Thai Public Health Minister “deeply concerned” about alcohol drinking during Songkran leading to covid spread, looking at possible stricter control rules

[Hayduke]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Mr. Charnvirakul stated today, March 30th, 2022, he remains “deeply concerned” about drinking parties and circles leading to a greater spread of Covid-19.

 

They can do what they did with cigarettes…put gruesome, scary pictures on alcohol packaging.  Only the most desperate drinkers in the country would be able to down a bottle of beer with the Health Minister’s photo on the label.

 

 

 

[Moonlover]

Mr. Anutin urges Thais: 'to consider not celebrating with alcohol for one more year out of respect for the elderly and vulnerable who had not yet been fully vaccinated against Covid-19'. 

 

And he follows up with 'According to the MOPH, about 2 million Thais who are elderly and vulnerable, mostly in the rural Northeast, have been resistant to getting vaccinated and officials have been putting forth significant time and energy to convince them to do so'.

 

Well, with respect Mr. Anutin, it's their choice if they decide not to accept vaccination. Let those who resist having vaccination hide away during the holiday  or take their chances along with the rest of us.

 

By the by, I live in a village in the rural northeast and to the best of my knowledge, everyone is fully vaccinated, including booster jabs. So I suspect it will be Songkran as normal here. I know that plans are being made and as my wife's sister runs the main shop here, there'll be no shortage of alcohol!

[jesimps]

56 minutes ago, Bert got kinky said:

 

As a result, he said relevant agencies were reviewing the Alcoholic Beverage Act from 2008 to potentially enforce and enact stricter rules during the festival, including for advertising, promotion, and consumption.

 

That will upset Pattaya's alcoholic pensioners. ????

So those alcoholic pensioners in their jungle clearings in the NE won't be bothered?

[jacko45k]

5 minutes ago, Hayduke said:

 

They can do what they did with cigarettes….put scary pictures on alcohol packaging.  People would be terrified of a bottle of beer with Mr. Anutin’s photo on the label.

 

 

There is a scary picture of a Leopard on mine already!

[ikke1959]

1 hour ago, jacko45k said:

No, quite wrong. My Mrs will travel back to her home village as usual and spend about a week there, reuniting with family, and I assure you she will have fun and an enjoyable time. It is not a binary situation. The craziness displayed in Pattaya or Khao Sahn Rd, isn't the essential component you might believe. 

I got your point, but I am not talking about people as your wife, I just talk about the happiness of Songkran. My partner comes from a small village too and there was no such thing as in Pattaya and Kao San road, However on the 12th the kids in the neighbourhood started in the evening of the 12th with a "foreplay" and there was a lot of fun during 3 days of Songkran, and nobody had a problem whatsoever. Drinking, eating with family and neighbours, and have fun. But look how they undo every happiness.. No waterplay, no drinking and no group gatherings...How can you have fun? sitting with 10 people on a glass of water/soda on a distance of 1,5 m of eachother??? 

[jacko45k]

1 minute ago, ikke1959 said:

No waterplay, no drinking and no group gatherings...How can you have fun? sitting with 10 people on a glass of water/soda on a distance of 1,5 m of eachother??? 

I assure you it will be nothing like that whatsoever on April 13th onwards in many many Thai villages. Drinking alcohol isn't obligatory, but you seem to hold it highly. 

[ebean001]

the vast majority of road deaths are motorcycles driven by young kids who get alcohol from ???

they drink, drive, and have accidents. go focus on them. most of us walk to the bars or take public transport.  

[ikke1959]

18 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

I assure you it will be nothing like that whatsoever on April 13th onwards in many many Thai villages. Drinking alcohol isn't obligatory, but you seem to hold it highly. 

You don't know me.... I am not an alcohol consumer at all...only 1 glass at Christmasdinner a year....Probably much less than you

[Bangkok Barry]

1 hour ago, Thailand said:

No drinking but cannabis is OK. 

Plenty of violence caused by alcohol consumption but next to none by smoking cannabis. If it wasn't for the fact that governments around the world can tax it alcohol would have been banned long ago. It might be the human race's greatest hypocrisy.

