Vaccine survey ... simply an FYI

[Daleinpattaya]

Yesterday I received an unsolicited email requesting that I answer a few questions about my choice of vaccine (J&J)... would I want to be informed when it was possible to register for a date (yes) ... came from a hospital in BKK named MedPark, which I had never heard of. This morning I received this emailed response:

Dear Khun Dale

Because you have indicated in the Covid-19 Vaccine Interest Survey that you wanted to be notified whenever the vaccine is available at MedPark, we wanted you to be the first to know that MedPark's Covid-19 Vaccine, allocated by the Thai government for all Thais aged 18 and above, is now available for registration.

If you are a Thai citizen who is 18 years old or above, you can register and book your time slot using the link Medpark.hospital/Covid19VaccinePriority

Please note that you can reschedule or cancel anytime by simply notifying us through this email or through our omni-channel contact center.

Unfortunately, the vaccine is not yet available for expats and foreigners at this time.

We will definitely keep you posted if there are any new options of vaccines available.

Thank you for trusting MedPark Hospital and please stay safe .


MedPark Team

[Gaybutton]

a hospital in BKK named MedPark

https://www.medparkhospital.com/en

I had a look at their registration form for the vaccine. While the vaccine itself, whichever one it will be, is supposed to be free for both Thais and farang, apparently this hospital is charging additional fees. Read the fine print - all of it. Whether that will be some sort of standard for most hospitals remains to be seen.

See: https://www.medparkhospital.com/en/page ... gistration

For some strange reason I am reminded of the time, many many years ago, when my father answered the telephone and from his end of the conversation it was obvious he had received a cold-call sales pitch. He listened politely and then said, "I can't afford a free vacation" and hung up on the salesman. I wonder what might have triggered off that memory . . .

[@DM]

I expect that the government said that the vaccine would be free for people who got the vaccine through the government program. People who want to jump the queue or get the vaccine through a private hospital can do so (once it's available. At this point the Thai government is not subsidizing the purchase by the private hospitals of vaccines.

Seems like the reasonable answer.

[Gaybutton]

I expect that the government said that the vaccine would be free for people who got the vaccine through the government program.

It all still seems unclear to me. While the vaccine itself may be free, based on that fine print, apparently the peripheral hospital fees are not. Again, we don't even know which vaccine it will be, let alone the additional fees. Actually we don't even know for sure whether a hospital will be the place to get the free vaccine.

Why is it that just about everything important that takes place involving farang, whether it's immigration issues, bar issues, now vaccine issues, or whatever, it is almost always preceded by all kinds of confusion? And usually when we start getting answers, those answers, instead of making things clear, only create even more confusion.