You know those cheesy lines like “you’re the yin to my yang” or “you’re the OREO to my McFlurry”?
For Singapore and her residents, the “surviving COVID-19” equivalent would be “you’re the vaccine to my non-circuit-breaker”.
And it’s not that far off the mark, seeing that experts have cited the importance of the nationwide vaccine programme and the stringent new measures to stem the spread of COVID-19.
According to The Straits Times, multiple health experts have expressed that vaccinations—a sustainable way of protecting the population—and the aggressive COVID-19 measures are necessary to tide Singapore over the pandemic.
The webinar, hosted by Associate Professor David Allen and organised by the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, featured Dr Louisa Sun, an associate consultant with the infectious diseases team at the National University Hospital and Alexandra Hospital, and Associate Professor Hsu Li Yang, vice-dean of global health at Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health.
Professor Dale Fisher, an infectious disease expert from the school, noted that the local vaccination programme has managed to attain a moderately high vaccination rate of 30% of the population, allowing the country to avoid going into a second Circuit Breaker (CB).
On the other hand, a CB would give authorities time to understand what exactly is happening in the community and space for healthcare facilities to recuperate and reduce their load, expressed Professor Teo Yik Ying, dean of NUS’ Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health.
Sustainable Solutions
The Straits Times reports that the participants of the webinar discussed the move to home-based learning (HBL) for most students in Singapore, as a precautionary measure to prevent further transmission, as the B1617 variant (the new variant from India) is more likely to infect children.
Professor Teo acknowledged that HBL is not a possible long-term strategy and that children should get vaccinated as a more sustainable solution of protecting the younger population.
This comes after the approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines for those aged 12 to 15 that was announced yesterday.
In addition, they raised the issue that HBL and school closures would further increase the inequity in Singapore as less fortunate families would struggle with supervising their children and ensuring that they are able to keep up with the curriculum.
On the topic of frequent routine testing, Professor Hsu highlighted that such a measure would also not be possible in the long run due to tremendous costs, inconvenience and low yield.
Despite this, it’s still viable in “preventing transmission to more vulnerable members of the community and providing assurance that measures are in place”, such as rostered testing of visitors to construction sites.
Living With COVID-19 In The Long-Term
The participants also shared the sentiment that the endpoint of this pandemic will realistically see Sars-CoV-2 as becoming an endemic disease.
This means that we’ll have to learn to live with COVID-19, just like dengue fever. Oh well. We kind of know that since 2020.
Professor Fisher explained that Singapore will first need high levels of vaccination to reduce COVID-19 to a fairly mild disease that can circulate around. In fact, the new challenge would be to help the masses understand that COVID-19 will be an endemic disease and that we’ll still see cases and clusters pop up in the future.
Unfortunately, Singapore is simply unable to adopt a zero-tolerance approach, given our reliance on imports and our presence as a transport hub.
It would mean extremely strict border control measures which will create an artificial sense of stability and safety, a strategy that would not last long for many countries, Professor Teo added.
Currently, vaccines are still the way to go.
“Vaccination was designed to minimise serious symptoms and side effects but not meant to completely block the risk of infection,” explained Professor Hsu.
“If we are vaccinated, then get infected and are asymptomatic, and do not have a risk of going to the hospital or suffer from a serious side effect—that looks like one of the ways of living with the disease in the long term.”
Like it or not, it sure seems like we’re in it for the long run.
In the meantime, wear your masks and go for the vaccines when they’re available to you. Watch this video to the end to know more about the vaccines in Singapore:
Featured Image: kandl stock / Shutterstock.com
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