OPINION

Time to get tough

Re: "Govt shelves harsh action", (BP, April 17).

I praise Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul for shifting from softer action against Covid-19 and moving towards harsher ones only if the gentle ones don't work as hoped.

They've learned from comparing the experiences of, say, Florida (which tended towards fewer restrictions) versus California. This is an about-face from our earlier shutdown, which earned worldwide praise (including from me) but kicked our 2020 GDP back by 6.1%, one of the sharpest drops in the East Asia-Pacific region.

Other lessons might be: the goal is to flatten infection curves, not to eliminate Covid-19. We must keep infection rates within our medical staff's ability to handle at any one time. The younger a person is, the less likely they are to get infected. So, reopen lower school grades first and work up.

This will free caretakers to resume work faster than an all-or-nothing approach. We should consider subsidising employment, like paying 50% of take-home pay for staff kept on the payroll, rather than paying unemployment benefits. They can upgrade premises, train to improve service quality, and so on. Shortening opening hours means more patrons in a shop per hour, making social distancing harder. Thus, why force closures? Indoor activities where there's much crowding, like pubs and music festivals should be banned -- but those with little crowding, like dine-in restaurants, should be allowed with screens and social distancing. Our vaccination programme is badly out of whack. Even turbulent Myanmar's jabbed more of its citizens than we have. Gen Prayut now says that we'll have 50% of Thais immunised by the end of this year. But, herd immunity needs about 70% immunised -- not 50%. Where's the light at the end of the tunnel?

Very importantly, nothing motivates behaviour better than a good example. What message does it send when MFP spokesman Wiroj Lakkhanaadisorn said on April 7 that since PM Prayut had failed to secure enough vaccines for our needs, he would get inoculated only when Thailand had enough vaccine -- and he is among the first MPs jabbed? Or when Minister Saksayam Chidchob tests positive for Covid-19, adamantly refuses to disclose his timeline for six days as required by law -- and Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan approves of his evasion?

We are not at any crossroads, as suggested by Insider in his April 17 letter. We are nowhere except locked in a complete stalemate. Thailand is not going forwards or backwards; it is treading water. Vaccines seem to be available but someone is holding back, such a good beginning having come to such a bad ending.

Re: "Do as we say, not as we do", (PostBag, April 18). Your editing of my letter had an unfortunate effect.

My original letter read: "I know that the police knew about this casino because I reported it to them more than a year ago when one took illegal possession of my Thai son's motorbike as surety on gambling debts incurred by my former housemaid." The reference to the housemaid was edited out, implying that it was my adopted son who has the gambling problem. For the record, the young man in question, does not gamble, smoke, or drink. I am very proud of him.