[jacko45k]

1 minute ago, ikke1959 said:

You don't know me.... I am not an alcohol consumer at all...only 1 glass at Christmasdinner a year....Probably much less than you

More the point, you seem to be trying to create an image of Scrooge's Christmas for this year's Songkran, and I am telling you that you are getting it wrong. 

[Bangkok Barry]

28 minutes ago, ikke1959 said:

But look how they undo every happiness.. No waterplay, no drinking and no group gatherings...How can you have fun? sitting with 10 people on a glass of water/soda on a distance of 1,5 m of eachother??? 

Don't worry. Nobody, including the police, takes any notice of what politicians say and will continue to do whatever they want. I doubt very much that even the health minister expects anything different. But he has 'done his job' by speaking to a deaf audience.

[koratkarlos]

His statement relates to the Thai tendency to always blame something when bad things happen.  So he will blame alchohol.  He already blamed farangs.  What a great excuse he can use when the numbers spike, although I doubt they will be accurately recorded.  Maybe a few thousand bump up after Songkran to make it look like they are doing their jobs by testing.  He will always blame something instead of doing his job to make sure everybody gets vaccinated and testing is done to identify clusters.  It is far easier to sit back and restrict our society then actually do something that makes a difference.

[klauskunkel]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

“deeply concerned”

Anutin, deeply concerned about self-promotion, now trying hard to look like a truly caring future PM. 

 

[MrJ2U]

I wonder who's really behind this "tolerance" movement?

 

It's getting absurd.

 

 

 

[MasterBaker]

is he concerned about people smoking pot he loves so much to legalize during Songkran?

[kimamey]

2 hours ago, jaiyen said:

Why does he think that drinking alcohol in a group will spread Covid any more than travelling on a bus or train, going shopping in places like Siam Paragon or eating in a big restaurant ? Simple answer, He is a clueless moron !

Well one difference is you can wear a mask whilst doing all of these except drinking although a small hole and a straw might overcome that. The other problem is that whilst moderate drinking is fine many drink to excess and then get a bit careless about precautions and aggressive when it's pointed out. There are huge numbers of people who think they can handle their drink and wish to prove it but do the opposite. 

 

I don't suppose any of this will stop people getting drunk and then driving, including many police officers, government officials and ministers and rich well connected people.

[ikke1959]

34 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

More the point, you seem to be trying to create an image of Scrooge's Christmas for this year's Songkran, and I am telling you that you are getting it wrong. 

Obvious you don't understand......... so just leave it

[Bert got kinky]

1 hour ago, jesimps said:

So those alcoholic pensioners in their jungle clearings in the NE won't be bothered?

Sorry did I miss you.

OK, just for jesimps:

This will upset the alcoholic pensioners from all over Thailand. ????

[kimamey]

1 hour ago, Moonlover said:

Mr. Anutin urges Thais: 'to consider not celebrating with alcohol for one more year out of respect for the elderly and vulnerable who had not yet been fully vaccinated against Covid-19'. 

 

And he follows up with 'According to the MOPH, about 2 million Thais who are elderly and vulnerable, mostly in the rural Northeast, have been resistant to getting vaccinated and officials have been putting forth significant time and energy to convince them to do so'.

 

Well, with respect Mr. Anutin, it's their choice if they decide not to accept vaccination. Let those who resist having vaccination hide away during the holiday  or take their chances along with the rest of us.

 

By the by, I live in a village in the rural northeast and to the best of my knowledge, everyone is fully vaccinated, including booster jabs. So I suspect it will be Songkran as normal here. I know that plans are being made and as my wife's sister runs the main shop here, there'll be no shortage of alcohol!

I agree with most of what you say although I'm not sure of the vaccination rates in our village. I think the local temple promotes it so that should encourage those who hang around temples and monks.  Mind you that tends to be more often women in my experience

 

Where I would disagree is with the idea of allowing people to choose if they don't want a vaccine. The way vaccines work is that most people can have them but there are a small number who can't for various medical reasons. To protect them a high rate of vaccination is needed to reduce the chances of infection.

