Coronavirus: in Thailand, vaccine inequality fears grow as private hospitals eye profits

Boon Vanasin, chairman of Thai hospital chain Thonburi Healthcare Group, has been talking to Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers for several months now to try to procure as many doses as possible.

The group, which runs eight hospitals in the country, plans to sell vaccinations to private clients at a proposed price of 2,000 baht (US$65) per jab. Boon has already received some advance orders from tourism and manufacturing businesses.

The doses from Chinese manufacturer Sinovac generally cost the most compared with other vaccines, Boon said, due to its inactivated vaccine technology - or the use of live viruses to stimulate antibodies.

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The government, which began its vaccination drive last month with Sinovac shots, aims to immunise 33 million Thais this year, almost half the country's population.

As of March 9, some 33,000 people from 13 of the country's 77 provinces have received the shots, which are free for Thai citizens. Health authorities on Friday said they would delay the roll-out of AstraZeneca shots after several European countries suspended their programmes over blood clot fears. The Johnson & Johnson and Bharat Biotech vaccines are pending approval.

But for many businesses - especially those in the tourism sector, Thailand's economic backbone - the government should do more.

"Having half of the population vaccinated by year-end is not enough," Boon said. "Some 70-80 per cent of the population need to be vaccinated before then to create herd immunity and confidence [for visitors]. At least 16 million doses of vaccines are in high demand in around 20 tourism provinces of Thailand."

Thailand's Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul receives a Sinovac Covid-19 shot on February 28, 2021. Photo: Handout via Xinhua alt=Thailand's Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul receives a Sinovac Covid-19 shot on February 28, 2021. Photo: Handout via Xinhua

Wichit Prakobkosol, president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents, said many tourism businesses were willing to pay for Covid-19 jabs because it was a better option than "the free, but delayed doses from the government".

While Thailand said it would inoculate healthcare workers and those living areas hardest hit by the virus first, tourism minister Pipat Ratchakitprakarn said up to 100,000 doses had been reserved for hospitality workers in provinces popular with foreign tourists, including Chiang Mai and Phuket.

Tourism makes up about 11 per cent of Thailand's economy. Visitor numbers last year plunged 83 per cent, with 6.7 million foreign arrivals compared with a record 39.9 million in 2019, prompting widespread job losses and business closures while contributing to the nation's deepest economic contraction in over two decades.

"Thai tourism needs to restart by July at the soonest," Wichit said. "The government should announce a clear tourism policy by April so that hotels and airlines can prepare to reopen and workers can be rehired after they left to find work elsewhere."

Boon's plan to sell vaccinations to private clients comes as health minister Anutin Charnvirakul this week said private hospitals would be allowed to import coronavirus vaccines and sell them directly to Thai and expat residents, as well as businesses eager to vaccinate their employees.

The announcement signalled a shift in the government's stance toward vaccine distribution by private hospitals, after a Bangkok hospital was in December told to stop advertising vaccinations online for a total cost of US$325.

It also makes Thailand the latest country in Southeast Asia to allow private-sector purchases of a public good that has been largely regulated by governments worldwide.

In Asean member states where the distribution of vaccines has been sluggish, private firms have taken matters into their own hands.

In the Philippines, such firms can buy vaccines for employees, while Indonesian private businesses can buy state-procured doses from Sinopharm and Moderna to inoculate their staff. Malaysia said it would consider involving the private sector in distributing free vaccines alongside the government's roll-out.

But the move to prioritise the tourism industry for vaccinations has sparked a backlash.

"It's not fair," said Matcha Phorn-in, a human-rights activist in Chiang Mai, who presented a petition to parliament last year on the uneven impact of the pandemic on ethnic minorities who do not receive government aid. "Instead of prioritising the most vulnerable populations first, the roll-out is leaving behind marginalised communities like migrant workers and stateless people.

Rights groups have also criticised a proposal by local businesses in Phuket to vaccinate a majority of the province's adult population - about 300,000 people - before October 1, in time for the main tourist season, so that inoculated foreign visitors could holiday without quarantine.

A man receives a Covid-19 vaccine shot from China's Sinovac in Bangkok. Photo: Xinhua alt=A man receives a Covid-19 vaccine shot from China's Sinovac in Bangkok. Photo: Xinhua

Vachira Phuket Hospital Director Chalermpong Sukontapol, who is in charge of distributing the Sinovac doses allocated by the government, said about 2,000 medical workers would receive the shots this month, and 24,000 tourism workers would be vaccinated by May.

Economic think tank Kasikorn Research Center this week said if 220,000 doses of vaccines were administered in 20 provinces that were tourist destinations before October, Thailand could expect to see about 2 million tourists this year.

Kiat Ruxrungtham, director of the Centre of Excellence in Vaccine Research and Development at Chulalongkorn University, said once private hospitals launched their distribution campaign, the pricing discrepancies would create inequality.

He said it was the government's responsibility to prioritise which groups had to be vaccinated first, and that it had to work out distribution plans with the private hospitals. "If the private hospitals set a high price for a particular vaccine, it might create an impression that what they sell is superior to what the government provides for free," he said.

"The vaccine will be sold to the government as a priority," he said, adding the human trial phase would begin in May.

Aat Pisanwanich, an associate professor of economics at the Thai Chamber of Commerce University, said the commercial pricing of vaccines in Thailand would worsen accessibility due to "the economic hardship Thais are experiencing. The government itself cannot create accessibility to vaccines either, because the vaccination does not cover enough people soon enough".

Boon from Thonburi Healthcare Group said he was hopeful there would be more vaccines available in the market later this year "when most of Europe and the US will be vaccinated".

If that happened, he said, he would review his proposed price of 2,000 baht for each vaccine dose.

Additional reporting by Reuters

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

Copyright (c) 2021. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.