OPINION

Why the secrecy?

Re: "Three months on, govt inks Pfizer deal," (BP, July 21).

"The government has signed a supply agreement for 20 million doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine ... the delivery is expected in the fourth quarter of this year." We've heard this before. Public Health Minister Anutin also "expected" AstraZeneca to grant Thailand more than its contracted supply so the government could meet its jab target. I don't trust what the government expects any more. What is the specified delivery date in the contract?

Furthermore, "The value of the deal was not disclosed." Why the big mystery? The value should be public knowledge. After all, the article references the US embassy website as saying the 1.5 million doses of donated Pfizer vaccine are worth US$30 million (about 984 million baht). That works out to 656 baht per dose -- or 1.312 billion baht for the 20 million doses purchased.

But perhaps it's the cost of the deal that the government does not wish to disclose -- since it is often rumoured that ministerial "leakage" can cause cost and value to diverge.

The government did have a plan in the first place -- to vaccinate frontline health workers first, then the 60-plus age group.

But what happens then? I see so many people of different age groups (mind you, not the 60-plus age group) have already had the jab.

When asked how they got the jab first, they said it is because of connections to this and that person or groups.

So in the end it is all about connections. You will get what you need or want because of connections.

Opening up, locking down and standing still! I read the Bangkok Post in amazement at how this so-called government is managing the Covid pandemic, and the new strains that are developing and will continue to do so, potentially rendering the vaccines available less and less effective.

The headlines in the local media announce problems caused by the Delta virus, in particular, increasingly severe lockdowns in many areas of the country (the correct move, even if belated); but then celebrate the increasing number of areas where overseas tourists are to be allowed in (the Phuket "sandbox" wheeze!)

In other areas, there seems to be little information about what the situation is -- a sort of Covid response inertia. And of course there are explanations of vaccine exports (what?) and the increasing number of infections and (sadly, and certainly avoidable) deaths of Thai men and women, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers -- our fellow citizens, even though I am an expatriate supporting a Thai wife and family.

In stark contrast there is virtually no news about an extensive vaccination programme -- effectively nothing at all -- diddly squat! What is the policy regarding access, ranking and preference according to age and medical needs, as opposed to influence and money, and the venues and number, or speed, of vaccination?

Do people in government circles have any clue?

As Thailand dithers, and the prime minster "fiddles", more people will die and suffer the debilitating effects of Covid and the virus will mutate into new forms, rendering government action increasingly ineffective and leaving us all lethally vulnerable.

Yes, some people will recover and gain immunity, but even that is likely to become ineffective as the virus mutates, as it has done at quite a speed already. It acts faster than we can, and so there can be no room for the stunning complacency and contradictions that currently inhabit Thailand's government circles.

We need action now!