News Forum - Japan to donate 300,000 more AstraZeneca vaccines next week

[Thaiger]

The Japanese embassy in Bangkok made an announcement today that their government will again donate AstraZeneca vaccines to Thailand. Japan donated 1.05 million AstraZeneca vaccines to Thailand at the beginning of July and have declared that another shipment of 300,000 vaccines will be forthcoming. The second shipment of AstraZeneca vaccines from Japan is slated to arrive on September 8, this coming Wednesday. The Japanese shipment will have 775 oxygen concentrators to aid in the care of patients with severe Covid-19 infections as well as equipment for the cold chain system that is essential to keep vaccines at a low temperature […]

The post Japan to donate 300,000 more AstraZeneca vaccines next week appeared first on Thaiger News.

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[gazmo16]

Am I missing something,  Japan is giving Thailand 300,000 AZ vaccines. Is Thailand not the manufacturing centre for AZ out here  ? 

sending coal to Newcastle springs to mind !

[gazmo16]

Thank you Japan for the other much needed medical equipment that will surely save lives.

I'm sure there will be no loss of face from the Government when they accept the AZ doses they are unable to provide from their own laboratories .

[Bob20]

1 hour ago, gazmo16 said:

Am I missing something,  Japan is giving Thailand 300,000 AZ vaccines. Is Thailand not the manufacturing centre for AZ out here  ? 

sending coal to Newcastle springs to mind !

Yes, sounds like water to the sea...but AZ in Japan is made by Daiichi in Japan. 

And Thailand gets a limited proportion from the production in Thailand.

As long as there are shortages, they're happy with supplies from elsewhere.

Edited September 4, 2021 by Smithydog
Edited at request of poster

[Allan]

44 minutes ago, gazmo16 said:

Thank you Japan for the other much needed medical equipment that will surely save lives.

I'm sure there will be no loss of face from the Government when they accept the AZ doses they are unable to provide from their own laboratories .

No loss of face, just looking for a way to sell it to the farangs who are registered and waiting for their first shot, 

[MikeW]

1 hour ago, gazmo16 said:

Am I missing something,  Japan is giving Thailand 300,000 AZ vaccines. Is Thailand not the manufacturing centre for AZ out here  ? 

sending coal to Newcastle springs to mind !

The factory here was a scam to make a certain person a lot of money I don't think they've have ever been able to make enough vaccines. Just another case of this government putting all their eggs in one basket 

[Faz]

28 minutes ago, Allan said:

No loss of face, just looking for a way to sell it to the farangs who are registered and waiting for their first shot, 

Forget the registration Apps and websites - waste of time.

Go to your local Health Centre or Ministry of Provincial Health office.
Tell them you registered but still waiting - watch their eyes roll, they know it's a shambles.
What they will do is put you on the list and make an appointment on your behalf.

[RWD]

1 hour ago, gazmo16 said:

Thank you Japan for the other much needed medical equipment that will surely save lives.

I'm sure there will be no loss of face from the Government when they accept the AZ doses they are unable to provide from their own laboratories .

The govt doesn't own the AZ manufacturere here.  It is owned by the Crown Property Bureau.  They have the agency to manufacture but cannot manufacture at the rates they had anticipated when granted the licence.  Most manufacturing is destined for offshore contracts which are done and dusted, so cannot meet Thailand demand.

 

[Graham]

So the country that manufacturers the vaccine is getting hand outs from another country, just the same as the Thai people getting hand outs from farangs but not from their own government. 

[ThairdOfBS]

WTF!!!  what happened to Thailand manufacturing AZ? clearly some important details are missing in this story, reading between the lines, as is standard in Thailand, it seems theres a spanner in the works.

Can Thaiger please report

[Yinn]

54 minutes ago, Allan said:

No loss of face, just looking for a way to sell it to the farangs who are registered and waiting for their first shot, 

Not true.
Farangs get it free. Many receive Sino, Pfizer, Astra already. 

Nobody pay, please do not lie. Not help the situation.

