This morning, I ownself violated my nostrils by my ownself...
I'm no longer a 54 years young nostrils virgin anymore!
Starting this coming Saturday, my weekend sales place (the showroom I'm stationed at) require all sales and promoters to do our own weekly self-test for the Wuhan virus thingy before coming to work.
This is good.
For our own safety, and for our customers.
I am supposed to collect more ART kits from my company (the brand that I work for) tomorrow.
In order to be sure I'm not putting my office colleagues in harm's way, I just used the free ART kits that big daddy gave to every household.
Cool.
I'm negative.
I tell you. Let's move forward already...
Can't wait for us to join the Scandinavian countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark) in getting on with our lives to pre-pandemic levels.
In one study, around 588 persons die of influenza annually in Singapore. Yes, you guessed it - mainly amongst our elderly.
That's why those elderly who "kiasi" will go for their annual flu vaccine shot.
Let's treat this Wuhan virus as endemic.
And stop moving the goal posts.
Smol,
ReplyDeleteVirgin or non-virgin does not matter. It is the mindset that counts.
WTK
WTK,
DeleteAnd I thought pretty can oredi!
It is always easier to say "lets move on already!", when one is on the right side of the "age curve". At 60, and considered in the vulnerable and high risk group, I would urge caution and not be so gung-ho about this virus.
ReplyDeleteLet me share my journey with the Covid virus.
I was PCR tested positive on 26 Sep, my Day 1. As a fully vax individual with no serious symptoms, I was put on HRP (Home Recovery Program). My family members sprang into action immediately, confining me to my room, dis-infecting everything and registering with MOH, and duly served with 14 Quarantine Order (QO).
Of the 10 days in HRP, these three days were a little more exciting:
Day 2. Couldn't open my eyes because of conjunctivitis (one of possible symptoms of Covid). The night before was already worried that I looked like Dracula. Both eyes were fully red. Called doctor for eye drops.
Day 5. High fever, body temp climbed to 39+ oC, O2 level dropped to 90% and heart rate at 90+ bpm. Lost appetite. Called doctor for help. Doctor suggested I call 995. At the end, he sent more power fever & cough medicine
Day 7. Fever gone but persistent cough and blocked nose provided potent mix to cause me to hyper-ventillate and had a mild panic attack. Seemed like I was having breathing difficulty. Called doctor in panic who assured me and calmed me down. Heart beat from 92 slowed to 72 after talking to that good doctor. Thought I had to go hospital already on Day 7.
Now that I am fully recovered, I had wanted to say "Not to fear the virus!", but upon reading the increasing daily infections and deaths, I would instead say "Let's NOT trivialise this virus!"
For the fit and healthy, Covid is but another virus albeit a very infectious one. But to those with underlying medical conditions, whether old or not, it is a dicey situation when infected with this virus.
So please do NOT be complacent. Stay safe and keep healthy. I am sure the world can get over this.
mysecretinvestment,
DeleteGlad you've recovered from the Wuhan virus!
All your millions and sweet planning for retirement can mean squawk if you go sell salted eggs early...
And it boiled down to one decision you took - to get vaccinated ;)
Imagine if you had believed vaccines were the work of the devil (voodoo based)...
Like I've said. Around 588 Singaporeans die from influenza every year (science based). That's a lot more than the current Wuhan virus deaths...
You don't hear seniors who are most vulnerable panicking about influenza...
It was interesting to see a rare "public" division in big daddy's team.
Luckily for me (and those in the move forward camp), big daddy is committed to moving forward to treat this Wuhan virus as endemic.
I guess now the pivot is to do public education on what does ENDEMIC mean in PRACTICE to the public (don't rush to hospital).
Once the public realise that for those who got vaccinated, even if we get infected, the MAJORITY of us will be asymptomatic and may "only" require us to self-isolate ourselves in our own homes for 3 days.
Then the fears and panic will subside. Just like the panic urge to hoard toilet papers.
Big daddy cannot say it out loud; can hint only. Those of us who can connect the dots or have not forgotten our secondary school science will know the next step is herd immunity (we can't be getting booster shots forever and ever).
Hence the hint - "don't be embarrassed or panic". Sooner or later, ALL Singaporeans will get the Wuhan virus. Just like all of us had the flu before.
I agree with you we cannot be complacent. That's why I got myself tested BEFORE visiting my office today. Its not mandatory, but I still do it anyway.
Then again, how many of us who have visited the hotspots will bother self testing ourselves to ensure we are not hurting our love ones back home?
Or visiting them at their nursing homes?
You stay safe.
The silver lining is now you got natural immunity. And that's a lot more effective than any vaccines or booster shots!
