Correcting the pandemic policy tack
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Thitinan Pongsudhirak
A PROFESSOR AT CHULALONGKORN UNIVERSITY
published : 30 Jul 2021 at 04:00
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A migrant worker is injected with the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine at Simummuang Market in Rangsit. The Chulabhorn Royal Academy has provided 4,000 doses of the vaccine to inoculate migrant workers at the market after about 1,700 people became infected there. (Photo: Apichit Jinakul)
That Thailand's coronavirus pandemic has been grossly mismanaged is self-evident. Infection rates have soared to new highs this month while vaccine availability and access remain shoddy and abysmal. The overstretched healthcare system is creaking under growing demand, while several scenes so far of Covid-afflicted people being left to die on the streets have shaken the country's collective morale and elicited soul-searching questions about how Thailand has managed to reach this dire juncture.