Covid19 vaccine - Being careful, cautious or just accept them without questions

 Malaysia has bought 12.8 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, but the country has not figured out if the drug can be used on its population.

This was announced by Malaysia's health director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah on Dec. 21, regarding the jointly developed vaccine by Pfizer and German biotechnology firm BioNTech.

News of Malaysia spending the next four months looking into the Covid-19 vaccine's efficacy was reported by the country's media.

The 12.8 million doses of the vaccine is expected to cover 6.4 million people, or about 20 per cent of Malaysia’s population.

Will take four months to study data

Noor Hisham said during the ministry’s Covid-19 press briefing on Monday that it will take up to four months for the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) in Malaysia to evaluate the clinical trial data provided by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer on the Covid-19 vaccine it has developed. 

Above is from mothership.sg.

Some may be surprised that Malaysia has committed so much money on vaccines that they still have doubts in using and would need 4 months to study and figure out if the vaccines are safe or not. On the other hand there are many countries that would accept the words of the manufacturers and happily go ahead to administer the vaccines on their people, ablbeit studying the manufacturers' reports.

In Malaysia's case, some may think it is silly to buy but not sure if it is safe. But in a situation like this, it is like the mad queues for iphones, people rushing to buy for fear of nothing getting it, it is understandable that Malaysia would not want to miss the boat and not having the vaccines for its people.

The other approach is like throwing all caution to the winds, blindly accepting the words of the manufacturers, can also be seen as fools rush in when angels fear to tread, not taking any precaution that could turn out deadly, putting their citizens to great risk and harm, basing on trust that the manufacturers are telling the truth and not hiding anything harmful.

At the moment the western vaccines are still very new and untested other than the flimsy trials on a small group of people done by the manufacturers.  And the manufacturers too are guarded and protecting themselves by insisting on waiver of liabilities.  Then they have been reports, not confirmed, nor reported in main media, only in a few media, of adverse reactions on the recipients.

The untested western vaccines could be the saviours needed in this pandemic. But they could turn out bad and multiply the problem with more serious new problems. It is still too early to tell and it is better to err on the side of caution.  The manufacturers and western countries, particularly US and UK that are desperate for a miracle cure given the widespread infections and death in their countries would want to take a gamble.  They need to be seen to be doing something than to sit and wait for a cure. Countries that are not in the same desperate situation may want to take a step back and let the US and UK make guinea pigs of their people, test out the vaccines in large numbers for a while to see how they work out.

If the situation does not require desperate do or die decisions, why not hold back than to rush in without much certainty that the vaccines are safe? Waiting for a while longer would do not much harm and would be prudent to do so if they can afford to do so. 

What do you think? Is this the time to be gullible and be lind believers of the manufacturers?

COVID-19: A Worrisome Perennial Problem - Singapore's Infected Cases Went Undetected

 COVID-19: A Worrisome Perennial
Problem - Singapore's Infected Cases Went Undetected

Last Saturday, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that it was investigating 13 cases of coronavirus infection among individuals who had been served Stay-Home-Notice at the Mandarin Orchard Singapore Hotel (MOSH).

In addition, the staff members at the MOSH are also being investigated for possible infections.

On Sunday, the serological tests of the MOSH staff have reported that three were positive, indicating possible past infections that were not detected.

Today (Tuesday), eight more staff members of the MOSH have tested positive, also indicating that the cases are likely past infections that went undetected.

This brings the total number of belatedly known infected staff members of the MOSH to eleven (11), who have been infected in the past and have not been detected all this while.

What does this finding tell all of us?

It means that there are infected people working and walking around without anyone the wiser. These are the ones out there spreading the disease all over Singapore without being detected, and therefore not possible to be reported in any way.

Unless a conscious, determined and concerted project is launched to test each and every person in Singapore, there is no way to be sure how many infected cases are still out there spreading the COVID-19 coronavirus again and again, even after Mr Cow has retired.

This is a very worrisome perennial problem that must be solved once and for all. Otherwise, this Covid-19 Pandemic will just carry on and on till eternity, even if the hastily developed vaccines (without liabilities) are freely available on a voluntary basis.

Start thinking.


SSO - 22 Dec 2020

PS.  Take note when they reported places visited by Covid19 patients. It means they are walking around sharing in the community. Who are these people? Why are they found walking all over the island?

Covid19 - Tax Singaporeans to compensate migrant workers for restricted freedom due to the virus

Alex Au,  'the vice-president of Transient Workers Count Too, as pointing out that since almost half of the migrant workers were already showing immunity to the virus, based on the Ministry of Health update on Dec 14, they could be said to be safer than the rest of the population and that tighter restrictions on their movement made no sense.'

He Calvin Cheng ex NMP) said: “The first thing we have to do is to ACKNOWLEDGE that keeping the workers segregated and limiting their freedom is TRUE.”

And, like Mr Kausikan, he acknowledged that this had been, in effect, a trade-off meant to keep the rest of Singapore safe.

But, going one step further, Mr Cheng seemed to suggest that something must be done to make up for the restrictions placed on the migrant workers.

“If we accept that this situation has to continue for a while, then we defend it, but make things better for the FWs.

