The internal memo, which included various opinions, was reported by
local media and shared widely on social media. It was confirmed by
Thai Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul as being authentic.
It included a comment from an unnamed official who recommended
authorities do not give a booster shot of Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine
to frontline health workers, because such a move would be "admitting
that the Sinovac vaccine is not effective".
Thailand has administered Sinovac's inactivated virus vaccine to
most health workers and its real-world study showed two doses were
95% effective in reducing mortality and severe symptoms. The study
showed it was 71% to 91% effective in stopping infection with the
Alpha variant.
Sinovac in China did not immediately respond to a request for
comment on the vaccine's efficacy.
The comment in the leaked document prompted calls from prominent
Thai health experts, including a top medical council official, to
give health workers a Pfizer-BioNTech booster shot.
The hashtag "Give Pfizer to medical personnel" was trending on Thai
Twitter with more than 624,000 tweets on Monday.
Senior health official Opas Karnkawinpong told reporters the
document was not real, however, contradicting health minister
Anutin.
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Anutin said the comment on the
booster shot was "just an opinion" and there was
an expert panel to set vaccine policy.
He said two doses of Sinovac's vaccine were effective and "deliver
results beyond the standard".
Thai experts have urged the government to use various types of
coronavirus vaccine to better protect the population.
It is relying mainly on AstraZeneca's locally manufactured viral
vector vaccine, while authorities say Moderna's mRNA vaccine will
also be available.
Thailand has procured 20 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech
vaccine for future delivery and will this month receive 1.5 million
doses donated by the United States.
World Health Organization experts found the Sinovac vaccine was
efficacious in preventing COVID-19 in adults under 60, but some
quality data on the risk of serious adverse effects was lacking.
(Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um, Chayut Setboonsarng and Panarat
Thepgumpanat; Editing by Martin Petty)
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