That really is the question is it not? We are fast approaching the 3rd year since the COVID pandemic, and yet we appear to be right back where we started. Just last week, there were talks of resuming safe-distancing measures, lockdowns and new vaccines that have to be taken to ensure our community's protection. Before this, there were talks about returning to normalcy as well as discussions regarding the possibility of an "endemic disease". Here we go again, as the old concerns and problems have risen up again. From the fears regarding the vaccination of children to distrust in medical institutions, these topics have been dredged up again as the COVIID-19 appears to loom over us once again. In today's edition of DND, we will be exploring the current covid situation, the new bivalent vaccine and tackling the concerns about vaccinating children, the distrust in medical institutions as well as an evaluation of Singapore's stance towards COVID.
To kick things off, let's talk about XBB the variant that has kicked us all back into high gear. The "X" is meant to refer to the recombinant characteristic (meaning it possesses DNA of the previous variants) of the variant while the "BB" is meant to denote the variant with respect to the others in terms of the chronological order. The virus's transmissibility is exceedingly high, this is due to its recombinant characteristic, hence allowing it to be more adept at immune evasion. However, in terms of the severity of the virus, according to experts and initial data, it will not be more deadly and may actually become less virulent (Deadly). In fact, XBB cases are estimated to have a 30% lower risk of hospitalization compared to Omicron BA.5 variant cases according to the Singaporean government based on preliminary findings on the new variant.
Now that we have talked about the virus, the next natural topic to tackle would be the vaccine. And it is not just any vaccine, it is the bivalent vaccine. The reason why it is called the bivalent vaccine is because of the 2 unique components that it contains. It holds a component of the original COVID-19 strain and a component of the Omicron variant. These bivalent boosters are meant to "update" the immune system to make people more resistant to XBB. However, the question remains, who is this vaccine for? Let's face the facts here, if you are a healthy individual who has already gotten your primary shots, there is no need for you to get the bivalent vaccine. The virus is not more severe than the previous variants. The only reason why you should take the vaccine is if you are worried about the virus being transmitted to you. The people who should be concerned about virus transmission should be the elderly or those who have pre-existing medical conditions that COVID could worsen.
So, you might be thinking at this point, if it really is this simple, why is this still an issue? This is because of general distrust in medical institutions and covid fatigue. The latter being more prominent. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. We shall start with the topic of trust in medical institutions. Depending on the country, there are varying levels of trust in the medical institutions. During the pandemic, there was a great deal of uncertainty. Covid was a new virus that was supposedly affecting the entire world. The problem is, in times of chaos, the people need to be able to trust the government because the national reaction time need to be quick and there might not be time for proper discussions. However, when there is no trust, they will not trust the policy directives given by the government and will refuse to follow. This is why there was a failure in the implementation of policy in many western countries around the world, the people did not think that they were in safe hands.
However, the more prevailing issue, is COVID fatigue. It has been 3 years. Most people would like to move on. This is because whilst it was a threat in the first year, the dominant narrative was that as soon as we all got vaccinated, COVID would be over, and we would be able to return to normalcy. After all, the chances of you developing severe cases of COVID would be significantly lower. However, a few months after the primary vaccination, there was "breaking news" about a mutated strain. This strain got tremendous news coverage followed by the revelation that although studies were ongoing, this new strain means that there was going to be another spike in cases so the rest of the population was advised to adhere to mask wearing and safe distancing measures along with the warnings and reminders that if the cases escalated too much, the safe distancing measures might return.
Each country's stance towards covid is different. It is this stance and response that will shape people's impression of the government and the level of trust they will have in the event of future emergencies. So, let's talk about Singapore. To be honest, I was quite miffed with Singapore's response initially. However, relative to other countries, our officials have actually done a pretty good job when it comes to containing the virus, pushing for vaccination as well as for easing Singapore back into the endemic phase. When we talk about the containment of the virus, the lockdown was the only viable and effective solution. They had no idea what the virus was and hence needed time to study it whilst keeping the population away from the disease. In fact, Singapore was one of the few countries where the lockdowns were successfully carried out. And while I hate that this is a compliment, our leaders also led by example as they did not flagrantly break their own COVID rules like those of other countries, which basically undermined trust in future government policies.
When it comes to the vaccination rollout, Singapore also followed a firm plan of inoculating the most vulnerable and important first. They jabbed the high-ranking officials and other government officials and then they went to the elderly before doubling back to the general adult population and then teenagers followed by young children. In fact, they even made use of a vaccine mandate to push the people to ensure that people got vaccinated. The best part about this was the fact that Singapore waited till there was evidence that the vaccines would restrict transmission. Hence, that coupled with the desire to return to normalcy was enough of a push to convince most of the general population to take their vaccination. As for pushing Singapore to the endemic phase, despite the early stages of 2022 where the booster shot was made compulsory, the government realised that there was no need to force the rest of the population to take the other booster jabs and bivalent vaccines. Instead, they shifted their approach to focus on the more vulnerable parts of the population and began encouraging senior citizens to get their vaccinations.
However, at this point, many of you might bring up the fact that the government always talks about the potential spike and that they might need to resume the safe-distancing measures, however, those are just words, if you look at their actions, they are continuously taking steps to remove the SMM put in place. The reason why they do this is to prevent over-excitement from the general public that might lead to them behaving in ways that would have dramatically escalated the number of cases.
Look, at the end of the day, COVID-19 was a truly terrifying pandemic as it tested all governmental and medical institutions in their capacity to take care of the rest of the world. The thing to remember is that at the end of the day covid is just one virus. There are going to be many more viruses in the future, and they will probably be more virulent and more transmissible. We need to be prepared and we need to be ready. The problem is we probably never will be. The most that we will ever be able to do is to keep learning from our experiences and trying to do better. COVID taught us the importance of trusting our leaders. We have worked well together but there were moments of tension in our society. If we want to prevent the same misfortune that has befallen western society, we need to talk and more importantly, listen to one another.
tl;dr The only way to win is if we fight together
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