COVID-19 Outbreak: 313 Confirmed Cases in SG, 117 Discharged, 15 Critical (18 Mar)

[Albeniz]

3 hours ago, Volvobrick said:

You sure know a lot more than those guys in China, the epicenter of the outbreak, and where not wearing masks means not going out.  Read the letter from the 4 good doctors, some of them having survived SARS. 

Masks not being 100% effective preventing infection is not an excuse for not preparing enough stockpile of masks for contingencies like this.  Even N95 is not 100% effective, just look at the number of healthcare workers infected in China.  It doesn't mean telling HCW no need to wear them.

I think there is a difference between prioritising the limited stockpile (due to inadequate planning or whatever reasons) for HCW first, and outright saying wearing masks when healthy is irresponsible, idiotic and ineffective.

 

I like your last paragraph.

 

 

 

 

 

[Victor68]

7 hours ago, Ct3833 said:

doctors wear mask, nurses wear masks but minister said no need to wear mask.  The truth was unveiled  when his conversation during a close door meeting with SCCI was unfortunately  leaked out.Now we know why he said that. Rightly or wrongly, i shall not comment. 

I think majority of us understand mask does help and there is nothing to deny this fact. The key question should be, is the a shortage worldwide now for mask and who should be given priority it supply is limited? Unfortunately not everyone has the rationale to think simple fact like this and not wearing one now does not mean you will be infected. So as a responsible person, what should you do to protect others and yourself?

Why mask is shortage? This is even a simpler question. I am sure not need to further elaborate. Can production increase to meet demand? 100% is this demand stays. Like any commodities,  got buyers sure can produce. CCS criticize those irresponsible people is totally correct, maybe as minister,  he should choose his language but I said the same when people asked me. Haha

[Ct3833]

16 minutes ago, Victor68 said:

I think majority of us understand mask does help and there is nothing to deny this fact. The key question should be, is the a shortage worldwide now for mask and who should be given priority it supply is limited? Unfortunately not everyone has the rationale to think simple fact like this and not wearing one now does not mean you will be infected. So as a responsible person, what should you do to protect others and yourself?

Why mask is shortage? This is even a simpler question. I am sure not need to further elaborate. Can production increase to meet demand? 100% is this demand stays. Like any commodities,  got buyers sure can produce. CCS criticize those irresponsible people is totally correct, maybe as minister,  he should choose his language but I said the same when people asked me. Haha

I dont disagree with his point about people's behavior. I also  feel strongly he should be careful with his choice of word as a minister. My point was his initial message was confusing many SGPrean. 

 

[Weez911]

8 hours ago, Volvobrick said:

You sure know a lot more than those guys in China, the epicenter of the outbreak, and where not wearing masks means not going out.  Read the letter from the 4 good doctors, some of them having survived SARS. 

Masks not being 100% effective preventing infection is not an excuse for not preparing enough stockpile of masks for contingencies like this.  Even N95 is not 100% effective, just look at the number of healthcare workers infected in China.  It doesn't mean telling HCW no need to wear them.

I think there is a difference between prioritising the limited stockpile (due to inadequate planning or whatever reasons) for HCW first, and outright saying wearing masks when healthy is irresponsible, idiotic and ineffective.

Great post.

That's the reason why you suddenly see hundreds of IB accounts patrolling HWZ and MCF for damage control. This has become a political quagmire for them.

This is what I will advise people if I'm the govt on 21 Jan 2020 (with the benefit of some hindsight, of course) - "We have 16m masks as of now. As we do not know how severe or how long this viral outbreak will turn out, we will not be releasing them to retailers but will prioritise them for healthcare, transport and other frontline workers who need them more urgently. We are working with our sources to bring in more masks as we are speaking. Meanwhile, please try to avoid crowded areas if you do not have enough masks. If you have masks, please wear them to protect yourself."

Re hoarders of food and groceries, I think the govt can also look at themselves in the mirror and ask why there is a distrust in the populace. There is always a cause to it.

