What do Teletubbies, Sinovac vaccine, and the truth have in common?

Last week, Chulalongkorn University’s Professor Doctor Thira Woratanarat slammed Thailand’s COVID-19 vaccine strategy, calling it “a Teletubby measure, ineffective, and the people cannot rely on it.”

Specifically, he said China’s Sinovac vaccine is “only 2% effective.”

Following the Saturday, 10 April meeting at the Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), the Center concluded that Doctor Thira must be warned.

CCSA issued a statement calling Doctor Thira’s words “untrue,” urging Chulalongkorn University to “have a talk” with the doctor, and calling for the doctor to be more “constructive” and “collaborate” with the government to handle the COVID-19 crisis.

Chulalongkorn’s Faculty of Medicine issued a statement saying that Doctor Thira’s words are his own and are not supported or condoned by the Faculty.

Notice that no one cited medical evidence or scientific fact to disprove Doctor Thira’s claim about the vaccine.

The truth is usually somewhere in between.

By Sunday 11 April, news broke around the world about the “ineffectiveness” of China’s vaccine.

Reuters reported, “Chinese vaccines ‘don’t have very high protection rates,’ said the director of the China Centers for Disease Control, Gao Fu, at a conference Saturday in the southwestern city of Chengdu.”

According to Reuters, Gao said, “It’s now under formal consideration whether we should use different vaccines from different technical lines for the immunization process.”

As well, Reuters stated, “The effectiveness rate of a coronavirus vaccine from Sinovac, a Chinese developer, at preventing symptomatic infections has been found to be as low as 50.4% by researchers in Brazil. By comparison, the vaccine made by Pfizer has been found to be 97% effective.”

Conclusion: We are getting a less effective vaccine, even if the effectiveness is more than 2%.

On Sunday, Thailand discovered 967 new cases, bringing the total to 32,625. The Thai FDA has approved other vaccines, such as Johnson & Johnson, and the government has greenlighted private hospitals to purchase the vaccines. But none are available as yet.