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Coss
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Leaked correspondence between the Thai government and the Covid-19 vaccine manufacturer AstraZeneca has raised a big question about the former’s commitment to administer 100 million doses by the end of this year.
 

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2150423/fate-of-100m-dose-vaccination-hangs-in-the-air    

The letter linked in the article makes interesting reading.

Also from the article 

Sinovac, which is the most readily available, cannot effectively shield against the Delta variant of the coronavirus. Sinovac also costs at least four times more than AstraZeneca.

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Thanks Kong, the above post is information, that confirms two other strands, I've been hearing about.

I stress that I have no way confirming, that which I post below, other than to note, that though, it's second hand info, via Laos, MLG does have family in government positions, and though this doesn't make the information reliable, it is a different source at least.

so

"Siam Bioscience Co Ltd, a company owned by His Majesty the King, was retooled to manufacture the vaccine. The government subsidised 600 million baht for the upgrade and officials later said the company would pay back the sum in the form of shots."

I hear that the usual big money boys (ahem Lurch), have cornered the market in the production and supply of the vaccines in Thailand and any Baht, that flow with that.

I am also given to understand that the usual, disregard and disdain that the rich have for the poor, has led to a vast underestimate of the number of vaccines required and that prices have been determined by, the likely size of the budget that can be accessed, rather than the number of people that require the vaccines.

"Thailand is one of a handful of developing countries that have not joined Covax."

Of course. 

"In any case, the cabinet approved the budget for it on March 5 and it took two months after that to sign the agreement."

Fighting in the queue for kickbacks.

"Deputy Public Health Minister Sathit Pitutecha also admitted on Thursday that AstraZeneca would not be able to deliver all 61 million doses under the two contracts until May next year. The original deadline was supposed to have been December. Contrary to what people had assumed earlier, he said 10 million doses a month was in fact Thailand’s capacity to vaccinate people, not the number of vaccines it would get from AstraZeneca. He said the company had seen the vaccination plan but had said nothing."

Usual Thai logic - what I planned was wrong, I said it was right - someone else didn't tell me it was wrong - so it's someone else's fault

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He said the company had seen the vaccination plan but had said nothing."
 

Is that apart from you will only get 30% and join COVAX, it couldn’t have been much plainer, does he expect AZ to do the Maths for him, Donkey.

The Thai Government were clearly under the wrong impression that AZ was a Thai company who could be bullied, haha don’t fuck with us Brits especially when it comes to contracts, you will get burned.

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Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul admits he received a letter from the AstraZeneca company saying it has the capacity to supply Thailand with just three million doses of its vaccine a month.

However, Mr Anutin insisted he wrote back to say the country needed at least 10 million doses a month to combat surging daily infections.

The company's letter was dated June 25 and Mr Anutin's reply was made five days later.

In an interview with Isranews Agency, which obtained the leaked letter, Mr Anutin said he argued the country needed a much larger quantity. He advocated for at least 10 million doses a month for the national vaccination campaign.

Mr Anutin said Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha backed his stance.

The minister said the government hoped AstraZeneca will be able to deliver the vaccine to meet the government's target.

The correspondence came as vaccine supplies are reportedly running short, forcing several non-hospital vaccination points in Bangkok to suspend operations.

On Thursday, AstraZeneca asked Thailand to extend the timeline for delivery of 61 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine until May next year, Deputy Public Health Minister Sathit Pitutecha said. The move was feared to strike a further blow to the country's vaccine roll-out.

In its letter, AstraZeneca referred to an agreement reached in September last year that it would supply the Public Health Ministry with one-third of the vaccines it can produce, or three million doses per month.

It intends to export the remaining two-thirds, spurring talks about the government placing curbs on vaccine exports to ensure local supplies are met first.

In his reply, the minister said the government expected the company to roll out more than one-third for Thailand.

On Saturday, the minister said the Department of Disease Control (DoDC) has been in talks with its contractual partner, AstraZeneca (Thailand), to increase vaccine supplies and deliver them as fast as possible.

The talks are conducted through a special panel comprised of DoDC director-general Opas Karnkawinpong, National Vaccine Institute director Nakhon Premsri and legal experts.

"The government will get hold of the vaccine and administer it to every Thai citizen until the virus is wiped out or becomes a common disease," Mr Anutin said.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2150463/anutin-insists-az-lift-local-jab-target-from-3-million 
 

5 Days to reply to an URGENT Matter, Jeezus H 

Read the comments section on the Article, interesting reading.


 

 

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Unsubstantiated rumors afoot that Astra Zeneca / Siam Biotech are having problems and are declaring they are only producing 9 Million doses per month now and will supply 3 Million as per the original contract. 
 

I hope this is true, it will give Anuntin a heart attack.

Don’t forget Anuntin blamed Covid in Thailand on “Dirty Europeans” over a year ago, he is due his comeuppance. General Pinocchio won’t sack his Deputy Prime Minister who has a background in Construction and knows Fuck All about Public Health

https://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/2020/03/13/health-minister-dirty-europeans-pose-virus-risks-to-thailand/ 

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Looks like the tide is turning, or is about turn in Alabamyland.

