Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) Updates

[pirate]

I don't believe it has been highlighted in the media, but for those who are special needs or related medical conditions (eg for the resident of Mindsville), they may be allowed to not wear a mask, hence the more prevalent spread.

I agree that the cases in Mindsville may not give a good picture of vaccine efficacy, or SMM efficacy. Paul Tambyah did say something like this when interviewed on the news one night - that those with special needs are less likely to comply fully with the SMM or hygiene rules. Since they live there, it's likely that they need not be masked all the time, just as patients in hospitals do not need to be masked all the time. We also aren't required to mask when at home.

Erhm... Wouldn't this actually give a more accurate picture of vaccine efficacy? Otherwise, the X% may actually be due to SMM.

[WE2012]

Seeing as 27 out of the 30 positive cases at MINDSville are fully vaccinated, which corresponds nicely with 91% of the 255 are fully vaccinated, the numbers suggest the real life effectiveness of the 'gold standard' vaccine against mild and asymptomatic infection of the delta variant is close to 0%.

88% my foot. Those people in the UK and US on the whole do not test for mild and asymptomatic infection like we do, unless the person voluntarily turns up at testing centre.

Wear your mask and keep to the social distancing even if vaccinated.

We must remember that Pfizer's and Moderna's definition of vaccine efficacy have and always been defined as efficacy against "symptomatic infection". It has never been defined as efficacy against "infection (i.e. asymptomatic and symptomatic) or transmission. If we take Pfizer's and Moderna's efficacy definition and ignored those coined by politicians, infections that had happen at MINDSville is entirely possible.

Take note that if we use Pfizer's and Moderna's efficacy definition, it is entirely possible for a vaccine to have 0% efficacy against covid-19 infection and a 95% efficiacy against symptomatic covid-19 infection at the same time.

[WE2012]

I don't believe it has been highlighted in the media, but for those who are special needs or related medical conditions (eg for the resident of Mindsville), they may be allowed to not wear a mask, hence the more prevalent spread.

The key lesson from MINDSville is that it is impossible to achieve herd immunity from vaccination. That is not the key function of vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna, that is meant to reduce probability of symptomatic infection. Vaccination is meant to reduce the risk of severe illness for population that are vulnerable to severe covid-19 infection. The vaccines are not meant for preventing infection or transmission.

[phtthp]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/sg.news.ya ... 40088.html

How to interpret above ?

situation is bad enough now.

When July Term 3 come, can Secondary school students go back to school or still remain HBL ?

[zac's mum]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/sg.news.ya ... 40088.html

How to interpret above ?

situation is bad enough now.

When July Term 3 come, can Secondary school students go back to school or still remain HBL ?

Not sure. But 13 June is still one more week away. And Term 3 is three more weeks away. So we just wait and see ba. We are enjoying the holidays at home nice & relaxed in the meantime.

[tankee]

My guess is, the graduating classes will be first to resume in person classes. Since most of them would have received 1 dose by then. And more time critical for these students to be ready for their important exams.

The others will depends on trending of unlinked community cases, % of students received 1 dose, etc

last thing anyone want is right after resuming of in person classes, a school cluster follows.

[Estéema]

To understand the right perspective of vaccines use to fight covid & the purpose & efficacies including why children are encouraged to get vaccinated.

Prof David Lye, NCID :-

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_ ... 2580540928

“Why faked science and anti-vaccine groups are dangerous in a pandemic”

This public post is by me, an infectious disease specialist. You can find it on my Facebook. No need to contact me to check. After the unintended attention from the “social bubble” Facebook post, I have stayed low. But I must now correct misinformation on COVID vaccination.

Please feel free to share widely to inform the Singapore public (eg high school, JC, university, medical classmates, family, work, hobby or religious chat groups on WhatsApp or Telegram; social media eg Facebook or Twitter)

Recently, I suffered insomnia reading messages and petitions urging parents not to vaccinate their teenagers, demanding that our government stop mRNA vaccines and use Sinovac, and advising ivermectin as treatment and prevention for COVID instead of vaccination. Some of these were from a group of doctors including a Dr Paul IW Yang, and a Dr Oon Chong Jin (a private cancer specialist who championed hepatitis B vaccination in Singapore). Incidentally, hepatitis B vaccine is not a killed whole virus vaccine.

Doctors are well respected in our society. Hence their advice may influence the public to avoid COVID vaccination. We should be upset when these doctors quote dubious international experts and research potentially misleading the public.

Firstly, why vaccinate children and teenagers? They do not usually have severe COVID unless they have health problems. But they do carry as much virus as adults if they are infected. They can infect adults with poor immunity and older adults, who may become sick. UK has shown that Pfizer-Biontech and Astrazeneca vaccines reduced household transmission by 50-60%. These doctors claimed that mRNA vaccines do not reduce transmission.

