The Thai Enquirer reported yesterday that the Thai government appears to be trying to scrimp and save on their vaccine costs by stretching their supplies to, possibly, unsafe levels
Thai Enquirer – 24/5/21 – Why is Thailand squeezing two more doses out of a vaccine bottle when the global standard is one extra dose per bottle?
This is just one of the many doubts that Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has created after he told agencies to try to get two more doses out of each vail.
It is not just that the practice is not being done elsewhere around the world, it is that the move reeks of desperation.
The head of immunization at Public Health England, Dr Mary Ramsay, was very happy in January when they found out that it is possible to get an extra dose out of AstraZeneca’s vails.
No where else, except in Thailand and in South Korea, are they trying to squeeze two extra doses out of the same bottle.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency also said they will not make the extraction of the extra doses a new standard or mandatory as it can burden the healthcare workers on site.
Eom Joong-sik, a professor of infectious diseases at South Korea’s Gachon University Gil Medical Center, told Reuters in March that there is a risk of contamination during inaccurate extraction of the extra doses.
Yet Thailand’s Ministry of Public Heath is so confident it can extract two.
The truth of the matter is, we are trying to get extra doses out of these bottles because our vaccine program has been a complete failure. And people are dying because of it.
Not only has our vaccine program been a complete failure but our vaccination policy is quickly shaping up to be a failure as well with competing messages from various organs of the government.
Instead of trying to cut corners on vaccines, the government should instead accelerate their vaccine plans. – Erich Parpart, Thai Enquirer
