Update: Well that was short-lived. Anutin is leaving behind a trail of deactivated social media accounts — the new Twitter is gone as of Friday afternoon.
While reliable facts seem to be in short supply, Thailand’s health minister continues speaking from the heart.
A month after he sort-of apologized for calling for the deportation of “fucking farangs,” Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul debuted his new Twitter account on Thusday night by launching a new racially charged tirade aimed at white residents and travelers in which he said they are “dirty” and more likely to infect Thai people with COVID-19 than other Asians.
“It’s wintertime now in Europe, and given the coronavirus outbreak, many Europeans fled the cold to Thailand,” his @Anutin_c account tweeted this morning. “They wear dirty clothes and never shower. We, as hosts, have to be careful. Even they don’t want to mingle with each other, they’ve closed their borders against each other.”
Thailand contradicts, flip-flops, sugarcoats COVID-19 as public teeters on pandemic panic
He continued that Thais should be more wary of taking ill from contact with “farangs” than Asians. The tweet had been deleted by Friday afternoon.
To date, no cases of “farangs” contracting the disease in Thailand have been reported, although two travelers, one from Italy and one from England, flew in with the disease.
Although a health ministry rep told reporters today that the Twitter account is managed by “Anutin’s team,” the tone and caustic language used is similar to that of his on-camera outburst that “fucking farangs” should be kicked out of the country for not wearing face masks.
The public face of Thailand’s response to the outbreak must have somehow missed the World Health Organization’s explanation that healthy people need not wear masks. The US Centers for Disease Control says they are not very effective.
Khun Anutin should really look into hiring better people. Last week, he blamed his “team” for issuing a quickly rescinded travel order that was posted to his personal Facebook with his signature affixed. His page vanished when the order was scrapped by the government.
Related:
Doubts emerge over travel order as Thai health minister’s Facebook goes MIA
Thai health minister ‘sorry’ for saying ‘f*cking farangs’ without masks should be kicked out
