Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are talking about "All people must vaccinate in Pattaya?" and that is a question. I am not making this to be sensational. I was actually reading in the Bangkok Post print edition, Wednesday, February 24th 2021. The article is titled: Pattaya Bids for "Area Quarantine". In the article they are quoting City Mayor Sonthaya Khunpluem. Quoting directly from the latter part of this article, and I am going to go ahead and have our producer, I don't usually do this, but put this print edition part up on screen. I want people to actually see this because this confused me.  I am not asking this question in this video rhetorically, okay? So quoting directly: "With the first shipment of vaccines arriving in Thailand from China this week, Chon Buri would be among the first provinces to get it Mr. Sonthaya said." Now here is where the rubber hits the road here. "He wanted all people, entrepreneurs and workers in the tourism sector, to be vaccinated regardless of whether they are local residents or from outside the province so that Pattaya City could be designated for "area quarantine". I want to repeat this again. We are going to put this on screen. "He wanted all people, entrepreneurs and workers in the tourism sector,” so that is an interrupter clause, “he wanted all people, entrepreneurs and workers in the tourism sector to be vaccinated,” you know and then "to be vaccinated, regardless of whether they are local residents or from outside the province, so that Pattaya City could be designated for "area quarantine".

With all those interrupters and these sub clauses, yeah, I know I am going to get this in the comments. Yes I am being a lawyer, I am being super semantic with a newspaper article; I get that. But this is more from the standpoint of trying to analyze what is being said on the record by policy makers so that we can try and get an idea where things are going with this. Now as a practical matter is it going to be possible to vaccinate all people in Pattaya? Probably not, for a variety of different reasons. There are certainly legal implications to that, human rights implications to trying to do that and then on top of it, it is like herding cats. Just as a logistical matter you are going to have a hard time doing that. So I think on one level this is kind of a politician talking off the cuff of what they like but I thought it was interesting that you know "wanted all people" because they are trying for this "area quarantine" designation. 

How exactly this plays out remains to be seen. I suspect NO we are not going to see a situation where just everybody, part of the other reason is there is a shortage of vaccines right now. It is not the most plentiful product out there and in fact there is only a limited number that have come in thus far. I wanted to go ahead and make this video because I did think it was worth noting. I was reading through that article and there has been a lot going on. The last few days in Bangkok and greater Thailand in my opinion from a news stand point, it has been rather jam-packed. I thought it was noteworthy to bring that up and again I know I am being a little bit semantic in pointing out some really fine points within a newspaper article. It is not like analysis of the statue, they are different things but I am just trying to get an idea of where things are going with this. It is definitely clear Pattaya takes trying to get tourism back very seriously and it looks like if they can have wide, broad acceptance of vaccinations or a broad program of vaccination that is going to help that or at least they think it will. So again, where exactly this plays out remains to be seen. We will certainly keep you updated as things progress.