“Yes we can offer words of appreciation, care packages etc but nothing helps more than cold, hard cash.”

Mr Cheng went on to suggest “a Covid tax on all residents in Singapore (except the FWs)” from which an additional sum could be added to the wages of migrant workers “to compensate them for their pain and suffering”.

“Money doesn’t solve all problems but it does go a long way to comfort those in need of it,” he added. /TISG 

And Alex Au,  'the vice-president of Transient Workers Count Too, as pointing out that since almost half of the migrant workers were already showing immunity to the virus, based on the Ministry of Health update on Dec 14, they could be said to be safer than the rest of the population and that tighter restrictions on their movement made no sense.'

The above were from an article in theindependent.sg. I would like to make Calvin Cheng's proposal more generous by suggesting that Singaporeans not only pay tax for the migrant workers for confining them and their loss of freedom just to prevent Covid19 virus from spreading to the general population, but also to buy every one of them a Christmas present, and a big ang pow if they are still confined during Chinese New Year. How about finding jobs for them if they become jobless? We owe it to them right? And if they are single, find a Singaporean girl to marry them and they can stay on as Singapore citizens. There are so many things we can do for them for depriving them of their freedom.

As for Alex Au's suggestion, to set them free to roam the streets and socialise with Singaporeans to make them happy, then Singaporeans need not have to pay them for being confined to their dormitories. Also, did Alex Au believe that just because these migrant workers already have immunity so they no longer have the virus in them and would not be spreading the virus, if still in them, to the Singaporean community? Really? Someone suggested that Alex Au should let them visit and stay with him for a start.

Anyway, both suggestions are brilliant. As brilliant as stupidity has no cure.

What do you think?

Lesson From The New British Virus: Never Belittle The Little Fellow

 Lesson From The New British Virus: Never Belittle The Little Fellow

The ancient people had say that when bad things hit, they come in pairs or multiples.

When shits hit the ceiling, they come down and spread upon every head in their way and their stinking smell permeate every inch of space.

In the race to stop the shits and smell from reaching their land and people, amongst more than 50 countries that have cut off air links with the United Queendom (Kingdom is a misnomer for the last 68 years), Russia has also just imposed flights ban on the United Queendom routes because of the new variant of coronavirus spread fast and furious in and from the United Queendom.

The British people are now in a state of shock and disbelief, trying to grapple with the new discovery of the millennium.

Some say it is retribution. Others say it is God's will. Still others say it is irresponsible behavior of some of their kind.

Whatever what others may say, it is for the British people to realize that power does not necessarily comes out of the barrel of the gun, but can actually come out from tiny intangible and unassuming life forms such as a virus, the Coronavirus.

The same goes to the tiny people whom the British Empire and its tentacles - the Americans and Australians - had murdered, massacred and killed by the millions, especially during the last 500 years of human history.

Those tiny people will come back for payback time to get their just desserts in one form or another, and in one way or another.

This particular variant of Covid-19 virus could probably be one of the many forms and one of the many ways.

And this is only just the beginning. The worst has yet to come......

 SSO

Covid-20 - The New British Disease

 Covid-20 - The New British Disease

European Union officials will be discussing at GMT 10:00 of a co-ordinated response to the new, more infectious coronavirus variant in the UK (to be known as the British Covid-20) which has already led many countries to impose travel bans.

UK Health officials say the new variant is up to 70% more transmissible, and there is no evidence that it is not more deadly.

There is also no evidence yet to suggest that it does not react differently to vaccines.

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the new variant was "getting out of control" while Denmark, Italy and the Netherlands announced they had already detected it.

The speed at which governments have announced their bans on travellers from the UK shows the scale of the alarm.

More and more countries are imposing travel band to/fro UK. So far the countries that have taken the precautionary measures to impose UK travel ban include Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Iran, Israel, Italy, Kuwait, Morocco, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Switzerland, and Turkey.

The new variant was first detected in September. In November it made up around a quarter of cases in London. This reached nearly two-thirds of cases in mid-December.

Three things are coming together that mean it is attracting attention:

1. It is rapidly replacing other versions of the virus.

2. It has mutations that affect part of the virus likely to be important.

3. Some of those mutations have already been shown in the lab to increase the ability of the virus to infect cells.

All of these come together to build a case for a virus that can spread more easily. However, we do not have absolute certainty. Nobody will ever have.

New strains can become more common simply by being in the right place at the right time - such as Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, The Hague, Hongkong, London, New York, Singapore and Sydney.

This variant is unusually highly mutated. The most likely explanation is it emerged in a patient with a weakened immune system that was unable to beat the virus.

There is no evidence yet to suggest the variant does not make the infection more deadly, and whether the hastily developed vaccines will be able to work effectively against it.

If the virus so changes until it is able to dodge the full effect of the vaccine, then "vaccine escape" happens, and this is the most frightening concern to humans.

Lesson learned: Don't belittle a tiny thing. It can be smarter than millions of scientific brains combined. It can also make smart politicians into blue-ass flies, running round and round in circles, like clowns in the circuses trying to conjure up tricks to make us laugh.


SSO - 21 Dec 2020