The Chulabhorn Royal Academy (CRA) chief has offered an apology after objecting to a plan to provide frontline healthcare workers with a third booster shot of the Covid-19 vaccine while most of the population have yet to receive any shot.
Secretary-general Nithi Mahanonda said on Wednesday he didn't mean to offend anyone when he asked in a Facebook post if it was "selfish" for anyone to think of getting a third shot while most people in the country have not received any jab so far.
He agreed to take back his previous remark about selfishness and replaced it with a call for healthcare workers to put the public interest above their own interest.
In response to government plans to give frontline healthcare workers the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as a third booster shot, Dr Nithi said it was important to base the approval of the booster shot injection on scientific evidence.
No country has recommended booster shots so far, he noted.
"I'm not saying there has been no medical information pointing to the benefits of a booster shot. But how do we know that getting a booster shot faster will actually be better?" he said.
"Don't choose to listen only to the good side of this. Systematic studies are required [before any decisions on the booster shot injection are made]," he said. Thailand could be the first country to go ahead with a booster shot, but such a step should be planned well ahead and backed by studies, he said.
Hundreds of thousands of doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, donated to Thailand, should be given to the people who have yet to receive any Covid-19 shot, he said.
"That will save more lives and ease the hospital bed shortage situation to some extent,'' he said.
Giving doctors the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as a third shot might also prompt many people to change their minds about getting vaccinated now and choose to wait until more mRNA vaccines are available, which will stall the country's fight to contain the outbreak, he said.