A “deeply worried” protest has been registered today by the national association of public health doctors who believe Minister for Agriculture José Manuel Fernandes has been “spreading misinformation about the impact of alcohol on health” and thus “contributing to the normalisation of its consumption”. Portugal was rated the largest consumer per capita of wine some years ago by the Organisation of Vine and Wine (when the minister was not a minister) thus it is a big leap to start blaming him for nationals’ love of it. His ‘deeply worrying’ comments? They were made defending the government’s decision not to increase duty on alcoholic beverages: he referred to “longevity being greater where people drink green wine”, complain the doctors, and suggested that drinking water to excess was bad (!) “without having any scientific foundation” to support these claims…
Public health doctors condemn minister’s “disinformation about alcohol”…