[BenTong]

Come peacetime,  would strongly recommend each household to stock:

2 boxes of surgical mask per head = 100 pieces

1 box of N95 per head 

30 bottles of hand sanitizer per head
 

Every 3 years (expiry) throw and replenish.. 
 

 

Don’t have.. Fine $5k or 3 weeks attachment with undertaker

Edited February 19, 2020 by BenTong

[Solar]

1 hour ago, Victor68 said:

I think majority of us understand mask does help and there is nothing to deny this fact. The key question should be, is the a shortage worldwide now for mask and who should be given priority it supply is limited? Unfortunately not everyone has the rationale to think simple fact like this and not wearing one now does not mean you will be infected. So as a responsible person, what should you do to protect others and yourself?

Why mask is shortage? This is even a simpler question. I am sure not need to further elaborate. Can production increase to meet demand? 100% is this demand stays. Like any commodities,  got buyers sure can produce. CCS criticize those irresponsible people is totally correct, maybe as minister,  he should choose his language but I said the same when people asked me. Haha

They were caught with their pants down, along with the rest of the world. No doubt about it now that it's clear.. They are just too egoistic to admit it.

Who to blame? The peasants that received half info from them and reacted irrationally lor..

[PSP415]

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/hundreds-pen-notes-of-appreciation-to-front-line-fighters

The messages are genuinely hit on the nail type of sincere thanks to all on the frontline, still fighting and not giving up.

THANK YOU to all in MCF doing exactly the same be it as doctors, nurses, hospital staff doing extras at temporary tables to take temperature and contact of all who visited, the security guards who are exceptionally gentle at their work, cleaners seen doing alot of cleaning and many behind the scene personnel whose roles i do not know but i sensed the unity.

The knowledge and comfort that if ever i am down with this virus, i will be in good hands offers a peace of mind too priceless to count.

Unite and fight this Covid-19 together. Humans vs virus. 

Take care and practise good personal hygiene. Wash hands regularly and build up strong immunity. Give virus no chance to stay any longer or find new hosts.

Safe ride too.

Cheers 

[Victor68]

Crisis like this actually is good for the country and individual like us. For the country, it tests the stress point to see if we are ready and are able to react. Think out of the box and work together as a nation. For individual , now it is a good time to know the people around you and know them better. Are they selfish,  self centred and will push you down the drain when you looking for that support. Are they part of the community and willing to fight together? So, do study carefully as the fair weather friends will reveal in front of you now.

[BenTong]

19 minutes ago, Solar said:

They were caught with their pants down, along with the rest of the world. No doubt about it now that it's clear.. They are just too egoistic to admit it.

Who to blame? The peasants that received half info from them and reacted irrationally lor..

That’s quite a sexist thing to say. The rest of the  world .. some leaders wear skirt hoh..

[Fcw75]

15 minutes ago, Victor68 said:

Crisis like this actually is good for the country and individual like us. For the country, it tests the stress point to see if we are ready and are able to react. Think out of the box and work together as a nation. For individual , now it is a good time to know the people around you and know them better. Are they selfish,  self centred and will push you down the drain when you looking for that support. Are they part of the community and willing to fight together? So, do study carefully as the fair weather friends will reveal in front of you now.

I can only say, this crisis really bring out the ugly side of Singaporeans. Or rather human in general.

[Weez911]

Why make my son go NS when there has been no war in Singapore for the past 75 years?

Total defence my foot.

#IBLogic

Edited February 20, 2020 by Weez911

[Galantspeedz]

Over the years, many have slowly but surely forgotten the lessons learnt from SARS..... in addition, Singaporeans do not have a i will wear mask if you are sick culture 

But I don't see anyone blaming themselves for not keeping a box or two of masks at home. Instead many are blaming the govt for keeping only 15m of mask stockpile lol

[Neutrino]

43 minutes ago, BenTong said:

Come peacetime,  would strongly recommend each household to stock:

2 boxes of surgical mask per head = 100 pieces

1 box of N95 per head 

30 bottles of hand sanitizer per head
 

Every 3 years (expiry) throw and replenish.. 
 