[think-and-ask]

people are scared of, to get sick but trust, corrupted based health care ?

since when, government and drug /pharma companies ( for pills and vaccines ),
care and want to help, millions of people per country or billions of people ?
corruption history is long, and all did wrong already.
astra, johnson, pfizer-mRna, glaxo-mRna, sinovac, etc.

trust in small companies who never, before corona,
sold a vaccine, as moderna-mRna and novavax, is safe enough in pharma industry ?

and you can trust,
scared doctors, because many could lose its job if not keep to vaccinate, in the world ?

[Jason]

At least AZ gave license for it's vaccine to be produced in other countries. Pfizer, Moderna and J&J have not. I think it is noble for the Japanese to send support. Especially, considering the situation in their own country. My country is doing the same for our Pacific neighbours with AZ vaccines produced here.

[Stonker]

3 hours ago, Yinn said:

Not true.
Farangs get it free. Many receive Sino, Pfizer, Astra already. 

Nobody pay, please do not lie. Not help the situation.

Exactly, @Yinn - well said.

All saying things like that does is detract from the many real issues and many real faults, and it doesn't help anyone.

 

[Stonker]

4 minutes ago, Jason said:

At least AZ gave license for it's vaccine to be produced in other countries. Pfizer, Moderna and J&J have not. 

Sorry, @Jason, but that's not correct at all.

Do searches for 'moderna produced under licence' / 'pfizer produced ...' and 'johnson and johnson produced ...' and you'll see that ALL are being produced under licence, naming the licencees and the countries, and that for some the technology transfer is 100% free for the duration of the pandemic.

[MrStretch]

4 hours ago, Yinn said:

Not true.
Farangs get it free. Many receive Sino, Pfizer, Astra already. 

Nobody pay, please do not lie. Not help the situation.

Not true, Yinn.  If we farang want Moderna (and until recently that was all we were told we could have) we had to pay for the registration for a shot to be delivered in October, if it arrives and isn't stolen by the Army, Red Cross or other organization.

It wasn't until the US donated the Pfizer vaccinations that the Thai government said foreigners could get free.  Until then, only Sinovac was available, and for most foreigners it wasn't even offered.

Kudos to the Japanese to offer AZ to Thailand.  Japan's own difficulties in a slow vaccination start are finally falling away and their acceleration is to be commended.

Edited September 4, 2021 by MrStretch

[Stonker]

4 hours ago, Faz said:

Forget the registration Apps and websites - waste of time.

Go to your local Health Centre or Ministry of Provincial Health office.
Tell them you registered but still waiting - watch their eyes roll, they know it's a shambles.
What they will do is put you on the list and make an appointment on your behalf.

Well, my province (Loei) stopped all registrations by anyone, Thai or farang, for two months (June and July) as they were simply being given next to no vaccines so it was impossible for me or anyone else in the province to register and there were next to no local vaccinations.

On 1 August, the day it opened, I registered very easily on expatvac and received confirmation by return e-mail immediately.

Last week vaccinations re-started at the local vaccination centre (first doses with Sinovac, second doses with AZ), and this morning I had a phone call (in English)  telling me I had an appointment at the main hospital in Loei city next week for my first Pfizer jab, with the details (date, time, floor and department, etc).

A week after that, coincidentally, I have my usual quarterly medical check up at the local hospital as I have had for several years.

The Pfizer jabs are free, and my quarterly check up and chat with the doctor costs me 50 baht, plus a couple of hundred for the blood tests which take about an hour.

Even if I wanted to use one, there are no worthwhile international hospitals in my province, or less than a two hour drive away.

On the one occasion when we've had to call an ambulance (not for me) it arrived in under ten minutes, and when there was a major accident a few hundred yards up the hill with several killed and forty badly injured, all had been evacuated to hospitals within forty minutes of the accident.

Fair enough, the vaccine purchasing and roll out has been an utter shambles, almost certainly riddled with corruption, but that's all at government and political level.

I'm not looking at it through rose-tinted glasses, and God knows I'm as happy to pick fault as anyone else, but credit where credit's due.

 

[Faz]

22 minutes ago, Stonker said:

On 1 August, the day it opened, I registered very easily on expatvac and received confirmation by return e-mail immediately.

