Diabetes S’pore Giving Free Free Alcohol Swabs Coz Kiasi People Have Hoarded Alcohol Swabs From Pharmacies

When people hoarded daily essentials in supermarkets, it caused me to go through two days of Netflix without my usual pack of potato chips. That’s bad, but I won’t die watching Crash Landing on You without snacks.

But when people hoarded alcohol swabs from pharmacies, that’s a big problem.

Because that’s essential for diabetic people who need regular insulin injections.

Alcohol Swabs Sold Out

Lest you didn’t know, it’s not fine to have diabetes. Other than being the 10th leading cause of death in Singapore, there are now 400,000 people with diabetes, and that number is projected to go up to 600,000 by 2030.

We’ve made a video about diabetes so you can watch it if you can tahan our Singlish:

It’s so bad, Singapore has declared war against the disease.

Because there’s no cure, the only solution is treatment. One of it is daily insulin injections.

Reader Bao: In…jections?

Yes, injections, as in a needle poking into your skin.

injection
Image: Telnov Oleksii / Shutterstock.com

Reader Bao: Shit, I really need to control my diet liao

Right.

And as any normal human being, you’d know that you need an alcohol swab to clean the skin first before poking the needle in.

Image: Mohd Syis Zulkipli / Shutterstock.com

This is to disinfect the skin.

You can technically pour alcohol on cotton to create an alcohol swab, or just pour alcohol on your skin if you’ve many commas in your bank account, but most, if not all, people use a pre-made alcohol swab lah.

It’s not that expensive: a box of 100 alcohol swabs costs just $4.90—a spare change compared anything that’s inside the syringe.

But for some reason, irrational people in Singapore are hoarding alcohol swabs.

That’s akin to using a toothbrush to clean a room lah.

On 5 February 2020, Singapore Facebook Page Just keep Thinking relates a conversation between a pharmacy staff and a customer, whereby the customer, who’s diabetic, could not buy his usual alcohol swabs because it was sold out.

The post got viral and sparked a conversation: have we succumbed so much to our fears that we’re buying highly irrational stuff…like alcohol swabs?

Well, a check today shows that it’s still out of stock, so the answer is yes: fear and panic have completely clouded our judgement. No, correction: they’ve clouded our sanity.

Image: watsons.com.sg

Thank God Diabetes Singapore, a non-profit organisation affiliated to the International Diabetes Federation and the National Council of Social Service, steps in and is now giving 400 packs of free alcohol swabs (each with 10 swabs).

You can collect it as long as you can prove that you have diabetes and not kiasuetes.

The swabs are sponsored by Aeras Medical, a company that sell high-tech medical products. The collection period will last until the end of this month.

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You can collect from these locations:

Diabetes Singapore Head Office
528 Jurong West Street 52, #01-353, Singapore 640526

Diabetes Singapore Branch Office
22 Boon Keng Road, #01-15, Singapore 330022

Mobile Screening Buses (call 6564 9818 to know where the buses are)

This is how it’ll look like:

Now, if you’re diabetic and are running out of alcohol swabs, and didn’t want to take the free swabs, don’t worry: you can simply go online to buy.

A check on Amazon.sg, Shopee and other online platforms show that stocks are still readily available.

So heard over to the digital world if you’re sick and tired of seeing selfish and inconsiderable people in healthcare shops.