

Where I'm from the UK they can't give the stuff away so I imagine there are huge supplies of near to expiry stock globally that needs to be used and developed nations will donate it as part of their aid packages.

The "vaccines for tourists" program being implemented by the Thai government, I believe, is one where the tourists would be charged for the original (and now heading toward obsolete) version of the original COVID mRNA vaccine, and NOT the newer bivalent version of the vaccines that Thailand has yet to acquire. And also unlike the original government vaccine rollout that gave donated supplies of the original mRNA vaccines to long-term expats for free.

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The original version of the mRNA COVID vaccines is headed toward being entirely replaced in the U.S. by the newer bivalent versions:

 

A key FDA advisory panel voted to use the same formulation for all COVID-19 vaccinations.

 

"The Food and Drug Administration’s independent vaccine advisory committee voted unanimously on Thursday in favor of having all COVID-19 vaccines in the United States use the same formulation as the two-strain updated [bivalent] boosters.

 

This change would make vaccination less confusing to both patients and healthcare workers, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) said.

 

The committee voted 21-to-0 to direct vaccine makers Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Novavax to update the primary series of their vaccines — the initial doses that people receive — to match the updated bivalent booster doses which target both the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and a newer Omicron strain.

 

(more)

 

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/covid-19-vaccine-key-fda-panel-recommends-annual-updated-shots

 

 

[Dazkkk]

The man is a ????

[ThailandRyan]

3 minutes ago, luckyblock token said:

it's crazy to give this covid vaccines to anybody!!!

Why? Please enthrall us with your reasoning. Being an anti-vaxxer and believing the misinformation fed is not reason. All vaccines and medication have some type of inherent risks associated.  

[jacko45k]

2 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

Why? Please enthrall us with your reasoning. Being an anti-vaxxer and believing the misinformation fed is not reason. All vaccines and medication have some type of inherent risks associated.  

Better to ignore such comments... do not feed!

[AgMech Cowboy]

I agree with Mr. Heinecke. The vaccines are not free to Thailand. The 'pandemic' is over. If you want additional shots and vaccines, it's time to pay.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

On 1/30/2023 at 2:34 PM, AgMech Cowboy said:

The 'pandemic' is over.

 

No, it's not.... not as far as the WHO is concerned, not as far as the U.S. CDC is concerned. Not yet.

 

WHO says Covid-19 remains a global health emergency, but pandemic is at a ‘transition point’

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/30/health/who-covid-public-health-emergency/index.html

 

AND

Biden intends to end Covid-19 and public health emergencies on May 11

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/30/politics/may-11-end-of-covid-and-public-health-emergencies/index.html

 

 

So if any U.S. folks here are thinking about trips back to the U.S. that would include getting the free bivalent vaccines being offered there by the federal government that aren't available in Thailand for now, better plan on doing so prior to May 11... Because after that, unless something changes in the meantime, recipients will either need U.S. health insurance coverage or have to pay out of pocket.

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

fyi.... update today from the Thai government's PR folks on the various tourist vaccine locations:

 

PS - the Pfizer doses mentioned here are the original version, not the newer bivalent version that's not available in Thailand at present.

 

COVID-19 vaccination available for foreign tourists nationwide

 

COVID-19 vaccination centers for foreign tourists are currently open in various areas in Bangkok, including Bang Rak Medical Center in Bang Rak district, the Institute for Urban Disease Control and Prevention in Bang Khen district, the Institute of Dermatology, Rajavithi Hospital, Lerdsin Hospital, and Nopparat Rajathanee Hospital. Centers are open in other popular tourism provinces such as Chiang Mai, Chon Buri, Phuket, and Songkhla.

 

The prices of vaccines are 800 baht for a vaccination of AstraZeneca, and 1,000 baht for a vaccination of Pfizer. Another 380-baht medical service fee is on top of the jab cost, while foreign residents such as businesspeople, workers, and diplomats, as well as their family members, can still receive free vaccination.

 

https://www.facebook.com/thailandprd/posts/pfbid0oDDbWRVWdcdytcjNMhStWoQj3xnS3iuhjjQRUF3TKqCMDgRXsReGkaPgmsNAgihHl