Thai Government's Bungled Vaccine Rollout Unites Historically Divided Public in Anger

BANGKOK - Anger is building at the administration of Thailand Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-O-Cha for a slow COVID-19 vaccine rollout, which has left just 5% of Thais inoculated amid the deadliest wave of the coronavirus pandemic to hit the country, and as health officials warn the worst is yet to come.

Thailand reached a record caseload of 11,305 Tuesday, adding scores to the grim death toll — 3,408 since April — in a kingdom that had won praise for snuffing out the pandemic in earlier rounds. The resurgence since April has revived the political challenge to Prayuth, who seized power in a 2014 coup, and who last year survived months of raucous pro-democracy protests, smothering the movement with legal charges and a heavy police response. Even senior medical experts now concede the kingdom was caught flat-footed by the latest wave of infections and has overseen a sluggish vaccine rollout, with only an estimated 3.5 million of its 70 million population fully vaccinated so far.