Medical expert calls for export of AstraZeneca doses to be suspended

[Thaiger]

A prominent medical expert has urged the government to stop exporting locally-produced doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine until Thailand has enough for its own people. Dr Prasert Auewarakul from Siriraj Hospital’s Faculty of Medicine says Thailand needs at least 10 million doses a month over the next 3 months. According to a Bangkok Post report, he says this period is a crucial point in the vaccine rollout, potentially enabling a reduction in infections and Covid-related deaths. Prasert is urging people to add their names to a petition hosted on the Change.org website, which calls for a law on national vaccine […]

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[jimhollands]

Can you show a link to the change.org petition please

[Lowseasonlover]

To late they have already been sold

[Malc-Thai]

So the government signed a contract of 3 million a month.(Document leaked by AstraZeneca). now wants more and being recommended to stop exports to other countries that have already paid and already late. so what's to stop AstraZeneca from just pulling the plug and move to another country and just supply the 3 million a month to Thailand.. again this government made a mistake,  so will try and change the law to ban exports

[AlexPTY]

I think there is a contract signed and paid, not to mention how much damage it will do to Thailand image... If of cause it's possible to lower it 

[EdwardV]

It will be interesting to see  if they do shut off exports. At this point in the outbreak, it’s a hard option to pass up.

[Chaimai]

10 minutes ago, EdwardV said:

It will be interesting to see  if they do shut off exports. At this point in the outbreak, it’s a hard option to pass up.

 

 

Didn't the EU try that?

[Poolie]

1 hour ago, jimhollands said:

Can you show a link to the change.org petition please

Look it up. Its not hard.

[MrStretch]

To stop the export of AZ vaccines that have already been contractually promised would be an international nightmare for Thailand.  They would, more than likely, be ostracized by those countries they deprive of their lawfully purchased vaccines.

37 minutes ago, Malc-Thai said:

so what's to stop AstraZeneca from just pulling the plug and move to another country and just supply the 3 million a month to Thailand.

That would create an even greater loss of face to those who shall not be named.

[EdwardV]

8 minutes ago, Chaimai said:

Didn't the EU try that?

They didn’t try, they actually did it back in May. Not a long term ban, about six weeks. Just long enough to build a supply and get ahead of the curve. Of course there was also the case of the missing vaccine order to Australia a month earlier. An order that the EU  claims they didn’t block and the Aussies still claim they did. Technically it was Italy that blocked it, but they did so under rules passed by the EU. 

[Bob]

If they don’t honour contractual agreements already in place then they need the license to produce the vaccine taken off them. Why am I not surprised the Thais are prepared to be underhand. 

[Stonker]

7 hours ago, Malc-Thai said:

So the government signed a contract of 3 million a month.(Document leaked by AstraZeneca). now wants more and being recommended to stop exports to other countries that have already paid and already late. so what's to stop AstraZeneca from just pulling the plug and move to another country and just supply the 3 million a month to Thailand.. again this government made a mistake,  so will try and change the law to ban exports

It's a different 3 million.

[DiJoDavO]

Maybe I'm thinking a bit too simple here, but if Thailand produces it, why did they first try to export it instead of taking care of their own population first and THEN later export? 

[Guevara]

7 hours ago, AlexPTY said:

I think there is a contract signed and paid, not to mention how much damage it will do to Thailand image... If of cause it's possible to lower it 

Unlikely, what is below rock bottom?

[Lowseasonlover]

14 minutes ago, DiJoDavO said:

Maybe I'm thinking a bit too simple here, but if Thailand produces it, why did they first try to export it instead of taking care of their own population first and THEN later export? 

It's about money my friend

[Bob]

3 minutes ago, DiJoDavO said:

Maybe I'm thinking a bit too simple here, but if Thailand produces it, why did they first try to export it instead of taking care of their own population first and THEN later export? 

Probably because in the beginning covid didn’t exist in Thailand according to the people in charge. Even now it’s still very low considering the size of the population. Less testing , less cases 

[King Cotton]

1 hour ago, DiJoDavO said:

Maybe I'm thinking a bit too simple here, but if Thailand produces it, why did they first try to export it instead of taking care of their own population first and THEN later export? 

A question that the rest of the world is asking and would love to get an HONEST answer to.

[Stonker]

1 hour ago, DiJoDavO said:

Maybe I'm thinking a bit too simple here, but if Thailand produces it, why did they first try to export it instead of taking care of their own population first and THEN later export? 

Because it was a condition of the contract with Astra Zeneca. 

1 hour ago, Lowseasonlover said:

It's about money my friend

No, it was a condition of the contract with Astra Zeneca.

1 hour ago, Bob said:

Probably because in the beginning covid didn’t exist in Thailand according to the people in charge.  

There is no "probably".  It was a condition of the contract with Astra Zeneca, and is well documented. Siam BioScience was intended to be their producer for SE Asia, not just Thailand - things didn't quite go according to plan.

[Stonker]

8 minutes ago, King Cotton said:

A question that the rest of the world is asking and would love to get an HONEST answer to.

Ummm ... it was a condition of the contract with Astra Zeneca.  This was widely reported, well before the factory was uprated and production started, well before the current 'wave'.

 

 

[JackIsAGoodBoy]

Iceland just had a new record number of currently infected (1454 people) despite vaccinating practically everybody over 18. The vaccines protect somewhat from serious illness of current variants but also puts mutation pressure to the virus and because of leakiness aka breakthrough cases they might end up causing more dangerous variants.