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A great hubbub is underway regarding the shortage of vaccines. Yet no one can be held responsible. Isn’t that a puzzling mystery?
The blame game would have done a great comedic act if it hadn’t involved the lives and deaths of people.
The vaccine shortage and the government saga is always right, that’s how it is. The Prime Minister gave the order. The Minister of Public Health executed him. The Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) held meetings and disseminated daily updates. Relevant agencies and provincial authorities also did what they were told to do. Everything looks flawless except the vaccines. Where are the vaccines?
Since it seems no one wants to answer the question, the mystery has escalated with authorities issuing statements that contradict each other or seem to make no sense.
All the while, no one, not even the Prime Minister, cared to tell us the whole truth about vaccine procurement, how the rollout was planned, and why it got so complicated.
No one, not even the Prime Minister who heads virtually all of the Covid-19 working groups and who also enjoys considerable power under the emergency decree, stood up and said: ‘I’m dealing with that. The responsibility ends here. “
Over the weekend, dozens of hospitals and vaccination centers sent out notices informing people who had registered to receive Covid-19 vaccines at their premises of indefinite delays because they had not received enough vaccines.
It was only a few days after the grandiose launch of mass inoculation last week, the PM announcing that “history was made” with over 300,000 doses administered in a single day! Thailand had started to fight back against Covid-19, it was said.
The response was short. The long saga of extraordinary confusion and the lack of political coherence and accountability that have become a familiar feature since Covid-19 became part of our lives quickly returned. The fact that those who experienced delays this time included people over the age of 60 and those with underlying illnesses that authorities had classified as priority groups to receive the vaccine added to the confusion and heightened resentment. .
As frustration grew from both the despised public and hospitals that were forced to answer their questions, Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said the postponements had nothing to do with his wallet. The Ministry of Public Health distributed the vaccines to all provinces, including Bangkok, according to quotas assigned by the CCSA.
He said each province is responsible for allocating vaccines to hospitals and vaccination stations under their jurisdiction. The Ministry of Public Health cannot be blamed as it was not he who developed the vaccination plan, its distribution and its implementation, said Anutin.
On the same day, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) issued a statement saying the delays were not its fault either. He said he received 500,000 doses out of a million under his June quota.
The town hall, however, is responsible for many groups, including people who signed up through the Mor Prom app, those living in outbreak areas and new clusters, the elderly as well as the general public.
The 500,000 doses are apparently not enough because the number of people who signed up for vaccines in June through the Mor Prom app already stands at 450,000.
The BMA has no control over the Mor Prom app, which is managed by the Ministry of Public Health. The BMA has tried to distribute the available vaccines to each group under its responsibility. But apparently supplies were not sufficient to meet demand.
In short, the BMA was much like the Ministry of Public Health insisting that it was only following orders. So who is responsible for the vaccine shortage?
The government that continues to assure the public that it got enough vaccines for everyone but forgot to lock down delivery dates? The CCSA who planned the aggressive deployment of 100 million doses seemingly disregarding the supply chain? The Ministry of Public Health which blindly distributed the vaccines without considering whether they were sufficient for the mission?
Since no one, not even the prime minister who has declared mass immunization a national agenda item, is willing to take responsibility for the problem, the blame game could continue if the shortage continues.
The truth is, if every minister and agency had done the right thing, there wouldn’t have been such a messy shortage and deployment. If the government hadn’t been so complacent and started getting more vaccines and earlier as suggested by many people, it wouldn’t have been caught off guard like this.
But since the government must always be right in this saga, it is sad to say that the twists and turns will only get worse.
Atiya Achakulwisut
Columnist for the Bangkok Post
Atiya Achakulwisut is a columnist for the Bangkok Post.
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