COVID-19: Lawrence Wong, Gan Kim Yong & the Multi-Ministry Taskforce

[Freeder]

12 hours ago, Kangadrool said:

辛苦你们了！

没事没事！

[BenTong]

1 hour ago, yishunite said:

From the way the virus kills old ppl god is culling boomers? #boomerremover

Don’t worry you will get there one day..

[yishunite]

Dun ask qns if u wont like the answers... this virus is very specific... old ppl with pre existing conditions

[Windwaver]

19 hours ago, Sosaria said:

But hair still jet black, and piled thick. Blacker than mine. Why uncles of that generation all must dye hair until so unnaturally solid black? Quite a few ministar like that.

Even my dongbei darling tell me to choose a slight hint of brown , not total black , which looks fake.

Aiya, got hair can liao, who cares what color? 

[Jusnel]

On 3/20/2020 at 1:05 PM, Inlinefour said:

they are paid millions of taxpayers money

if no stress and easy

then everyone can be multi millionaire

serving nation vs millions

my 2ml worth of Ron 92

 

Stay healthy all my fellow mcfers ♥️

Dont be lame. 

If they are not paid well, then do they say "hey, I'm not paid million dollars salary. So I'm not going to do a good job for this Convid 19 situation?"

 

It's the sense of responsibility that they have towards the country, whether its million dollars or thousand dollars salary. 

With the million dollars salary, u think they love to tackle the virus situation?  They rather return the salary and not have the virus situation in Singapore. 

[Volvobrick]

3 hours ago, yishunite said:

Dun ask qns if u wont like the answers... this virus is very specific... old ppl with pre existing conditions

Like Thanos junior....unfortunately.

[ALTK]

18 hours ago, Kangadrool said:

辛苦你们了！

祖国万岁！CCP万岁！😷

[Philipkee]

Actually, politicians stressed is one thing.  The stress on the frontliners is much worse cos they are physically on the front line.  And they are paid much lesser than the ministers. 

I was asked by my employer in an anonymous survey (hee I dunno how anonymous it is anyway since they sent to your official email), on how to reduce stress on frontliners.

First thing I say is higher pay and bonus.  It's kind of standard. 

Secondly, i mentioned workload is beyond the control of the organisation since it's a national issue to be decided at govt level.  And hiring more staff is not a big issue SINCE there is space constraints.  Doctors here may also agree while when one is busy one appreciates more staff, too many will add to stress as they get into each other's way.  We are still short but we cant just mass hire.  It must be calibrated (kind of like our population issue).

Lastly, I did suggest this.  Perhaps 10% of unused HL/SL can be converted to AL the following year (or encashed?) maybe cap at 5 days (cos 5 days will equal one week of leave after taking into account a five day work week).  This would give staff more rest and less likely to take MC cos they just want to sleep in..  Of cos they can't come to work sick just to get the leave but I doubt they will.  If they do its probably an ingrained habit which must be changed...

Not sure if my suggestion will be taken up by anyone.....

 

 

Edited March 22, 2020 by Philipkee

[Vinceng]

No other countries have done  a better job in curbing the Covit19 than Singapore. Kudos to the brilliant team, especially  National  Development Minister, Lawrence Wong.

Very intelligent person who excels beyond his role as National Devt Minister.

Minister Wong is no doubt Prime Minister calibre! 

[Yewheng]

On 3/20/2020 at 12:59 PM, yishunite said:

I think lawrence wong doing great job overall too

He is a very good minister.. He speaks the truth of many things even if the truth hurts. Like the 99 years lease hdb flats... He also speak the truth that once 99 yrs is up, government will take back.. 

Hope he will continue to be a minister and not to be sidelined out when this coming GE were to be announced. 

[Hydrocarbon]

16 hours ago, Icedbs said:

I agree that things could be far worse if they are incompetent. But I cannot agree that  the current spread is not preventable.

China gave the world a template  and a headstart of how serious this virus is.  The world , including WHO downplayed it from the start and treat it like as if it is a China problem only. 

