TR EMERITUS

It is unfortunate that the government has threatened to POFMA anyone for allegedly scare mongering Singaporeans about the rise in covid numbers. But to any unbiased observer there is no doubt that there has been an explosion in the number of covid cases hitting Singapore over the past 7 to 10 days. The latest number hitting 11,732 yesterday is a triple jump over 4719 on Tuesday 10th October. Prior to that the numbers were substantially lower. Indeed these new 5 figure numbers are scary despite the reassurance by health authorities that fatalities have not risen drastically. But beyond numbers any inquiring mind would also want to find some explanation on why the XBB or Singapore Wave or Variant has suddenly decided to descend on the little red dot and not on Kuala Lumpur or Jakarta. He must try to look for some intrinsic reasons in the disease itself or in any public events or policy changes that preceded the sudden escalation of numbers. The holding of the 2022 Singapore Grand Prix or the F1 night race could be one of those huge public events attracting a massive crowd of 302,000 without having to wear masks over three days from September 30th to October 2nd that cannot be divorced from the current explosion in covid numbers. The night race ended about midnight on October 2 and it took only about 3 days for the new variant to hit the unsuspecting Singaporean. Whether the new variant will affect the overseas F1 attendees back in their home countries remains to be seen as no contact tracing is now possible. However if the new variant continues to spread like wildfire to other parts of the world in the days and weeks to come we may have some circumstantial evidence forthcoming. I remember that at the start of the pandemic in 2020 the hosting of the air show in Singapore was also a matter of grave concern. But the authorities at that time did not throw caution to the wind. In fact they restricted the number of attendees and of locals from watching the air show. Fortunately for Singapore and the overseas guests there was no flare-up of any covid-19 cases or fatalities among the attendees and spectators at that time. The problem with our men in white is they always want to punch above their weight. Whether out of insecurity or otherwise they tend to go for an overkill. In a pandemic situation they are caught in a dilemma between greed and fear. But whatever it is they should not throw caution to the winds for the virus is an unseen enemy whose numbers cannot be counted and whose nature has yet to fully understood by the best scientists in the world.   Lowinsky      Read More →

If I were a new citizen or a foreigner and having read what Lawrence Wong (LW) recently said at the Forward Singapore dialogue about addressing income inequality, helping seniors, young families and lower income earners lalala..., I would be most impressed. How would anyone not? I was very impressed too with his many politically correct rhetorics but I am far from being sold. I welcome LW and Indranee Rajah etc to prove me wrong because the more wrong I am proven, the more our citizens and their lives will benefit and improve, particularly for the vulnerable and the silently struggling lots. Both LW and Indranee Rajah are not newbie ministars and the many issues mentioned during the Forward Singapore dialogue are not new issues at all. Many have been left on the back burner for years or rotting away for decades. Our very sorry Total Fertility Rate is one prime example. For the seniors, retirement inadequacy is obvious. For many working adults, the inability of their incomes to keep up with ever rising cost of living is obvious. For younger married couples, costs of raising a young family with children and related issues are obvious. Income inequality is another. I ask if the government is not shy about persistent widening income gaps in our society? There are so much to cover and trust me, I can easily go on... The proof of the pudding is in the eating. I hope that this will not end up as another loud thunder and little rainfall Forward Singapore dialogue. And seriously even if it does, what can numb suckerporeans do except to suck it up and life goes on. Think.   Simon Lim      Read More →

There is a spike in Covid-19 (CV) infections after F1, that's somewhat expected. But to have 15% reinfection rate, that's really abnormal. Unless if you are immunocompromised, else even for seasonal flu, once you are infected once, most probably you won't get reinfected again during the same season until 1 year later. This is also why flu vaccine is a yearly affair, not every 3 months, 6 months or a few weeks. Some "Experts" have claimed that Covid mutates slower than flu virus, thus it implies reinfection will be less than flu. But we are facing 15% reinfection rate right now and most probably, it will increase further. If it climbs to over 50%, it isn't going to be just "another wave" but an alarming crisis. There are already reports of people who are not known to be immunocompromised, fully Vax and Boostered, suffering reinfections with couple of months in between. Some even. Had multiple re-infections within a few months! Even Pfizer CEO who has taken 4 jabs, had reinfection within 2 months (1.5 months)! So what's going on here? This is definitely unusual. Reinfections were rather rare in 2020 before vaccination started. Most of those reinfections happened to immunocompromised individuals. But right now, even with the supposedly "effective" vaccines, we are seeing reinfections and even multiple re-infections within a short period of time! Did the virus mutate so fast that even those multiple vax people can't deal with it? There are conflicting information about reinfections. On one hand, the establishment tries to calm people down by saying reinfections are mild but on the other hand, there are reports that say multiple re-infections may cause great harm to our body! Who are we to believe in? I only know one simple point, only when your body's immune system is weak, you will get infected. If you get reinfection or multiple re-infections, your immune system is really in a bad shape. Will have more booster jabs help? Pfizer CEO's case is a fine example... He got reinfection at an astonishing short period of time! It is time to pause, think critically and decide for yourself, which path is more logical for your health's sake. Reinfection is not necessarily mild. There are people who suffered worse symptoms while others are mild. But the fact that one gets reinfected within short period of time, it's unusual and this needs to be studied carefully. Someone observed that there are lots of people coughing around. Just protect yourself and keep your immune system strong. We may be in for a really rough ride ahead. I fear for the worst and pray for the best. This is what the "Experts" said back in March 2022: “The Omicron variant has been in Singapore for only a few months, so anyone here would at most have gotten infected with Omicron only two to three months ago. The risk of a Covid-19 reinfection within six months is generally extremely low,” he explained. The risk of getting reinfected by the same strain of Omicron is also likely to be negligible within the first year, added Prof Hsu, but he cautioned that there is currently not enough evidence to be sure of this. Professor Dale Fisher, senior consultant at the National University Hospital's Division of Infectious Diseases, said recent studies had shown reinfections in patients with Omicron are uncommon within the first two months.   Goh Meng Seng      Read More →