Viral vaccine certificate showing 3 shots plus Pfizer ‘belongs to doctor travelling abroad’
A vaccine certificate recording four jabs – the last one with Pfizer – belongs to a Ramathibodi Hospital doctor who is preparing to study abroad, the Department of Disease Control (DDC) said.
Copies of the certificate are being widely shared on social media along with questions as to why Pfizer vaccine, which is in short supply in Thailand, was administered to someone who had already received three shots.
“The [Ramathibodi Hospital] doctor had received two jabs of Sinovac vaccine, and then an AstraZeneca jab as a booster,” said DDC director-general Dr Opas Karnkawinpong on Thursday.
Opas explained the doctor was travelling to a country that has yet to approve Sinovac vaccine, so he needed the Pfizer shot to satisfy the country’s requirement of two doses of approved vaccine.
Ramathibodi Hospital director Dr Surasak Lela-Udomlipi added that the DDC approved the Pfizer shots after the hospital submitted a list of doctors who will travel overseas for study.
“Two doctors will be travel abroad in September, so they will get the shots this month,” he said, adding that countries that have not approved Sinovac do not accept one shot of AstraZeneca as full vaccination.