 

Don’t have.. Fine $5k or 3 weeks attachment with undertaker

Masks can be used during heavy haze periods and then say a new box of 50 bought every year.

Cost is what - S$6

Ditto hand sanitizer although I think a stock of 30 bottles is ott.

[Weez911]

https://berthahenson.wordpress.com/

Virally speaking

In News Reports on February 19, 2020 at 2:11 am

Your network of friends can’t be very wide if you haven’t at least heard about a leaked audio tape featuring Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing. It’s been making the rounds of social media, particularly on WhatsApp messaging groups. Some alternative websites have picked it up and this led, predictably, to a chorus of laments and imprecations levelled at the minister.

Since no one has denied the provenance of the audio clip and the leak can’t be described as an offence under the Official Secrets Act, I am going to stick out my neck here to write about it. Heck, even the South China Morning Post has reported it. 

The background:  Mr Chan was speaking to businessmen from the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Feb 10. As is the fashion these days, it was behind closed-doors. It seems that whatever injunction to keep the discussion of the meeting private wasn’t heeded, a move that the SCCCI has lamented as “regretful” and “disappointing”.

In any case, Mr Chan, to put it mildly, really “gave it’’ to those who complain about not getting their hands on more masks and those hoarding rice, instant noodles and toilet paper when the DORSCON alert turned orange on Feb 7. In a mix of English and Singlish, he made his feelings known: They were stupid. Idiots. Suckers. Disgraceful or sia suay (as he put it in Hokkien). They would drag down the image Singapore has a nation of sensible people and a place to do business. He wanted to scold people but, in public, he had to maintain his composure and be polite, he said.

In fact, what he told reporters at an earlier occasion was rather mild:  “Many countries are facing the same situation, and everybody is also looking at how the respective countries respond to the situation… If (we do not respond) collectively, we will undermine the international confidence in our system and in our society, and that will have long-term ramifications.’’ 

Frankly, I was mesmerised by the recording. This is straight-talk, Singapore style, not mealy-mouthed platitudes by a politician who wants to play safe with various constituencies. Watching ministers talk about how they “understood’’ what motivated the panic rush to supermarkets exasperated me. In my view, an idiot is an idiot. 

But Mr Chan’s monologue during the dialogue wasn’t merely a rant. He also explained how the G came to the decision to give out four masks to each family. It was a “gamble’’ to calm nerves. Unloading the stockpile at once would leave hospital workers in danger of going without one.  The trouble, he said, was that people look at what other countries are doing to contain the Covid-19 virus and ask why Singapore isn’t doing the same.  In my view, he was trying to lay out the difficulties in decision-making.

He also  tried to put reason into people’s irrationality. He believed that people here were clamouring for toilet paper because those in Hong Kong were doing so. Except that the Hong Kongers were doing so because the toilet paper factories in China, their source, was being converted into mask makers. Singapore, however, gets its toilet paper from Malaysia and Indonesia. In other words, silly people. (Also my words) 

Yes, he got impolitic at times. He referred to the confusion in Hong Kong where leaders initially turned up for press conferences on the virus outbreak masked up. If Singapore had followed in Hong Kong’s footsteps “without thinking”, he said, “I can guarantee you, today our hospital system would have broken down”. “There will be no more surgical masks for our hospital people because …all used up like tissue paper.”

Mr Chan did not refer to the leaked audio in a Facebook post on Feb 17, when the decibel was escalating, beyond saying that “ trust and confidentiality’’ will be critical in the sharing of sensitive matters behind closed doors. But he was clearly unapologetic about the tone and the words he had used. He does not mince his words when he’s asked for frank assessments, he said. The subtext is that the fault laid with the whistle-blower. 

