Vaccines - Covid 19

[Ratsima]

When I first used the Mor Prom app to get a vaccination appointment I used my Thai ID number, the one I use to pay taxes and which is on my Thai ID card. The appointment I made at Thepparat Hospital in Korat (which was summarily cancelled by them with no notice to me) was made with this ID via the Mor Prom app.

When I went to Cha Am hospital to register, I gave them my Thai ID, but they handed it back and asked for my passport, which I gave them. When we later looked at the appointment slip we found that they had created a brand new ID number for me. (I'll call that the "pseudo ID".) The appointment later appeared on the Mor Prom app using the pseudo ID.

I thought: OK, since it's so hard to get an appointment, maybe having two IDs is not such a bad thing.

When I went to Phyathai 2 the other day to get vaccinated I handed them my Thai ID, but they rejected that and insisted on my passport. A short while later when they handed me the health questionnaire to complete I noticed that it used the pseudo ID instead of my real ID. My wife pointed this out to them but they said (wrongly) that the pseudo ID is not an ID but is the Phayathai hospital number. OK.

Now my recent vaccination at Phyathai is recorded under my pseudo ID instead of my real ID.

So, is that going to cause me problems in the future? I can see myself trying to get a travel passport only to be told that my "official" Mor Prom record shows no vaccinations at all.

And, so it goes.

[joelle]

When I first used the Mor Prom app to get a vaccination appointment I used my Thai ID number, the one I use to pay taxes and which is on my Thai ID card. The appointment I made at Thepparat Hospital in Korat (which was summarily cancelled by them with no notice to me) was made with this ID via the Mor Prom app.

When I went to Cha Am hospital to register, I gave them my Thai ID, but they handed it back and asked for my passport, which I gave them. When we later looked at the appointment slip we found that they had created a brand new ID number for me. (I'll call that the "pseudo ID".) The appointment later appeared on the Mor Prom app using the pseudo ID.

I thought: OK, since it's so hard to get an appointment, maybe having two IDs is not such a bad thing.

When I went to Phyathai 2 the other day to get vaccinated I handed them my Thai ID, but they rejected that and insisted on my passport. A short while later when they handed me the health questionnaire to complete I noticed that it used the pseudo ID instead of my real ID. My wife pointed this out to them but they said (wrongly) that the pseudo ID is not an ID but is the Phayathai hospital number. OK.

Now my recent vaccination at Phyathai is recorded under my pseudo ID instead of my real ID.

So, is that going to cause me problems in the future? I can see myself trying to get a travel passport only to be told that my "official" Mor Prom record shows no vaccinations at all.

And, so it goes.

You must have received a vaccination card with a QR code and your next appointment?

[handdrummer]

Thailand to join COVAX, acknowledging low vaccine supply

That's the headline on Yahoo news. I tried to copy and paste the article but that's all that pasted.

[Ratsima]

You must have received a vaccination card with a QR code and your next appointment?

Yes, I have that, but all my records are going to be under the pseudo ID rather than my real ID. That's what concerns me.

[Dannie Boy]

I read that Sakhon Nakhon is also asking for Moderna for their top officials.

And, so, the jockeying begins.

Whereas the plebs can’t even get Sinovac!!

[sateeb]

Thailand to join COVAX, acknowledging low vaccine supply

That's the headline on Yahoo news. I tried to copy and paste the article but that's all that pasted.

The head of Thailand’s National Vaccine Institute apologized Wednesday for the country's slow and inadequate rollout of coronavirus vaccines, promising it will join the U.N.-backed COVAX program to receive supplies from its pool of donated vaccines next year.

Thailand is battling a punishing coronavirus surge that is pushing new cases and deaths to record highs nearly every day. There is fear that the numbers will get much worse because the government failed to secure significant vaccine supplies in advance of the onslaught.

