COVID-19: Leaked Thai Health Ministry memo fuels skepticism against Sinovac vaccines

A leaked health ministry memo has triggered calls in Thailand for medical staff inoculated using Sinovac BioNTech to be given a third, booster shot of an mRNA based vaccine. The document, which was published by local media and shared widely on social platforms, included a comment from an unnamed official who recommended authorities to refrain from giving a booster shot to frontline workers as it would be "admitting that the Sinovac vaccine is not effective". The Health Ministry confirmed that it was confirmed to be authentic by the country’s Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul.

But later, senior health official Opas Karnkawinpong denied the authenticity of the memo asserting that 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 vaccine were effective and "deliver results beyond the standard". However, till then the calls for a third shot has already gained momentum in the country.

#GivePfizertomedicalpersonnel was trending on Thai twitter on Monday. The stance was reaffirmed by health experts in the country, including a top medical council official, which called for Pfizer-BioNTech booster shots to frontline medical workers. Since the OCIVD outbreak, the caseload of COVID has risen to 289,233, with over 2,276 deaths and 223,437 recoveries. On July 5, it reported 6,166 new cases and 2,276 fatalities. 

The Southeast Asian country began vaccination frontline workers in February and later started mass vaccination in June by administering locally-made Oxford-AstraZeneca and imported Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines. So far, Thailand has successfully administered at least 10,227,183 doses of COVID vaccines. Assuming every person needs 2 doses, that’s enough to have vaccinated about 7.3 per cent of the country’s population.

Sinovac Skepticism 

The Chinese developed jabs earlier triggered scepticism after over 350 health workers in Indonesia tested COVID positive even after being inoculated using Sinovac shots. Later, citing the same to New York Times, Singapore’s Director of Medical services Kenneth Mak asserted that he was worried about reports of people getting sick after getting inoculated with Sinovac. Singapore, although approved the use of Sinovac, officials have still shown scepticism. 

Image: AP