TR EMERITUS

Received the following from a friend. Yes, this is exactly what I have said, when the data and information don't favor their Public Narrative, they will start to hide data and information from the public! MOH has once again removed information from the public, and this time, it is the information of those who passed away. Previously, MOH would spell out individuals who have passed away, the vaccination status of the individual, the underlying condition the person has, the date in which the person passed away, and in certain scenarios, they would tell us when the person was warded, when the person tested positive, and even whether the person was warded was for an unrelated condition. For example, death #51 reported on 25 August 2021: Case 66762, an 86 year-old male Singaporean, has passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection on 24 August 2021. His case was first reported on 28 July. He had been admitted to Tan Tock Seng Hospital for an unrelated medical condition on 1 July, and tested negative for COVID-19 multiple times. Another test taken on 28 July came back positive for COVID-19 infection. He had been partially vaccinated against COVID-19, and had a history of cancer, cardiomyopathy, chronic kidney disease, hypertension and hyperlipidaemia. As of 27 September, a lot of this information was removed, and on 28 September, the information of 5 deaths were lumped into one statement: 5 more cases have passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection. Of these, 4 were male Singaporeans aged 74 (Case 79048), 73 (Case 79829), 69 (Case 89396), and 79 years (Case 89975), and 1 was a female Singaporean aged 77 years (Case 76917). Amongst them, 2 had been unvaccinated against COVID-19, 1 had been partially vaccinated and 2 had been vaccinated. All of them had various underlying medical conditions. In total, 85 have passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection. Such reporting continues the fear mongering but does not give details of what is going on.   Goh Meng Seng      Read More →

We have now reached 2,000 new cases of covid infection in a day. We need to know the breakdown of these cases according to source: a) Through safe entry contact tracing b) Through trace together contact tracing c) Through regular testing of front line workers d) Through visits to doctor I suspect that a large proportion of the new cases come through the first three categories. In most cases, they are likely to be asymptomatic or mild. Although we have more than 3 times the infection (per million of population) compared to Australia, our death rate remains low and at the same level as Australia. I used Australia for comparison because both countries, namely Singapore and Australia, had low numbers previously and are going through the same strategy of "living with covid". I suspect that the safe entry and trace together are capturing a high  number of infections and that most of them are asymptomatic or mild. A lot of effort is spent to treat these mild cases in hospitals or place them on strict quarantine. These efforts are largely wasted, as they do not help to reduce the deaths, compared to Australia. I suspect that our death rate will remain the same, if we change the criteria to capture and focus on the more serious cases. How can this be done? We can review the algorithm on selecting the contacts for sending out the health warnings and health alerts. We are probably sending out too many of these cases, resulting in more tests and more cases. If we tighten the algorithm, we will deal with less contacts who are likely to be the more exposed and more serious cases. We can reduce the infections by one third, e.g. to reach a similar level (on a pro rata basis) as Australia. Our death rate will probably remain at the current level. We will reduce the strain on our hospital system or on the home recovery program. I hope that the Ministry of Health will release the data (on the source of the infections), and review this suggestion.\   Tan Kin Lian        Read More →

I refer to the article "Singapore virus debate sowing rare disquiet in ruling party" (Bloomberg, Sep 29). It states that: "Senior members of Singapore’s ruling People’s Action Party are concerned that mixed signals from the country’s virus task force are giving the appearance of divisions that could lead to rare infighting, people familiar with the situation said." It added: "The party cadres, who decide which individuals are admitted to the PAP’s top decision making body, were concerned perceptions of a split could spur members to choose sides in the informal contest to succeed Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong." Comment: Any illiterate man (even if not from RI like me) will know that the leadership ability and the quality of the 4G leaders is a far cry from that of their predecessors. For example, their latest policy update to let vaccinated covid patients recover at home is surely something that both lacks empathy and defies common sense. For those already infected and living with some level of uncertainty, they now have to tolerate screw-ups in the form of an unresponsive hotline and repeated instructions which could, arguably, be avoided with proper planning. To illustrate how bad the extent of the lack of planning and coordination is, one minister said that we should not rule out sweeping lockdown measures given rising infections, while another minister said that a circuit breaker was behind us. This suggests that each of the 4G 'leaders' may seem to have their own ideas, and are sending out mixed signals which are arguably, both uncoordinated and contradictory. How will the country benefit if the task force continually sends out mixed signals to business owners and the investment community amidst a dampened economic outlook? If this is the quality of leadership we have, it does not come as a surprise that their incompetence is now reported by the international media who have even called into question their succession plans! Speaking of which, we were informed that the basis of choosing the next leader was not relevant as the 4G 'leadership' would work together as a team, with the top man being primus inter pares (i.e., first amongst equals). Yet, the situation now seems to suggest that the 4G does not seem to be really working as a team, but repeatedly - each one appears to have his own ideas. My friend Ying (not her real name) commented that too many cooks will spoil the soup! Indeed, history has shown that an internal split within a political party could very well spell its end. Given this apparent divide in the ruling party in Singapore, can we still say the same of the present day incumbents? For sure, the yo-yo approach taken by the 4G leadership does not inspire confidence in them, as they have, arguably, shown themselves to be weak leaders, having a lack of foresight, and ineffective administrators. Lastly, I am also reminded that a former Prime Minister has said that we need to increase the salaries of Ministers or else we would only attract 'mediocre' people to government, which would not be good for the country in the long-term. Based on their performance so far, do you think the 4G ministers are in any way worthy of their million-dollar salaries?   Leong Sze Hian      Read More →