The side-effects of the Sinopharm vaccine on the Prayut Chan-o-cha government could be deadly.
If the Chulabhorn Royal Academy (CRA) can bring in a million doses of the "alternative vaccine" this month as promised -- a task the government insisted was impossible -- it would expose the administration as being incompetent and a bunch of liars.
But of course, the blow would not be enough to unseat the government which still commands loyalty from the coalition partners and appointed Senate.
The most that the alternative vaccine would do is to push it closer to being a "zombie" government, dead but still walking.
The thing is if the PM and his cabinet had any sense of responsibility, or shame, the multiple failures in controlling the Covid-19 outbreaks would have been reason enough for them to bow out.
But they do not, and likely will not. They would rather hang in there even though more people are dying and getting infected.
After the third wave of the Covid-19 outbreak showed signs it was getting out of control, PM Gen Prayut on April 27 transferred some power from ministers to himself to "to improve the efficiency of handling the Covid-19 situation".
What has happened since then?
A total of 100,105 more infections with fatalities now standing at 1,031, having skyrocketed by 432% after yesterday's new daily record of 5,485 reported cases.
The numbers are depressing. What is more tragic is they represent human lives. Each and every figure is a real human being, some still suffering while others have already gone.
How can the PM and his government justify their continued stay in power with so many casualties under their watch? The number of the sick and dead is not coming down either. It's only increasing with each passing day.
Suan Dusit Poll last week conducted an poll which revealed that about three-quarters of the population feel anxious and hopeless about their lives during the pandemic.
According to the poll, more than 75% of Thai people are stressed out and worried and almost 73% feel hopeless.
It speaks volumes that the PM's Facebook page no longer allows people to make comments. Apparently, the man with sweeping powers is too thin-skinned to hear anything negative.
But without feedback, the PM and his team have become shut off from public sentiment and increasingly out of touch as the situation on the ground has worsened.
If the overall failure is not enough to make the government realise that it is hanging on to power without legitimacy, the chaos surrounding the vaccine procurement and rollout should suffice.
The so-called rollout plan keeps changing. The whole thing seems so jumbled it should make any decent leader hang his head in humiliation.
The arrival of the CRA and its alternative Sinopharm jab on a battle ground dominated by state officials should make people wonder what the point of the government is when it can't seem to fulfil its functions.
More questions will follow. Why did the government insist on buying only Sinovac when Sinopharm, which is endorsed by WHO, is apparently available? Is this simple policy short-sightedness or are there other mechanisms at play?
More importantly, does the government see people's lives, and deaths, as collateral damage?
And when will the government tell the public the truth about its vaccine purchases? Why did they keep reciting the seemingly lame excuses of waiting for it to become a buyer's market or that the best vaccine is the one that is offered to us.
The first argument is simply stupid. The demand for vaccines will only increase and this market will continue to be run by the sellers for a long time. Thailand does not matter in their huge supply chains.
As for the best-vaccine argument, the government should have realised that this is only true in countries where people have choices. What do we have here? Sinovac whose side effects remain under investigation and AstraZeneca which has not been delivered yet.
The lack of choice comes on top of the rollout plans which are messy beyond description. Registration went from the Mor Prom app to walk-in to on-site then to wherever is closest. Priority was first given to the over-60s and people with underlying diseases then shifted to people living in outbreak areas, those whose jobs bring them into contact with members of the public, members of the parliament and finally to celebrities who endorsed the vaccine.
Who can make sense of this mess? And how can we trust the decisions of a government that is dead on its feet?