By Tanakorn Sangiam
BANGKOK (NNT) - The government's decision not to join the COVAX vaccine sharing facility remains under scrutiny in the latest censure debate. The National Vaccine Institute chief today defended the situation once again, saying that Thailand is better off ordering vaccines directly from manufacturers rather than via COVAX.
The National Vaccine Institute (NVI) Director Dr Nakorn Premsri, today explained in parliament that the government's decision not to join the COVAX facility for vaccine sharing, was because of the group's lesser supply and higher prices than dealing directly with manufacturers.
The topic was brought up today in the parliament's censure debate by opposition MPs Sompong Amornvivat and Prasert Chantararuangthong from Pheu Thai Party, who called the decision by the government a vaccine management failure.
Similar to previous explanations given on 10th June, the NVI director said the COVAX facility is mostly beneficial to low-income countries, which can get vaccines in this way at no cost to themselves, however that is not applicable to Thailand where the country must pay for the jabs, plus management fees.
Dr Nakorn said that most of the vaccines Thailand would have received through COVAX would be locally produced AstraZeneca at a price higher than that being asked by the drugmaker itself, thus joining the facility would not be beneficial.
He then pointed out that vaccine deliveries via COVAX have faced delays and supply constraints due to the earlier surge of cases in India, which is a major manufacturing country.
The NVI chief said the 139 countries that joined COVAX have so far received 224 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, which is not a very large quantity. He said Thailand has secured more vaccine supplies directly from manufacturers than it would have with COVAX, and with greater reliability.
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