There are many strict measures we could have done from the start of the spread, but we did not. Even now some of the measures were lukewarm at best.

 

What China did, not every country can replicate. And even then, if we followed the same template, how long can we do that for? If we lock down our borders for a month, devastate our economy, and open up afterwards, do we lock the borders down again when there are imported cases?

Unless every single country lock down their borders for the same period of time, and track down all their infected cases, isolate / quarantine / ICU them and flush out the virus, I don't see how a lock down will work in the long run. We just need to look south / south west to see another country denying that they have any cases (for quite a while) and north to see a health minister telling the people that drinking warm water kills the virus.

In the end, it's a balancing act, have an economy going, however bad it may be, while trying to reduce the spread. And, opposite of ACS motto, the worst is yet to be.

 

6 hours ago, Philipkee said:

Lastly, I did suggest this.  Perhaps 10% of unused HL/SL can be converted to AL the following year (or encashed?) maybe cap at 5 days (cos 5 days will equal one week of leave after taking into account a five day work week).  This would give staff more rest and less likely to take MC cos they just want to sleep in..  Of cos they can't come to work sick just to get the leave but I doubt they will.  If they do its probably an ingrained habit which must be changed... 

 

I support (at least for govt hospitals) using tax money after the crisis is over, to give more AL the next year to frontline staff. You guys face that sh*t day in day out. I've read threads / comments on reddit, especially in Italy and other hard hit places, that the medical staff probably need more therapy after the crisis is over. So, more mental health days would be good too, in future.

For now, thanks for what you and the other medical peeps are doing!

[Icedbs]

1 hour ago, Hydrocarbon said:

 

What China did, not every country can replicate. And even then, if we followed the same template, how long can we do that for? If we lock down our borders for a month, devastate our economy, and open up afterwards, do we lock the borders down again when there are imported cases?

Not about replicating what China did....but look at China on how severely this virus spread and take it seriously right from the start,. That's the warning...but guess what, almost every country downplay it at the start despite their headstart.

As this virus outbreak is a global issue, the economy will be devastated regardless whether we lock down the borders or not. Is our economy and stock market now "saved" just because we didn't close our borders at the beginning.? 

Edited March 22, 2020 by Icedbs

[Weez911]

13 hours ago, Philipkee said:

Actually, politicians stressed is one thing.  The stress on the frontliners is much worse cos they are physically on the front line.  And they are paid much lesser than the ministers. 

I was asked by my employer in an anonymous survey (hee I dunno how anonymous it is anyway since they sent to your official email), on how to reduce stress on frontliners.

First thing I say is higher pay and bonus.  It's kind of standard. 

Secondly, i mentioned workload is beyond the control of the organisation since it's a national issue to be decided at govt level.  And hiring more staff is not a big issue SINCE there is space constraints.  Doctors here may also agree while when one is busy one appreciates more staff, too many will add to stress as they get into each other's way.  We are still short but we cant just mass hire.  It must be calibrated (kind of like our population issue).

Lastly, I did suggest this.  Perhaps 10% of unused HL/SL can be converted to AL the following year (or encashed?) maybe cap at 5 days (cos 5 days will equal one week of leave after taking into account a five day work week).  This would give staff more rest and less likely to take MC cos they just want to sleep in..  Of cos they can't come to work sick just to get the leave but I doubt they will.  If they do its probably an ingrained habit which must be changed...

Not sure if my suggestion will be taken up by anyone.....

Approved.

This is how my contribution to the nation should be used. Cut away the IB please - they are a waste of money.

Edited March 22, 2020 by Weez911

[Theoldjaffa]

8 hours ago, Vinceng said:

No other countries have done  a better job in curbing the Covit19 than Singapore. Kudos to the brilliant team, especially  National  Development Minister, Lawrence Wong.

Very intelligent person who excels beyond his role as National Devt Minister.

Minister Wong is no doubt Prime Minister calibre! 