The spread of the highly contagious delta variant of the virus has exacerbated the situation, as Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha’s government seeks to buy vaccines to supplement the modest amounts it has on hand of Sinovac and Sinopharm from China and locally produced AstraZeneca

In addition to failing to buy enough vaccine, Prayuth’s government has come under severe criticism because some studies show the Chinese vaccines are less effective against the delta variant than those produced by Pfizer and Moderna.

“I apologize to the people that the National Vaccine Institute has not managed to procure a sufficient amount of vaccines appropriate for the situation, although we have tried our best,” vaccine institute director Nakorn Premsri said at a news conference. “The mutations (of the virus) were something that could not be predicted, which have caused a more rapid spread than last year. The vaccine procurement effort did not match the current situation.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/thai ... 88088.html

[Dannie Boy]

You must have received a vaccination card with a QR code and your next appointment?

Yes, I have that, but all my records are going to be under the pseudo ID rather than my real ID. That's what concerns me.

And just to compound matters, when I registered at Cha Am Hospital I offered them my passport and Thai ID card, they readily took the ID card.

[Ratsima]

And just to compound matters, when I registered at Cha Am Hospital I offered them my passport and Thai ID card, they readily took the ID card.

Amazing Thailand. Never ceases to astound.

[LolaBeltran]

Update on our covid experience from the bang Sue center as we wait for 30 minutes after receiving our AZ shots. Very impressed!! 30 min total through registration, BP check etc. Helpful people all the way. Over 75 waiting lines nonexistent. Easy to social distance. No wait outside. We arrived at 11:00 am. All in all a stress free, well coordinated experience. Even my companion aged under 50 was able to get jabbed.

[GroveHillWanderer]

Well, this isn't encouraging.
uk scientists back covid boosters as study finds post jab falls in antibodies

The thing to bear in mind is that, as the article alludes to, antibody levels will always fall, once the immediate after-effects of a vaccination are over. This is how the immune system works. Antibodies are what the body's immune system produces when it needs to fight off the immediate danger of an invading pathogen - or in the case of a vaccine, what the body has been 'fooled' into thinking is a foreign pathogen.

This antibody production cannot be sustained - in fact it would be positively dangerous if it did. Antibodies are sticky and dense in nature, as compared to other components found in the circulatory system. If the immune system kept on producing antibodies to every pathogen it had ever encountered, the blood would turn into a kind of thick sludge and would not be able to circulate properly. As the article linked to below states:

In rare cases, your body may begin to produce too [many antibodies]. When this happens, your blood will become thicker. This is known as hyperviscosity, and it makes it difficult for all of your organs and tissues to function properly.

https://www.healthline.com/health/macro ... aldenstrom

So after a while, antibody production always dimnishes and eventually, it stops almost entirely. This is normal, expected and necessary.

The immune system's line of defence then switches to B & T cells known as 'memory cells' which are also produced in a reaction to the perceived foreign invader. After the initial infection (or vaccine response) these cells go into a quiescent state, while retaining the ability to quickly produce new antibodies as and when needed for this specific disease in future.

So long as the vaccines have produced good levels of immune memory cells (and studies indicate that they do) then a dropping off in antibody levels is not necessarily anything to get too worried about.

[Dannie Boy]

Another enlightening contribution GHW

[Dannie Boy]

On the subject of vaccines and antibodies, I just picked this up on the BBC website about the Pfizer vaccine.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-57929953

[HHTel]

They identify 8 weeks as the 'sweet spot', mainly because it gets more people vaccinated quicker. The advice is the second shot should not be less than 8 weeks but can be left to 12 weeks which gives a longer protection.
It's really a balancing act to vaccinate more people without compromising the protection.

[hhinner]

They identify 8 weeks as the 'sweet spot', mainly because it gets more people vaccinated quicker. The advice is the second shot should not be less than 8 weeks but can be left to 12 weeks which gives a longer protection.
It's really a balancing act to vaccinate more people without compromising the protection.

This is OK when you know that the second shots will be available at the right time. I wonder if that's a valid assumption in this country.

[hhinner]

Another enlightening contribution GHW

Agreed