US doctor reveals what she tells unvaccinated Covid patients

As the United States grapples with the surging Delta variant of Covid-19, medical experts across the country are desperately trying to convince hesitant Americans to get vaccinated.

That includes experts in the national spotlight, such as Anthony Fauci and CDC Director Rochelle Walensky. But doctors at the local level are also speaking out.

One of them is Dr Brytney Cobia.

Dr Cobia works at Grandview Medical Centre in Birmingham, Alabama, the state with the country's lowest percentage of fully vaccinated people (33.7 per cent).

According to Alabama's Department of Public Health, 94 per cent of the people hospitalised with covid there since April and 96 per cent of those who've died have been unvaccinated.

"I'm admitting young, healthy people to the hospital with very serious covid infections," Dr Cobia wrote in a heartwrenching Facebook post this week.

"One of the last things they do before they're intubated is beg me for the vaccine. I hold their hand and tell them that I'm sorry, but it's too late.

"A few days later when I call time of death, I hug their family members and I tell them the best way to honour their loved one is to go get vaccinated and encourage everyone they know to do the same.

"They cry. And they tell me they didn't know. They thought it was a hoax. They thought it was political. They thought because they had a certain blood type or a certain skin colour they wouldn't get as sick. They thought it was 'just the flu'.

"But they were wrong. And they wish they could go back. But they can't. So they thank me and they go get the vaccine. And I go back to my office, write their death note, and say a small prayer that this loss will save more lives."

Alabama exited its state of emergency on July 6, and its Republican Governor, Kay Ivey, has rescinded most covid restrictions.

"This is absolutely now a managed pandemic," Ivey said in May, when she announced the state of emergency would end.

"Alabama is open and we are moving forward."

She has urged all Alabamians to get vaccinated.

At the national level, while almost half of eligible Americans are fully vaccinated – some 160 million people – about two-thirds of the nation's counties still have vaccine coverage below 40 per cent. And the pace of the vaccine rollout has been slowing steadily for months.

In mid-April, the US was averaging more than three million vaccinations per day. That figure is now hovering at just over 500,000.

The country missed President Joe Biden's goal of giving at least 70 per cent of adults one dose by Independence Day on July 4, having beaten previous targets.

Meanwhile, covid infections and hospitalisations are rising in all 50 states. Last week the US averaged 239 deaths per day, an increase of 48 per cent over the previous week.

"They cry. They tell me they didn't know. They thought it was a hoax. They said it was political. They thought because they had a certain blood type or a certain skin colour they wouldn't get as sick"

"The majority of these deaths could be prevented with a simple, safe, available vaccine," Dr Walensky, head of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, told a congressional hearing on Tuesday.

"Areas with limited vaccine are allowing for the emergence and rapid spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant."

Dr Walensky revealed that the Delta variant now accounts for 83 per cent of new cases in the US. That's a "dramatic increase" from the week of July 3, when it was about 50 per cent.

She said the CDC was engaging "trusted community leaders", such as doctors and pastors, to reinforce messages about the efficacy and safety of the vaccines.

"The overwhelming number of deaths from Covid-19 are now occurring in unvaccinated people. Vaccines are widely available across the country, and this suffering and loss is simply and entirely preventable."

Those remarks followed a public health briefing on Friday, at which Dr Walensky referred to covid in the US as a "pandemic of the unvaccinated".

"We are seeing outbreaks of cases in parts of the country that have low vaccination coverage, because unvaccinated people are at risk, and the communities that are fully vaccinated are generally faring well," she said.

"The good news is that if you're fully vaccinated, you are protected against severe covid, hospitalisation and death, and are even protected against the known variants, including the Delta variant.

"If you are not vaccinated, you remain at risk. And our biggest concern is that we're going to continue to see preventable cases, hospitalisations and, sadly, deaths among the unvaccinated."

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/us-doctor-reveals-what-she-tells-unvaccinated-covid-patients/47ECCUGDUWFQD64IMVQNJKU4DE/

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Coss, a suggestion, if you can take it.

Before you get the vaccine, do the antibody test and see if you have already had and recovered from COVID-19.

I will admit that it is highly unlikely, given that Thailand locked down thoroughly, and has had very few confirmed cases, but it isn't impossible.

I had it in the second half of March 2020.  Long before the major US wave even got started.  I have been tested SEVERAL times since then, because I was showing symptoms not inconsistent, and the doctors were worried about reinfection.  (On the first re-test, the ER doc was SURE it was reinfection, but the test said otherwise.)

There is considerable evidence out that showing that surviving COVID-19 confers much better immunity than any of the vaccines.  ESPECIALLY the Sinovac, which appears to me to be just about (although not QUITE) worthless.

 

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I'd love to, but I'm in NZ and have had the 1st dose of Pfizer, 2nd coming in a cupla weeks. :)

I've had no symptoms, NZ has been lucky with - currently no community cases, very few, when there were community cases, and all our current cases are in quarantine facilities, caught at the airport on the way in.

Mind you I've been having all sorts of stuff cut out of my body, in multiple visits to the hospitals, due to malignant Melanoma, so with all of that and the lovely drugs, I'm not sure I'd notice Covid...

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