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Vaccine Policy Failure: Explaining Thailand’s Unsuccessful Containment of COVID-19 in the Third Wave

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2022

Piya Pangsapa
Piya Pangsapa*
Affiliation:
School of Global Studies, Thammasat University, Thailand
*
E-mail: piyasuda@sgs.tu.ac.th
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Abstract

In January 2020, Thailand became the first country outside of China to report a coronavirus infection. In July 2020, Thailand was the number one ranked country (out of 184 countries) for its effective handling of COVID-19. In December 2020, the country was hit by a second wave and the government was once again able to contain the new outbreak. In late March 2021, however, a third wave broke out and as of 1 April 2021, Thailand had seen 2,022,117 new cases and a death toll during the third wave of 20,211. The Thai government has not only been unable to contain the virus this time around, but has also failed in its procurement, allocation, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines for its 70 million people. This article will look at the government’s mismanagement of the pandemic in the third wave and how the government is dealing with the current crisis.

Keywords

ThailandCOVID-19 outbreakthird wavepandemic crisisCOVID-19 vaccinationvaccine shortage
Type
Research Article
Information
Asian Journal of Law and Society , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , February 2023 , pp. 11 - 27
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Asian Journal of Law and Society

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