You were fortunate @Stonker
You may or may not have read elsewhere on the forum or news that hundreds of foreigner's that registered on the expat vac site had their registrations cancelled. A glitch in the system according to the MFA.

They were told to reregister but were unable to because the system stated they were already registered 
Happened to a close friend, when he rang the MFA over the reregistration issue, their comment was 'yes, we are having some problems'.

He went to the Provincial Health authority and within 30 minutes was at the vaccination centre receiving his first dose of 'Pfizer'. That has always been my advice, physically go to your local Health centre, Government hospital, or your local Provincial Health authority office and they'll sort it out.
 

[Stonker]

40 minutes ago, MrStretch said:

Not true, Yinn.  If we farang want Moderna (and until recently that was all we were told we could have) we had to pay for the registration for a shot to be delivered in October, if it arrives and isn't stolen by the Army, Red Cross or other organization.

 

Sorry, @MrStretch, but what @Yinn said was absolutely, 100% true while what you're saying is either not correct or at best very economical with the truth.

If you want Moderna - and that has NEVER been "all we were told we could have" - then 'yes', you have to pay in advance but that isn't just "we farang" but Thais as well.

There's never been any difference there at all.

49 minutes ago, MrStretch said:

It wasn't until the US donated the Pfizer vaccinations that the Thai government said foreigners could get free.  

That's completely incorrect and untrue.

The Thai government have ALWAYS said foreigners could and would get vaccines free.

When they'd get it and what they'd get may have been open-ended, just as it is for Thais, but what you're saying here is simply incorrect and untrue.

56 minutes ago, MrStretch said:

Until then, only Sinovac was available, and for most foreigners it wasn't even offered.

Not correct either.

Sinovac was / is most widely used, but AZ was also used but in lower numbers. That's very easily verifiable.

... and while it's true that "for most foreigners it wasn't even offered" is true it's very economical with the truth, as for most Thais "it wasn't even offered" either.

.

The Thai government vaccine procurement and roll out programmes have been appallingly and inexcusably bad, but distorting and mis-representing what's happened doesn't help to highlight that but just dilutes it since it's so clearly not correct and untrue.

[Stonker]

18 minutes ago, Faz said:

You were fortunate @Stonker

Yes, @Faz, I realise that and, in hindsight, I also see that it may have looked as if I was disagreeing with you over this which wasn't my intention (sorry if that's how it appeared) but what's starting to annoy me is this idea that farangs have been particularly hard done by (which doesn't apply to your post).

FWIW, "your" advice was exactly the advice given by my local (district) hospital to anyone unable to register, Thais or farangs alike - not that it helped much here, as they simply had no vaccines to give.

[Guevara]

7 hours ago, gazmo16 said:

Am I missing something,  Japan is giving Thailand 300,000 AZ vaccines. Is Thailand not the manufacturing centre for AZ out here  ? 

sending coal to Newcastle springs to mind !

In theory Siam Bioscience are manufacturing AZ, in reality the few they do produce are being exported at considerable profit.

[RWD]

On 9/4/2021 at 10:02 AM, Graham said:

So the country that manufacturers the vaccine is getting hand outs from another country, just the same as the Thai people getting hand outs from farangs but not from their own government. 

What planet are you living on.  The Thai Govt is giving millions of baht every day across many sectors.  Also are the big giant corporations like CP.  Do some research...

[RWD]

On 9/4/2021 at 3:51 PM, Guevara said:

In theory Siam Bioscience are manufacturing AZ, in reality the few they do produce are being exported at considerable profit.

Factually incorrect.  The Siam Bioscience licence dictates the rates the product is to be sold, as are most of the other vaccines.  The winner financially is AstraZeneca.  It's their product.  They get paid the licence fee.  Siam had hoped to manufacture higher quantities but cannot.  If it were all about the money they would shut down now. 

[Artemis080]

Do we have enough Sinovac though to be able to mix and match with it? Maybe we need more..

[gummy]

1 minute ago, Artemis080 said:

Do we have enough Sinovac though to be able to mix and match with it? Maybe we need more..

Well you can never have enough I suppose.