Thread by @yatakalam

PLEASE stop sharing the gutter press clickbait that the WHO is planning a ban on women drinking alcohol.

Just please.

We're the ones on the side of facts, right?

OK just a few more words on this even though it's a monumental waste of time, but it just goes to show that none of us are immune to viral fake news created specifically to whip up outrage.

Here you can see how the Daily Mail creates its own storm:

1. Totally false outrage-inducing headline generates thousands of comments
2. Followed by shocked comments from experts, AND ALCOHOL INDUSTRY LOBBYISTS (in article)

The outrage is artificially produced based on the totally fictitious claim that the WHO is trying to ban women up to menopause from drinking any alcohol at all.

This allows the alcohol lobby to produce a fictitious counter-claim against the WHO, namely that it is acting in a paternalistic and sexist way trying to prevent women from drinking.

Because obviously, the alcohol lobby does not want anyone to drink less.

Can anyone here remember the last time the alcohol lobby was concerned to defend women's rights? Maybe by taking action against men's excessive drinking, which can exacerbate levels of domestic violence? Especially during the lockdowns? Nope, me neither.

Oh wait but it does remind me of the time the producer lobby for another addictive substance faked a commitment to women's liberation to get more people hooked and increase their profits.

You've come a long way, baby.
Still works.

Funnily enough, the WHO says that one of the major impediments in implementing public health policy and reducing the harm from alcohol is the power of commercial interests which interfere in policy making.
CASE IN POINT

page 11:
who.int/publications/m…

Now look at the 2 photos the Daily Mail uses for their coverage of the WHO's Global Alcohol Action Plan to reduce the harm of alcohol use.

Nope, they're not pictures of car crashes, liver cirrhosis, or beaten women.

They make you feel like picking up a drink, don't they?

Whereas what the WHO is concerned about is disease and death.

Men have a morbidity and mortality rate from alcohol that is 3 to 4 times higher than women. Younger people are disproportionately affected.

Harm can be caused to others than the drinkers themselves: alcohol-induced violence against family members (likely men drinking); fetal harm from prenatal alcohol exposure (women drinking)

Awareness of overall harm is still low, DUE TO COMMERCIAL MESSAGING (the alcohol lobby)

The WHO's aim has for many years been to get decision-makers to better understand the harms induced by alcohol, and to reduce drinking, among men, women, and especially young people.

There has been some success:

But not enough:

"Globally, the levels of alcohol consumption and alcohol-attributable harm continue to be unacceptably high."

There are no international regulations on alcohol, and this makes it difficult to protect public health and national alcohol policies from interference from guess who? Yes, the alcohol lobby, which needs men, women and children to keep drinking.

New forms of marketing by the alcohol lobby target young people and adolescents. This is a public health concern.

Increased alcohol consumption exacerbates inequalities: the poor suffer greater harm

So, the WHO was mandated to come up with an action plan. They consulted with all member states, UN & other international organizations, NGOs and summarized the discussions in this first draft.

You can see, this is not the WHO bossing others around or banning this or that.

These are the guiding principles.
Seem fine to me.

More guiding principles, operational ones.
Note the emphasis on protecting public policy from commercial alcohol lobbies; on protecting children from being targeted by alcohol advertisement; on preventing prenatal alcohol exposure.

Now, IN THIS ENTIRE CONTEXT, we come to Action area 2, which is all about RAISING AWARENESS. It does not contain any bans or prohibitions.

With this contextual awareness, it's clear that the WHO wants to prevent prenatal exposure to alcohol.

Hence the contentious phrase "prevention of drinking among women AND women of childbearing age".

By "women of childbearing age" it's pretty clear that they mean women likely to get pregnant. The phrase is poorly chosen, but DOES NOT mean a drinking ban for all women 18 to 50.

Which is what is deceitfully implied here by the Daily Mail, giving them the opportunity to cite a furious lobbyist.

This is manipulation.

dailymail.co.uk/health/article…

Back to the WHO document.

Immediately following this section, we come to the "Proposed actions for Member States". Because it's not the WHO but countries that will be acting on this guidance.

And lo and behold, no more "women of child-bearing age".

The actual actions proposed by the WHO (as opposed to awareness raising) consist in "preventing drinking in pregnancy and preventing fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD)."

That's it.

AND ALSO:
"This includes a special emphasis on protecting at-risk populations and those affected by the harmful drinking of others", which presumably includes the wives and partners of men who drink and get violent.

I hope this explains why I said "Nothingburger" to expressions of outrage at the WHO's alleged alcohol ban for all women between 18 and 50.

Because it's all made up.

But actually, it's not a nothingburger.

This is a very deceitful, orchestrated campaign using fake concerns for women's rights in order to build up outrage against the WHO's alcohol action plan.

Don't let yourselves be manipulated.
Let's focus on the real problems.

And you can still go to the pub for a pint.
/end

PART II

(I'm still extremely peeved that feminists got manipulated by the alcohol lobby)

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