Secondly, mRNA vaccines are one of the most effective COVID vaccines. They reduce symptomatic COVID by 95%, reduce hospitalisation for severe COVID by >90% and prevent transmission by >60%. There is a wealth of data from US, UK and Israel on their safety. Importantly mRNA vaccines are effective against UK b117 (93%), South African b1351 (75-90%) and b1617.2 (88%) variants. There is hardly any data on Sinovac against the variants. Laboratory studies showed that Sinovac may not work well in Brazilian b1128 and South African b1351 variants. Although these doctors claimed Sinovac is superior to mRNA vaccines against variants. there is little data to confirm it is effective for b1617.2, and there is data to suggest it is less effective against other variants.

These doctors claimed that mRNA vaccines were developed in a rush. All COVID vaccines have been developed rapidly. There is huge investment by governments and companies. Many people volunteered in clinical trials. The trials could be completed rapidly as many countries experienced huge epidemics last year. In fact, Sinovac and Sinopharm were approved in China before the trials were completed.

Singapore and China have strong relationships. There is no reason for Singapore not to approve Sinovac. But approval requires data judged to be adequate. As our government explained, HSA is still awaiting reply from Sinovac on its queries. With the latest update on criteria for mRNA vaccines, there are very few reasons why a person cannot take mRNA vaccines. These doctors are pressuring HSA to ignore rigorous review process.

In fact, even though inactivated whole virus vaccine is an old technology, it is not harmless and we still need to watch out for side effects. In the 1960’s, two inactivated vaccines for measles and respiratory syncytial virus led to more severe disease, and were withdrawn.

These doctors quoted a study that showed SARS-CoV-2 RNA from COVID infection could be integrated into human cells. While this has been quickly debunked by scientists as an artefact of the laboratory methods, these doctors failed to understand that mRNA from vaccines do not last for more than 2 days in our body and are different from viral RNA from COVID infection.

Thirdly, some of these doctors are advocating the use of unproven treatment for COVID including ivermectin (a treatment for parasites) and fluvoxamine (an antidepressant), and ivermectin to prevent COVID instead of vaccination! Ivermectin has not been proven to be effective in COVID. Very few properly conducted clinical trials have been published. Among others, evidence cited for ivermectin in COVID included the faked database company called Surgisphere which led to two journal retractions from the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine and Lancet in 2020. In a large trial conducted at a dormitory by National University Hospital doctors including Professor Ananth Tambyah, ivermectin was NOT effective in preventing COVID.

I urge the Singapore public to be aware and alert of faked science on social media. Anti-vaccine groups from Singapore and overseas are highly active. We must win this war against the virus. Effective COVID vaccines are a part of our solution.

[phtthp]

My guess is, the graduating classes will be first to resume in person classes. Since most of them would have received 1 dose by then. And more time critical for these students to be ready for their important exams.

The others will depends on trending of unlinked community cases, % of students received 1 dose, etc

last thing anyone want is right after resuming of in person classes, a school cluster follows.

Thank you, zac mom & tankee. Appreciated both your replies.

That means, likely for graduation cohort 2021 Sec 4 O-level students to go back to school face-to-face for lessons, while

non-graduation cohort (Sec 1 to Sec 3 O-level & IP students) will "depend on situation", then decide. "zou yi bu, kan yi bu"

[sky minecrafter]

My guess is, the graduating classes will be first to resume in person classes. Since most of them would have received 1 dose by then. And more time critical for these students to be ready for their important exams.

The others will depends on trending of unlinked community cases, % of students received 1 dose, etc

last thing anyone want is right after resuming of in person classes, a school cluster follows.

Thank you, zac mom & tankee. Appreciated both your replies.

That means, likely for graduation cohort 2021 Sec 4 O-level students to go back to school face-to-face for lessons, while

non-graduation cohort (Sec 1 to Sec 3 O-level & IP students) will "depend on situation", then decide. "zou yi bu, kan yi bu"

We have (JC2) Common Tests right after holidays

@Estéema. 🦾

I wonder if there will be some kind of school-social bubble... Before the break (17May~), my (secondary school) kid had to sit one metre away from his project-mates, and hold discussions using hand gestures/ devices... ... And, there are a good bunch of project deadlines in Term 3...

[chenlaoshi]

This sharing from a caregiver of someone with special needs who had to serve QO due to the cluster at cluster at MINDSville@Napiri shows there's still some way to go towards building an inclusive society. Sigh...

https://www.facebook.com/amyliakohhh/po ... 7125424642

Another sharing from a mum on her son's struggles with swab tests:
https://www.facebook.com/friendsofasdfa ... 3098897971