This isn’t going to go down well with those who thought he came across as crude and arrogant towards the people who elected him to serve. Some even mocked his language skills.

I would go easy on him. I think honesty and candour are better attributes than hypocrisy and platitudes. Also, if he thought engaging in colloqualisms would put his message across better, why not? Obviously, he can “channel switch’’ to standard English if he saw the need for it. 

While I emphatised with his exasperation, what disappointed me was how he didn’t seem to think that any misunderstanding on the part of the populace ( or even a segment of it), could be partly attributed to the Government. (Unless he did speak about it but it wasn’t captured in the leaked audio) 

I recall National Development Minister Lawrence Wong throwing the blame for the food-run when the orange alert came on, squarely on the shoulders of the people. They had misunderstood the messages despite the G’s “best efforts’’, he said. He even threw news editors who attended briefings under the bus, when he implied that they had “misunderstood’’ it too. 

A misunderstanding? Or a mis-communication? I would call it “under communication’’. The fact remains that people were/are unsure about what the various colour coded alerts mean, especially if, as we are now told, some measures from different alert levels could also be in place.  I covered the H1N1 outbreak and even I had problems recalling what the alerts translated to in practice and more importantly, how it affected the psychological preparedness of the people.

(It’s like the public warning signal that we all heard on Saturday, Total Defence Day. Was it to test the signalling equipment or to test the people’s consciousness?  Do we know what those sounds meant? And if this was a “real’’ signal, do we know what we’re supposed to do? ) 

I am firmly behind the G’s efforts to contain the virus. Even if I have reservations about its actions, I would refrain from saying anything immediately because I know that the G would have a lot more information than I do and make a better informed decision than I ever can. It should make its decisions in peace. 

But it doesn’t seem to have good instincts about people. Did it really not think that some people would leap to the conclusions that masks are in short supply because it was being “rationed”? It’s much-vaunted grassroots network is great at “doing” but seems to be failing at “sensing”. And who among the G leaked the orange alert news before a full explanation can be given? This seems to me to be more egregious offence (OSA!) than the leaked audio file which the SCCCI actually said it was “investigating”.

I believe most people trust the G to make decisions, and they are usually the right decisions. But over-explaining a decision is better than expecting that everyone will follow just because. Even as people wait for instructions, you cannot expect that they would not keep a watch on what other countries are doing. This is not about reading fake news, but real news. You cannot expect them not to compare – and to ask why.  

I didn’t mind Mr Chan’s straight talk at all.  But I wish that he had also demonstrated some humility – that the G, despite its best efforts, isn’t perfect too. 

[BenTong]

3 minutes ago, Neutrino said:

Masks can be used during heavy haze periods and then say a new box of 50 bought every year.

Cost is what - S$6

Ditto hand sanitizer although I think a stock of 30 bottles is ott.

Please la.. it’s not about the qty it’s about the internship with the undertaker la. 

Edited February 20, 2020 by BenTong

[Victor68]

15 minutes ago, Fcw75 said:

I can only say, this crisis really bring out the ugly side of Singaporeans. Or rather human in general.

Say people lah, not all the people you saw are Singaporean. But if you know any of them, you know what to do and how to deal with them. 

[Mustank]

16 minutes ago, Galantspeedz said:

Over the years, many have slowly but surely forgotten the lessons learnt from SARS..... in addition, Singaporeans do not have a i will wear mask if you are sick culture 

But I don't see anyone blaming themselves for not keeping a box or two of masks at home. Instead many are blaming the govt for keeping only 15m of mask stockpile lol

Not me leh 

I got prep pro mask

Edited February 20, 2020 by Mustank

[Ody_2004]

19 minutes ago, Weez911 said:

Why make my son go NS when there has been no war in Singapore for the past 75 years?

Total defence my foot.

#IBLogic

errr.. what if otherwise? If no NS war come? this like buying insurance.. buy and hope don use! whahahahahaha...

I oso got 2 sons.. one going in April..