Re: Update on IETF 103 visa information

[Carsten Bormann <[e-mail]>]

On Sep 13, 2018, at 19:49, IAOC Chair <[e-mail]> wrote:
> 
> official Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand site:
> 
> http://www.mfa.go.th/main/en/services/4908

This links to

http://www.mfa.go.th/main/en/services/4908/15405-General-information.html

which under 11. (5) says:

11. According to the Immigration Act of Thailand B.E. 2522 (1979), foreigners who fall into any of the following categories are prohibited to enter Thailand:

(5)  Having not yet been vaccinated against smallpox; or inoculated, or undergone any other medical treatment for protection against disease; and having refused to have such vaccinations administered by the Immigration Doctor.

Of course, the world was a different place in 1979 (*)

Another data point that shows that the letter of the law is often useless; we need to find out how it is lived.

            .oOo.

Anyway, thank you for getting TCEB to list us!
(The link on the event calendar https://www.businesseventsthailand.com/event-calendar to https://www.businesseventsthailand.com/event-calendars/article/4 points to a different conference though.)

Grüße, Carsten

(*) For those under 50 who may not be aware of this: mandatory smallpox vaccinations ceased in most countries in the 1970s, and the disease was officially declared eradicated from the world in 1980.  So while I might have smallpox vaccination, those under 40 won’t, and actually can’t, as there is no vaccine available outside strategic national stockpiles.  The smallpox vaccination was actually quite dangerous, with risk rates in the percents, so it won’t be resurrected outside a major bioweapon emergency even if an immigration law from 1979 says you have to have it.