Is he able to bring down our petrol price?  

[Weez911]

Compare and contrast what leaders said before this pandemic, and what subsequently happened to their countries:

"The Covid-19 incident faces a grave turning point," President Moon said following a meeting with ministers and experts. "The next few days will be crucial. The government will raise the alert level to the highest level of 'grave' according to experts' recommendations and drastically strengthen our response system." - South Korea has since started mass testing and the country has now bring the number of infections down. 

“I think it’s going to work out fine. I think when we get into April, in the warmer weather, that has a very negative effect on that and that type of a virus. So let’s see what happens, but I think it’s going to work out fine.” - Trump

“So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!” - Trump

Sir Patrick Vallance, England’s chief scientific adviser, said the government was looking “to build up some kind of herd immunity so more people are immune to this disease and we reduce the transmission.” - #WhereisBoris?

Conte warned that the economic fallout could be “very strong” but also said he was confident the contagion would come under control soon. He praised Italy’s health service as “among the most efficient and rigorous in the world” and urged foreign tourists to keep visiting. “Italy is a safe country for travel and for tourism, probably safer than many others,” he told reporters - 26 Feb 2020.

[Kyrios]

Sorry back track a bit..inlinesix = davidtch? That explains...

[Silver_blade]

14 hours ago, Philipkee said:

Actually, politicians stressed is one thing.  The stress on the frontliners is much worse cos they are physically on the front line.  And they are paid much lesser than the ministers. 

I was asked by my employer in an anonymous survey (hee I dunno how anonymous it is anyway since they sent to your official email), on how to reduce stress on frontliners.

First thing I say is higher pay and bonus.  It's kind of standard. 

Secondly, i mentioned workload is beyond the control of the organisation since it's a national issue to be decided at govt level.  And hiring more staff is not a big issue SINCE there is space constraints.  Doctors here may also agree while when one is busy one appreciates more staff, too many will add to stress as they get into each other's way.  We are still short but we cant just mass hire.  It must be calibrated (kind of like our population issue).

Lastly, I did suggest this.  Perhaps 10% of unused HL/SL can be converted to AL the following year (or encashed?) maybe cap at 5 days (cos 5 days will equal one week of leave after taking into account a five day work week).  This would give staff more rest and less likely to take MC cos they just want to sleep in..  Of cos they can't come to work sick just to get the leave but I doubt they will.  If they do its probably an ingrained habit which must be changed...

Not sure if my suggestion will be taken up by anyone.....

 

 

I feel that everyone involved, be it in the frontline or backroom planning are working really hard and making different type of sacrifices. I don't think the amount of pay (except those on very low pay) make much of a difference during a crisis cos everyone only have 24/day and I doubt anyone can say they have enough time in a day to get their work done since before CNY. With situation changes by the hour, no one has the luxury to take a break from work.

What I feel is important is to make sure those working in the frontline getting the right recognition and monetary reward either after the whole thing stablised or when the policy makers have a bit of time to work it out.  

Meanwhile, the rest of the population should heed the advisory, use our common sense and try to reduce our chance of catching the virus.

Edited March 23, 2020 by Silver_blade

[Kyrios]

The stressful part of the job for the ministers comes in when making crunch decisions that can affect electoral popularity, economy, livelihoods and diplomatic relations.

Otherwise in a typical setting even in times like this, they depend on the civil servants to feed them data which they comfortably digest in the confines of an airconditioned meeting room. Usually all the superscale leaders will be seated inside, waiting to make decisions based on the information flying in from the ground.

The ones doing all the hard work are the mid level civil servant or stat board staff who may have do things such as counting beds,  liaise with warehouse folks on PPE inventory supplies, make calls to foreign embassies etc. If the ministars find the incoming information lacking, they bang table and off these folks run off again to fetch the information.   One other thing that the ministars do in such times is to communicate and propose to of course our PM certain watershed decisions. That I think is also a stressful part.  So bottomline who is more stressful depends on your perspective.