OPINION

Free jabs for all

Re: "Pandemic to be 'far more deadly'", (BP, May 16).

Should Thailand make Covid-19 vaccination mandatory? On the one hand, Covid-19's only claimed 600 lives here so far. Are we making a mountain out of a molehill?

But as the WHO head said: "We're on track for a second year of this pandemic to be far more deadly than the first." After a great start that rightfully won worldwide plaudits, Prayut/Anutin have lost their way. Other countries which had disastrous beginnings, like the US and UK, are now reopening, while we now plan to "start" our rollout to the elderly and those with congenital diseases in June -- and the highly infectious Indian variant has been reported in Thailand.

Our jab registration is far below target, partly because we don't trust the government. Prayut will register only Thais for its initial rounds of jabs -- even though Covid-19 is nationality blind and Thailand's estimated three million foreigners make up a very substantial part of the working class that under-girds our economy, including hotspots at markets, high-society entertainment areas, and slums -- plus business executives, retirees, and spouses whose expertise and funds we sorely need.

All of these factors call into question our ability to quickly reach targeted vaccination levels, let alone herd immunity. Making jabs mandatory, free, and without discrimination by visa status/nationality would significantly and quickly boost safety for all. Also, I suggest that while people have the right to do as they wish with their bodies, they do not have the right to endanger others by so doing. I favour such mandatory, non-discriminatory, free jabs for all.

General parallels

Re: "Myanmar issue a test for the govt", (Editorial, May 16).

When it overthrew both the supreme law of their nation and the popular, democratically elected government of the people, the out-of-control Myanmar military proved itself the enemy of the people that it is has for months now been assaulting both with weapons of war and unjust law made up for that corrupt purpose.

Does the Bangkok Post's editor see not manifest parallels but significant differences between the respective self-serving, self-enriching and self-adulating sacred ones of Myanmar and Thailand? Does the Bangkok Post's editor seriously expect so morally amazing a Thai government as that of Prayut Chan-o-cha, who consistently boasts a convicted heroin dealer elevated to high status in his cabinet, to act according to any moral standard other than that set these past seven years?

Vaccine farce

Re: "Vaccination walk-ins delayed", (BP, May 14).

The situation in Thailand regarding the vaccine (non) rollout is beyond farcical. Apart from daily contradictions on everything from walk-in jabs to when foreigners will be eligible, we now have PM Prayut telling us, according to Bangkok Post reporting, that the AstraZeneca vaccines will arrive in Thailand next month as planned. I thought they were supposed to be manufactured in Thailand under a licensing agreement with Siam Bioscience!

Mr Anutin then assures us that Thailand has a stockpile of Sinovac and that the AstraZeneca vaccines are in "bottles" awaiting the right time for "shipment".

For goodness sake! Do these two even talk to each other? What is the point of having whatever quantity of vaccine doses sitting in containers somewhere? The right time to be getting them into arms is now.

And as matter of general interest, where exactly is the BioScience facility, and has the media been given access to observe its development and presumably by this stage the actual production of vaccine doses?