Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the notion of the US Embassy in Thailand administering vaccines presumably to American expats or Americans here in Thailand.

This came about as a result of a question I got or I should say a comment I got on our channel. Quoting directly: "Hello, a question not related to this video. Is there a chance that the US Embassy in Bangkok facilitated purchase of COVID-19 vaccine for US Expats?" 

Let's define who we are talking about here. Folks that are part of the mission, part of the State Department's mission, the US Mission to Thailand, folks that are in the embassy that work there, Consular Officers, people on official passports and diplomatic documents for being in Thailand, I don't know. I can't answer that. I can only speculate generally but you asked for a video on this and I think I am probably the best to provide as much clarification as I can. I don't know exactly what they would be doing. I suspect they are government, they are going to be dealing with their own protocols but they are part of the mission to Thailand. They are not just expats, folks that live abroad, folks that live in Thailand, have come to live Thailand and plan to spend a relatively long or short period of time, just American Nationals in Thailand. That is not the same thing as a member of the mission. Those folks may ultimately, the State Department may ultimately vaccinate those folks. I don't know. It remains to be seen. 

But do I think that they will buy up a bunch of vaccines and hand them out to American Expats? I find that highly unlikely. If the American Embassy does a tweet or something and contradicts me on this, I am happy to eat crow. I will do another video and basically provide an update on that. Remember the Embassy’s function is, I shouldn't say simple but it is pretty straightforward. It doesn't have anything to do with necessarily, I shouldn't say not taking care of Americans in Thailand, in many ways they do. Things like passports, American Citizen Services, deceased Americans they do a lot. That said, you live in Thailand, you have chosen to live in Thailand. If you are not working for the US Government or in connection with the mission here then they don't really have anything to do with you so I don't see any reason why they would provide that service. If you are living in Thailand, for example someone like me, I have never really expected the Embassy to provide a service like that. 

Now that said, I could be wrong and in the future maybe they will do that but I think it is pretty unlikely. The US Embassy tends to stick to dealing with diplomatic communications between the United States and Thailand and then Consular functions associated with visas to the United States as well as possibly American Citizen Services here in Bangkok and greater Thailand.