50,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to arrive in Thailand in early February, more ahead

27 Comments

1. 

   Bill

   Thursday, January 21, 2021 at 8:38 pm

   Will be interesting to see what the powers that be/oligarchs do once they get their vaccinations. Tourism 4th quarter 2021?!?!?!

   Reply
2. 

   Peter

   Thursday, January 21, 2021 at 9:29 pm

   This is for the AZ vaccine produced abroad.
   The inbreed fu1kwits aren’t even trusted to make their own correctly.
   Possibly coming from the serum institute in India. They had the intelligence to premake 50 million doses and no doubt will have production going 24/7.
   Meanwhile Thailand runs round like a headless chicken begging for other nations scraps to save face.
   It’s finally dawned on the government that vaccination is the only way out of this mess.
   Problem is their at the back of the queue.
   Better concentrate on buying subs and going to the moon.
   Pity they wouldn’t take Destitute John with them.

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   • 

     Issan John

     Friday, January 22, 2021 at 3:03 pm

     Complete nonsense, as usual.

     Astra Zeneca signed a technology sharing agreement with Thailand and Siam BioScience several months ago, “trusting” and licensing Thailand to produce the vaccine for SE Asia.

     Whether they should have done so is a very different debate, but those are the facts and they’ve been widely publicised across the media, although apparently not in Ireland.

     The Serum Institute of India is the world’s largest vaccine producer, also producing Novavax in competition with Astra Zeneca, and they also funded and conducted the Phase 2 and 3 trials for Astra Zeneca in India, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they’re producing the vaccine.

     Reply
3. 

   Kevin

   Thursday, January 21, 2021 at 9:46 pm

   This is good news

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4. 

   Ben

   Thursday, January 21, 2021 at 10:40 pm

   Peter is correct the vaccine is the key component for getting out of this mess. Better (fast, accurate and inexpensive) testing is the other necessary component. Look for a general reopening, without quarantine, of Thailand in 2021 for the vaccinated.

   Many in The Thaiger comment sections doubt the vaccine’s safety and efficacy. They say it’s not effective and very few of us really understand what’s behind the numbers that have come out in the media. Many say it impacts your DNA (I’ve read it doesn’t). Many doubters warn of long-term negative effects and say some (29 people over 75 in Norway) are dying after taking the vaccine. Lots of varied opinion and conjecture. But ultimately it’s just our opinions.

   I look to the stock markets around the world and they’re roaring at the moment and have been for 9 months. Markets are a forward looking indicator of economic activity and what this tells me is people are putting their hard earned money down on an economic recovery and that means one where the vaccines are largely successful without a lot of people negatively impaired or dying from them. This includes a lot of professional money managers that can afford to hire experts to assess these vaccines and their likelihood of success. People who actually know what they’re doing and advise money managers what to bet on. If there was any credible evidence of vaccine problems so far the markets would begin crashing immediately.

   The Thai stock market is up about 50% from the lows in late March and close to recovering all of its losses in late February and early March similar to stock markets around the world.

   Many have reaped the gains from the market the past 9 months and are flush. There is a lot of pent up demand for travel and Thailand will get its share of that demand if it implements the tools necessary to reopen as quickly as possible. This demand will be similar to a nuclear explosion – it’ll be huge.

   So I’m drawing my confidence from the money guys and not from some anti-vaxxer that has no proof and just an opinion. This is a different way to look at everything that I haven’t seen in these comment sections I wanted to bring to your attention.

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   • 

     EdwardV

     Friday, January 22, 2021 at 5:29 am

     People have been talking about pent up demand for a long time, yet when anything opens it usually disappears quickly. Is there a lot of interest in travel, certainly. However so far that interest has not translated into huge numbers anywhere (except Mexico, but that’s not a similar situation). People are scared and they will be for a long time. They are not going to risking a plane ride of 12-18 hours only land and find tourist areas that have been hollowed out. At least not in large numbers. Thailand talked about all this pent up demand before the STV, crickets afterward. Pent up demand prior to visas for everyone, crickets. Pent up demand for visa free travel, crickets. I saw it in Hawaii. They dropped the quarantine in October and the first week it was 10K per day. Week later it was half of that. It’s pretty much been in that range 3-5K ever since. They have hotels and restaurants reclosing because the numbers are not there. Hawaii is no Thailand but pre covid they were getting 30K per day. Thailand isn’t going to open soon, they will be one of the later ones and happily at that. Yes there will be a nice fat opening, and then it will drop off and stay flat just like Hawaii. It’s going to take several months to rebuilt the industry and 1.5-2 years to get within sight of old numbers (which I don’t think they will ever get again but for other reasons). My guess is 2023 to get to 75-80% of 2019 numbers. JMO

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     • 

       Issan John

       Friday, January 22, 2021 at 3:10 pm

       Exactly, Ed V. The TAT and TCT are selling something no-one wants, even Thailand.

       The best thing they can do, instead of coming up with ideas that do nothing other than clutch at straws to make them relevant when tourism is clearly NOT relevant, is follow the exaamples from Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia and admit that tourism has had to be put into hibernation and just STFU.

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   • 

     murika

     Friday, January 22, 2021 at 10:57 am

     guess again, the new Brazilian and south african variant can infect people who already get covid or the vaccine, with 1200 variation in a year, good luck to stop the pandemic… tourism is dead, quarantine will stay for expats and businessmen’s forever….

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     • 

       Issan John

       Friday, January 22, 2021 at 3:07 pm

       There’s zero evidence for that, at least so far – none.

