Vaccine situation in Thailand may be amusing. The government offers two brands: Sinovac and AstraZeneca. (The AstraZ is made in Thailand under license, by a company 99.999% owned by an illustrious person.) The U.S. has provided millions of doses of Pfizer, on condition that some of them be given to foreigners. Those three brands of vaccine are all free.
Sinopharm (similar to Sinovac) and Moderna can be ordered from private hospitals. You have to pay in advance (about $120 for two jabs) and then wait. And wait and wait, if you're on the Moderna queue. We paid for 6 jabs of Moderna many months ago, but it's still not here. We've all had 2 jabs already, so the already-paid-for Moderna will be our booster jabs. If it does finally arrive.
Most of the people were getting two Sinovac jabs. (The AstraZ was in short supply, partly because they'd contracted to sell to Philippines.) But the Sinovac developed a bad reputation as ineffective; so people have mostly gotten Sinovac for the 1st jab and AstraZ for the 2nd jab. Recently a Deputy Prime Minister with those two jabs traveled to another country but was denied entry. I'm not sure whether they needed two jabs that were the same brand, or whether the Sinovac is just unacceptable period, or (most likely) both. So he got another AstraZ jab and was admitted.
Getting on the queues for the better jabs is difficult. Sometimes people pound on their smart-phone buttons repeatedly (like a DoS attack), trying to break through a clog of other applicants. I was lucky to get on queue for two free Pfizer jabs in Bangkok. (I am old and have cardio problem, either of which would have qualified me.) The venue for the jabbing was the huge 4th floor of one of the city's large malls, operated by Bangkok's largest private hospital, with several dozens of workers. Only about three of the workers were jabbing; the rest were ushering or doing clerical work. It went smoothly (except for a treacherous thrill-ride on the BKK expressway), and after the 2nd jab I took the elevator down to the car with a "certificate" in hand. But my brain isn't what it used to be (and probably never was), and when the certificate was examined it lacked the most obvious needs, including my passport number, or any signature. It was my daughter who caught this. (She wasn't even there, but someone photoed the certificate and messaged it to her.) I went back up the elevator and got the certificate filled out better. (But aren't passport numbers always written with country name? No "USA" for me.) Since there was a huge amount of clerical bother and many minutes spent pushing on computer buttons in the process; and since this was the special Pfizer from U.S.A. with many foreigners getting jabbed, I was rather astounded that the 1 or 2 clerks in charge of giving out the certificates at the end of the process didn't even know what they were doing.
And the "certificate" I got is NOT the "vaccine passport" I would need to get on an airplane. Maybe I can go to the airport several hours early and get my certificate converted into the necessary, but I'll worry about that if/when I want to leave the Kingdom.
news.yahoo.com
This woman is dumber than a mudflap.