Corona Daily 029: Turning to the Bottle

One of the most vivid images I remember during Bombay’s strict lockdown was a mile long queue outside a booze shop in my neighborhood. The roads were empty and silent, not a single vehicle in sight. It was the first day the local government had allowed alcohol shops to operate for a few hours. Weeks had passed without access to alcohol. Spirit starvation promised to be as great a crisis as the pandemic.

India consumes more whiskey than any other country (USA is second). Every second bottle of whiskey produced in the world is sold in India. At the other end, a third of Indian drinkers consume cheap and suspect quality locally brewed or country liquor, regularly causing tragedies.

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This week, several studies and articles have been published in the USA, UK and other countries on how the pandemic has affected drinking habits.

In England, deaths from liver disease related to excessive drinking shot up by 21% in 2020. In the pandemic, the heaviest drinkers consumed even more alcohol. UK had closed its pubs, restaurants, night clubs for 31 weeks (more than seven months). Strangely, alcohol sales didn’t go down, suggesting people were compensating by drinking more at home.

Nearly 60% of the surveyed people said they were drinking at increasing and high-risk levels. (High risk is 50 units a week for men and 35 for women). What is heavy drinking? It is 14 drinks (units) per week, equal to six large glasses of wine or six pints of beer per week. And this should be well spread across the week, with four drinks as a maximum per day for men (three for women).

(I thought this discipline is comparable to marathon runners’ weekly mileage. You spread your mileage over the week, allowing for longer runs over the weekend).

In many countries, liver disease is currently the second leading cause of premature death of those under 60. If you want to find your level of risk, you can take the British Liver Trust’s online quiz here.

Another disturbing study tries to establish drinking as a leading cause of cancer globally. There are many ways in which alcohol consumption can lead to cancer, but mainly by damaging DNA. In 2020, alcohol was responsible for 740,000 new tumours.

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Stress, loneliness and the lack of access to alcohol support services made matters worse. Historically, alcohol consumption falls during a recession. But this recession was different, with drinkers locked up in their houses, filled with anxiety. It pushed some drinkers towards the particularly destructive habit of solitary drinking. It is believed that solo drinkers get more depressed as they drink.

Even before the pandemic, bartenders have noticed a type of young customer who comes to the bar, orders a drink, and plays video games or some other activity on his/her smart phone. They don’t speak to anyone. Why don’t they drink at home? One hypothesis is that they are willing to spend money to sit in a bar alone to avoid loneliness without actual togetherness. These young people were forced to drink alone at home during the lockdown. Not having to pay for each individual drink, it is easier to cross the boundaries.

In August last year, Busch – the beer maker, launched a new product to address this problem. “Dog Brew” was bone broth packaged as beer for your pet. “You’ll never drink alone again”, the ad campaign said. The dog beer promptly sold out.

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Americans started drinking more from the start of the pandemic. Nielsen data shows an increase of 54% year on year (April 2020-March 2021). A December survey found 75% Americans devoted at least one more day during a month to drinking. Women increased their intake by 39%. Women had a greater increase in excessive drinking, so much so, they threatened to catch up with men. The European Union was far more sober than UK or USA.

In Russia, in March 2020 itself, sales of vodka shot up by 65%. Domestic violence perpetrated by drinking men went up. Some Russians conveniently believe that vodka kills all bacteria and viruses. For them, the choice between a vaccine and vodka is clear.

Ravi