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BANGKOK – When the coronavirus threatened to spread across Thailand a year ago, Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul shocked the country’s doctors by ridiculing warnings and calling the deadly COVID-19 a “cold”.

Now the medical profession is fighting back.

A group called Mor Mai Thon (“Doctors Will Not Tolerate This”) has launched an online campaign to fire Anutin, leader of the Bhumjaithai party and the second largest member of the ruling coalition.

This push, which comes as Thailand struggles to contain a third wave of the pandemic and vaccinate the population, struck a nerve. The organizers’ petition garnered over 200,000 signatures within days of being posted on Change.org.

The doctors brought this to the attention of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha. Prayuth had been assured of support from the country’s professional middle class since May 2014 when, as the army chief at the time, he orchestrated a coup to overthrow an elected government.

Another influential constituency that Prayuth counted on for similar support is also showing frustration: the corporate sector. Hopes of an economic recovery are sinking in Southeast Asia’s second largest economy after a 6.1% decline last year. One of the hardest hit sectors is tourism, which was a major driver of the economy before the pandemic and accounted for around 20% of Thailand’s gross domestic product.

Business leaders see a lag in vaccination in Thailand compared to its Southeast Asian neighbors. The Thai Chamber of Commerce, a network of heavyweights in trade and industry, didn’t crush words when the frustration surfaced in March.

“Thailand is slow to distribute vaccines,” a chamber official told local media towards the end of the month. “This will lead to a slow economic recovery.”

Harsher words were delivered at the time by prominent business leaders in the tourism sector who have been known as allies of Prayuth since the 2014 coup. “The government failed to inspire the public to take the vaccine and left them with negative feelings about the vaccine,” said William Heinecke, founder and chairman of Minor International, a major hotel operator. “We will lose the tourism trade to Vietnam, Hong Kong and Singapore because they have more efficient vaccination programs.”

Thai Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul announced in February progress in the development of a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. Anutin once compared the coronavirus to “a cold”. © Reuters

To speed up the pace, the Chamber offered logistical support to the government, including cold stores and transportation of vaccines. Private hospitals wanted to step in and offer to secure their own supply of vaccines for distribution, but were held back by the Ministry of Health bureaucracy.

And as Thailand’s vaccine rollout continues at a snail’s pace, sentiment has deteriorated in the Thai corporate world, leading some analysts to say that Thai companies – large or medium-sized – will not unconditionally support the country’s political leaders.

Thai stock exchange executives at midsize companies say “the government is not doing enough and the new COVID outbreak stems from governance failure,” said a Thai financial insider. “You have nothing against corruption and cronyism as part of Thailand, but not when so much is at stake.”

Similar feelings rumble in larger Thai boardrooms, said Suwat Sinsadok, managing director of FSS International Investment Advisory Securities in Bangkok.

“They know that complacency and corruption will remain in the country even as the economy grows. However, if the economy does not grow and people keep dying from COVID, you will see trouble,” he told Nikkei Asia. “There is a growing perception that the military leadership the prime minister is familiar with is not working this time around.”

A recent assessment by The Economist supports this concern. In the UK publication, Thailand ranked 124th out of 154 countries in terms of the percentage of adults who received the first dose of vaccine – just 0.4%. The country’s spreading third wave of COVID-19 has claimed over 180 deaths, bringing the total number of cases to 63,570, an increase from the 26,031 cases recorded in early March.

Thailand’s slow vaccination efforts have overshadowed the government’s success over the past year in containing the spread of the pandemic among its 69 million people. In January, Prayuth sparked public expectation that Thailand was looking to secure 63 million doses, which were expected to cover half the population at two doses per person.

That assurance brought a royal turn in this Southeast Asian kingdom. The vaccines should be manufactured by Siam Bioscience, a company part of King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s multi-billion dollar investment portfolio, and marketed by June. However, this plan to deliver only the local version of the AstraZeneca, which was ingested through Siam Bioscience, has been delayed as the expected launch date has been postponed to July.

And the government revealed its priorities – protecting the royal family over public health – when critics questioned Thailand’s confidence in working with Siam Bioscience. An outspoken opposition politician has been charged under a draconian censorship law that faces years in prison for insulting high-ranking members of the royal family.

Prayuth’s pro-military coalition government is trying to find alternative shots, including that of the Chinese company Sinovac. However, the public has been unable to guess whether the government will receive vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson.

To curb mounting dissatisfaction, the Prayuth cabinet this week gave Prayuth extensive powers to bring under its control all ministries and departments involved in the COVID-19 response. As a result, Anutin, the health minister, is pushed aside for the time being.

Political analysts see this concentration of authority in Prayuth’s hands, including the power to enforce 31 laws such as the Communicable Disease Act, a relapse on the powerful forces he displayed as head of the junta for five years after the 2014 coup .

“It’s almost like a half-coup,” said Prajak Kongkirati, a political scientist at Thammasat University in Bangkok. “Prayuth has usurped the powers of all ministries for himself.”

Prajak sees this reaction as desperate, as the professional classes and the corporate sector show anti-government dissatisfaction.

“He has to show that he is doing something because the criticism comes from his most important supporters, who he needs for political stability,” said Prajak. “The anger over vaccines has rocked Prayuth’s support base.”

But government officials rejected the takeover criticism as further evidence that Prayuth’s pro-military government is bankrupt. “It is not a seizure of power,” government spokeswoman Anucha Burapanchaisri told the local media.