OPINION

Keep politics out of it

Re: "A time for tolerance," (Editorial, July 21).

Keep politics out of it

I agree with your editorial that this is a time for both sides of Thailand's political divide to be tolerant with one another. Personally, I think that includes the business sector as well as citizens.

Foodpanda Thailand is a good example of how an app-based, 21st-century company stumbles face-down into an age-old political quagmire in Thailand.

Now, not only are a large number of customers on both sides boycotting Foodpanda, but business partners are also parting ways with the company -- leaving motorcycle delivery drivers at risk of being broke and jobless.

The company could do better by hiring a PR team with absolutely no political leanings.

Re: "Saksayam admits sluggish start to sandbox plan," (BP, July 15).

Reports of the disappointing start to the Phuket Sandbox scheme come as no surprise to most thinking individuals. If initial trends continue, less than 35,000 foreign visitors may enter Phuket under the sandbox programme by the end of September -- a far cry from the target of 100,000.

Thailand would be well advised to focus attention on fully vaccinating the entire population of the country and minimising Covid-19 cases across the board rather than chasing elusive tourism rainbows. The quickest way to attract tourists back to Thailand is to demonstrate that the entire country is managing the pandemic effectively -- not just a few isolated geographic pockets.

The Bangkok Post keeps reporting on how many thousands of new cases of Covid-19 there are daily. Has it ever occurred to anyone that when you have tens of thousands of people with minor symptoms or no symptoms at all getting tested you're going to discover "new infections". Supposing millions of people got tested to find out if they have asymptomatic flu? After many tested positive, the next day headlines would read: "The flu, more lethal to children than Covid, is spreading like wildfire".

Soon people would walk up to me in the street screaming: "Where is your face mask? Because of you, millions of children will die of the flu."

Hospitals would tell heart, cancer and diabetic patients to stay away so there can be enough hospital beds to treat all the asymptomatic flu carriers.

All schools would be closed down and it would be illegal for two or more children to be seen together in public. Dr Anthony Fauci would say if you want to go out and get a little intimate with people, then that's your choice as long as so long you don't shake their hands.

Sound ridiculous? Is it really that much more ridiculous than the way we've responded to Covid-19?

I just got my first shot of AstraZeneca vaccine. I was informed my second shot would be in 12 weeks. Why so long? AstraZeneca states four weeks after the first. Thailand said eight weeks. Did the PM wait 12 weeks for his second shot?

Could someone at the Bangkok Post tell me why I am still paying 40 baht for the Sunday edition when it is the thinnest paper of the week?