[paulikens]

Anutin deeply concerned people might have some fun

[shackleton]

What's the point of looking for ways to stop people drinking alcohol especially over a holiday period 

Where people will go out and enjoy themselves 

Just enforce the law for those who abuse the system ie driving under the influence 

[jacko45k]

17 minutes ago, ikke1959 said:

Obvious you don't understand......... so just leave it

It appears more obvious you do not know what you talk of, with the silly comment "sitting with 10 people on a glass of water/soda on a distance of 1,5 m of eachother??? "

[tomazbodner]

I, for one, sympathize with this guy. It's difficult to drive his narrative... booze bad, pot good...

[Flink]

56 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

Plenty of violence caused by alcohol consumption but next to none by smoking cannabis. If it wasn't for the fact that governments around the world can tax it alcohol would have been banned long ago. It might be the human race's greatest hypocrisy.

Yeah, cartels arerenowned for their pacifist attitude towards rivals, the police and anyone unwilling to work for them/hand over their land. As for the general public, the problem here is not drinking and violence as much asit is drinking and driving and killing themselves and killing/seriously injuring others and that remains the case whether you got off your baby feeders on booze or weed.

[fulhamster]

3 hours ago, grubman said:

Maybe they should just make Alcohol illegal and let the population smoke weed legally, Problems solved ????????????

Perhaps that is what he is aiming to do

[BangkokReady]

2 hours ago, WEBBYB808 said:

They dont have enough police or vehicles  to enforce this and the level of integrity is not a high value in certain areas of the world.. 

The problem is that drinking and driving is completely acceptable behaviour in Thailand.  Even if they made it unacceptable behaviour, unacceptable behaviour is tolerated the majority of the time and the idea of proper law enforcement or consequences for doing something illegal/immoral isn't really a thing.

 

Like with most issue legal in Thailand, it would take a complete change in attitudes across the whole population.  I'm not sure this is even possible without a grass roots change where the future generations are educated differently and the "mai bpen rai" attitude is adjusted or removed.

[Guderian]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

The Thai Public Health Minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, is reportedly deeply concerned about alcohol drinking during Songkran

Uh oh, methinks we'd better stock up with plenty of booze in the first week of April before the eejits impose another blanket sales ban.

[sambum]

The only reason why he is concerned is because that they might be drinking alcohol in preference to his cannabis "tea"!

[spidermike007]

2 hours ago, AhFarangJa said:

Does this moron really believe that what he dictates to the populace will have one iota of relevance to the vast majority of the  people living in the rural areas. Every Thai I speak to in our village, and surroundings have nothing but distain for all the cronies in the parliament.

Correct. Nothing he says means anything to anyone. It goes further than that. Nearly everything he says brings embarrassment and scorn. 

 

What these guys do not get is that their approval rating is likely under 3%. They are utterly despised. 

[welshissan]

1 hour ago, Moonlover said:

Mr. Anutin urges Thais: 'to consider not celebrating with alcohol for one more year out of respect for the elderly and vulnerable who had not yet been fully vaccinated against Covid-19'. 

 

And he follows up with 'According to the MOPH, about 2 million Thais who are elderly and vulnerable, mostly in the rural Northeast, have been resistant to getting vaccinated and officials have been putting forth significant time and energy to convince them to do so'.

 

Well, with respect Mr. Anutin, it's their choice if they decide not to accept vaccination. Let those who resist having vaccination hide away during the holiday  or take their chances along with the rest of us.

 

By the by, I live in a village in the rural northeast and to the best of my knowledge, everyone is fully vaccinated, including booster jabs. So I suspect it will be Songkran as normal here. I know that plans are being made and as my wife's sister runs the main shop here, there'll be no shortage of alcohol!

To the best of my knowledge older people in my wife's parents village they're still waiting for their FIRST Covid injection. That's after going to 2 local hospital asking for the injection, no have !!