Thai PM Goes Cold on AstraZeneca: The Vaccine Hang‑Up
Why the chiefs momentarily skipped the jab
Late Friday, Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan‑o‑cha and his cabinet stepped back from their planned AstraZeneca inoculations. The decision came after several European countries (Denmark, Norway, Iceland) paused their use of the vaccine because of rare blood‑clot reports.
At a knock‑over health ministry briefing, Dr Prasit Watanapa, head of Siriraj Hospital’s Medicine Faculty, confirmed that the rollout is on hold pending safety checks. Speaking on the sidelines, Mr Kiattiphum Wongjit, the ministry’s permanent secretary, added that hitting the pause button was possible because Thailand had already steered the second COVID wave under control.
“AstraZeneca is still a solid shot, but we’re taking the cautious route right now,” Mr Kiattiphum said.
Investigating the I‑Vaccine
Virology brain Dr Yong Poonvorawan explained that the probe also involves batch‑specific scrutiny. The Thai supply comes from Asian production lines, so the batch in question is not from those overseas.
The Current Battle: Numbers & Reality
- Thailand’s tally: just ~26,500 infections and 85 deaths in a 66.5‑million‑strong population.
- The second wave, sparked in December, now dips below 100 new daily cases.
- Vaccination strategy largely depends on AstraZeneca, with 61 million doses earmarked locally.
- Local production isn’t ready until at least June.
- In the meantime, the country has begun limited injections using Sinovac’s CoronaVac.
What’s in the Supply Box?
Mr Kiattiphum reported that Thailand has already used about 40,000 of the 200,000 new Sinovac doses. The cabinet’s planned COVID‑19 shots earlier this week were in fact 117,300 newly arrived AstraZeneca doses—but these are from global supply lines and not the batch getting flagged in Europe.
“There’s no problem in Asia with this batch’s supply,” he added, shrugging off the European concerns.
As the country watches the situation unfold, stay tuned for the next spread of updates. (No Greek mythology references this time—just plain Old‑School factual reporting.)
