OPINION

Mixed messages

Re: "Foreigners urged to get Covid jabs", (BP, May 31).

I have been a subscriber to the Bangkok Post for many years. I would now urge your reporters to read the many accounts on social media of foreigners being unable to register for a vaccination in Bangkok which conform to my own experience and compare them to your own enthusiastic reports.

For example, your report urged foreigners to get vaccinated, either by registering at one of the two vaccination centres in Bangkok, Vimut hospital and the Bangrak Vaccination and Health Centre, or at the hospital which holds their health records. Urged on by your report, I immediately tried to register, but I was unable to register at any of the three options you named.

To add insult to injury, you then reported "Foreigners get jab next week" (BP, June 3) saying that foreigners can get the jab on the same day as Thais and that emphasis would be given to the elderly and those with underlying diseases.

However, the website you mentioned said the site was only for embassy staff not the general population.

While I am sure that most foreigners would be happy to hear that their embassy staff are being taken care of, what about the rest us who are still on waiting lists?

After only a few minutes on social media, your reporters may learn that Thais living in the UK or other countries have been vaccinated at the same time as the local population depending on vulnerability due to age or health reasons.

Some posters have expressed hope that Thailand may indeed reciprocate with a similar system, but as a good friend told me, we chose to live in Thailand, so we should accept the Thai way of doing things.

I also urge the Bangkok Post to be more responsible in your reporting of this issue which is of vital importance to many of your readers.

Re: "Foreigners get jab next week", (BP, June 3)

I am sure that many of your readers, like myself, breathed a sigh of relief at the government's announcements about the vaccine being delivered on time and that farang will be vaccinated on the same day as Thais.

Since I tick virtually all of the high-risk Covid-19 boxes, I diligently made sure that as soon as the Mor Prom website was opened, I secured a vaccination appointment for 8 am on June 7, the first day of the programme.

I have just received a phone call cancelling my appointment because of a lack of vaccines and a requirement to give priority to Thais.

Not surprisingly, there appears to be a chasm between the back-patting soundbites and reality.

Re:"Key budget role for Arkhom", (BP, June 5).

So our Budget Scrutiny Committee has been populated -- 72 members; six vice-chairman; seven secretaries, and no less than nine spokesmen!

Does anyone seriously expect anything useful to come from such a bloated body of politicians?

With nine spokesmen we can doubtless anticipate a tsunami of contradictory, confused, constantly changing, unreliable, partisan, heavily spun "information" releases so characteristic of this government.