Anutin shoots down social media rumour on Pfizer vaccine
Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul flatly denied a rumour on social media that American pharmaceutical company Pfizer had proposed to sell 13 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine to Thailand four times but this was rejected by the government.
“This rumour is not true,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
“The 13 million doses is the number Pfizer presented to their head office in preparing sales proposal documents to be submitted to the Thai government. This number came from the government’s plan to buy the Covid-19 vaccines under a bilateral agreement for 10 per cent of the population, or two doses each for 6.7 million people, equal to around 13 million doses,” he wrote.
“The rumour went on to say that Pfizer offered an advancement on payment to Thailand, which is also false,” Anutin stated. “Buying the vaccine from Pfizer still requires a deposit as per the contract, and there will be no delivery of any vaccines before payment,” he wrote.
“It is also not true that Pfizer had proposed the sale to the government four times,” Anutin said. “Pfizer has contacted us periodically to present their research findings and usage reports in other countries, and the government has never rejected a meeting with their representatives. The latest meeting was on April 22, in which a purchase contract was being drafted,” he said.
“Please refrain from sharing false information on the Internet, which might cause public misunderstanding and affect the work of the Public Health Ministry,” Anutin added.