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       • 

         murika

         Friday, January 22, 2021 at 7:44 pm

         there is lots of evidence, that’s why eminent virologist are starting to talk about it ! there is no official statement, because the studies are still going at this time, the new is one week old ! But i forgot that issan john you don’t need to inform yourself, you already know everything about anything, proven by you multiple posts on any subject in the thaiger

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         • 

           Issan John

           Friday, January 22, 2021 at 11:48 pm

           “eminent virologists starting to talk about it” isn’t “lots of evidence”.

           It’s pure speculation that you’ve plucked out of thin air and claimed as fact when it’s very clearly not.

           If that’s wrong then instead of being childish name any “eminent viroligists” who’ve said that “the new Brazilian and south african variant can infect people who already get covid or the vaccine, with 1200 variation in a year”.

           Any at all ….
5. 

   James R

   Friday, January 22, 2021 at 1:45 am

   Nigel

   Well it looks as I expected, it is not or will not happen.

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6. 

   James R

   Friday, January 22, 2021 at 1:50 am

   In the UK we plan to vaccinate 2,000,000 a week and we are ramping up to that.

   I think at the moment the rate is 1,500,000 per week but there is some talk of not being able to produce enough to get to two million a week.

   So I can imaging the order made by Thailand will be even further delayed as the government here will not be able to get away with shipping the vaccine overseas yet until it has met its targets here.

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   • 

     Michael

     Friday, January 22, 2021 at 11:24 am

     It’s not a government shipping vaccines.It is a company, with legal obligations and contracts.In Europe they expect AstraZeneca vaccines in Febuary.

     Reply
   • 

     Issan John

     Friday, January 22, 2021 at 3:18 pm

     The Astra Zeneca vaccines for the UK so far are made in the Netherlands and Germany, NOT in the UK. The two A Z factories in the UK, in Oxford and Keele, are only just starting production so even if it was up to the UK government, which it isn’t, the UK’s supply problems are nothing to do with Thailand.

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     • 

       James R

       Friday, January 22, 2021 at 9:07 pm

       Issan John

       Your facts are total nonsense as usual.

       The Wrexham plant in Wales will be able to produce around 300 million doses of the vaccine each year once production is ramped up, it has been producing 150,000 phials a day for months which have being used all across the UK.

       The production has been going on for months, they were produced before the vaccine was authorised.

       Don’t forget British, Swedish and other international groups financed the drug which was developed via Oxford University which does also happen to be in the UK.

       We will soon see who gets what, lets see what you have to say in six months time.

       You might have to stick with some dodgy Chinese vaccine.

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       • 

         Issan John

         Sunday, January 24, 2021 at 2:34 pm

         Hardly “nonsense”!

         Your “Wrexham plant in Wales” is a sub-contracted fill-finish plant that bottles the vaccine.

         It produces and fills the phials, so while you’re correct that “it has been producing 150,000 phials a day for months” that’s exactly what it’s been doing – producing phials – no more and no less.

         It produces phials and fills them with vaccine that’s delivered to the plant – it doesn’t produce the vaccine.

         Google has not been your friend. 🙁

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         • 

           James R

           Tuesday, January 26, 2021 at 9:44 pm

           Nonsense as usual.

           Oxford BioMedica, based in Oxford and Cobra Biologics, based at Keele Science Park, Staffs are making the vaccines.

           Another company, Wockhardt, based in Wrexham, fills the vials and packages them for use.

           Google is not at all your friend.
7. 

   Alan

   Friday, January 22, 2021 at 8:08 am

   50,000 doses BIG DEAL.

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8. 

   Terry

   Friday, January 22, 2021 at 9:15 am

   50,000 doses is just a small drop in the ocean

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   • 

     Rasputin

     Friday, January 22, 2021 at 6:44 pm

     50,000 doses, 2 doses per person required equates to enough vaccine to inoculate around 1 person in every 2000 people in Thailand, Far from impressive.

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     • 

       Issan John

       Friday, January 22, 2021 at 11:52 pm

       Which part of “The upcoming shipment is part of the first lot of 26 million doses on the agreed purchase in October last year” did you, Terry and Alan not understand?

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       • 

         James R

         Sunday, January 24, 2021 at 1:06 am

         Issan John

         Which part of not getting your order for months and months do you not understand?

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9. 

   Stardust

   Friday, January 22, 2021 at 11:13 am

   Thailand managed by Clowns

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   • 

     Issan John

     Friday, January 22, 2021 at 11:58 pm

     Quite possibly, but with 71 dead from Covid and less than 3,000 needing treatment in Thailand, what does that make those managing the US, the UK, and Europe?

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     • 

       James R

       Sunday, January 24, 2021 at 1:09 am

       Issan John

       What it means is we are testing in the UK, we can get a test within two hours of asking for one, Thailand on the other hand is not testing and therefore there are very few cases detected.

       You seem to be falling for the unelected governments nonsense. (Oh sorry, yes they were elected I forgot, on stolen votes).

       You might be not so anti-West once you eventually get our vaccines.

       Reply
10. 

    Issan John

    Sunday, January 24, 2021 at 3:07 pm

    You’re sadly misinformed, as usual.

    Thailand is “testing” but in a completely different way to the UK.

    The UK is trying to use mass testing to identify cases – something the experts all agree only works if you can test the entire population at least every two weeks. Since the UK isn’t manageing to do even 5% of that it’s a complete waste of time and money.

    If you can’t see that, despite it being one of the few things all the experts agree on, including the UK’s, then you’re evidently “falling for the government’s nonsense” (regardless of whether the clowns were elected or not).

    On the other hand, Thailand is carrying out targeted, tiered testing which all the experts agree is the best and most efficient use of resources to identify / detect cases.

    As far as testing’s concerned, whether it’s the government’s view or not and whether the government was elected or not are completely irrelevant to me.
    I don’t really care one way or the other if it’s the government’s view or not, since what matters to me is if it’s the experts’ view – which it is.

    … and they’re not “your” vaccines, BTW.

    Reply