Have to monitor you health going forward though. Hope you're not one of those 1 in 10 who suffers from permanent side effects even if recovered fully from this Wuhan virus.
I am not against "moving forward" with life. What I was saying and advocating was that we must move forward in a measured way which is what the government is proposing after observing the spike in cases into the thousands daily.
DeleteWe must ensure our hospital and care facilities and resources are able to cope with the increasing numbers especially the numbers in need of O2 support and in ICU. What we should avoid is to get into a situation where we grind a halt when our health care system gets overwhelmed.
You need to appreciate the multiplier effect of Covid infection to know how quickly the situation can get out of hand. The number of infected individuals is the top set of numbers. What we fail to see, is the second layer numbers; the family members, co-workers and those in close contacts that have to immediate quarantine themselves. The numbers can grow quickly and wide and can quickly bring our well-oiled machinery to a slow down.
We need to avoid such a scenario.
Thats
mysecretinvestment,
DeleteDon't worry. Even the scientific and medical community are not in 100% agreement.
Your points are fully valid. I'm sure inside big daddy the discussions are like what we doing right now.
I just want to point out we had 18 months or so to "prepare", unlike those countries who were overwhelmed with massive infections and deaths during last year from the get go.
Now all of sudden we must ensure sufficient hospital and care facilities and resources to cope???
Who are the ones being complacent?
Hence the rare public "division" in public by big daddy.
That's being resolved internally.
And you can see the subtle PR work in preparing the ground by releasing surveys of how Singaporeans feel - majority supports moving forward.
I'm just glad we are not going back to no eating out heightened-alert or lock-downs!
We also need to ensure the "cure" is not doing more damage than the disease.
One of my investment whatapps kakis also tested positive and has completed his 10 days home recovery program. He works from wfh and drives so he was not sure where and how did he contacted it. His wife and son tested negative till now!
ReplyDeleteLook like not easy to stay safe!
CW,
DeleteYou think why big daddy trying so hard to "persuade" as many as possible to get vaccinated?
It boils back down to understanding what ENDEMIC meant.
Why vaccines cannot be made MANDATORY?
Because its a known scientific fact that a very tiny minority will get complications - even life threatening side effects.
So we as adults have to make our own decisions (cannot outsource to big daddy to do it for us). And weigh the risk/reward ourselves - to get vaccinated or not.
Its now past the point where "safe" meant not getting infected, to where except for some minority high risk groups, "safe" meant the majority will recover after getting infected.
Look, if your kaki has no idea how he might have got infected, how to do contact tracing to ringfence others? His contacting tracing app or device never reveal anything?
Especially when more and more of us are infected but asymptomatic?
You think why I not upset or frustrated to do the weekly self-test on myself for the next 8 weeks?
How many of us will do self-testing on ourselves if not made mandatory???
Most will bury their heads in the sand; sick will still go to work!
1 of my buddies on home recovery, but may need to go to CCF due to persistent high fever.
ReplyDeleteMore fully open may lead to peak of 1,000 covid deaths a month, based on overseas experience scaled to S'pore's population size.
While the covid death wave would probably be relatively short due to the 85+% vaccination rate, the 1,000 to 2,000 deaths during such wave will be politically untenable.
Hence govt's continued measured re-opening approach.
Herd immunity (even if naturally infected) likely not possible due to the mutation rate. Probably annual booster shots for most of us for the next couple of years. Seniors may need to consider for longer term just like for flu shots.
Most countries are on the re-opening path, even NZ. China remains the only major economy adhering to covid zero strategy, which may backfire as it breeds more insular mindset & approaches. E.g. Xi not participating in G20 citing China's covid measures.
Spur,
DeleteYou do know the paradox right when you say most countries are on the re-opening path yet the China's alternative may breed more insular mindset and backfire?
Borders will reopen, people will get back to travel for work, business, and leisure.
And the only "condition" is we just have to be vaccinated.
If reopening meant we may have 1,000 or more deaths a month, what's the point of vaccination again???
Of course we'll never know what a new variant may do globally.
I think most governments today are trying to avoid a 2nd mistake where the "cure" may do more harm than the disease.
When there was time to react, they did not. Then shit hits the fan, they overreacted.
I'm not a fan of big governments.
Smol,
Delete1,000 deaths a month is becoz we have vaccination, else it'll be much much worse (conservatively 5-10X worse).
This is only if we follow the US style of re-opening.
Thus far, govt has lifted its foot slightly off the accelerator, with covid death rates at roughly 5 per day (or 150 per month).
As I said, most countries are finding their own approach to re-opening. Many leaders & people around the world are realising that populations can't remain locked down or heightened alert forever.
China is the only hold-out. And I feel that this mentality doesn't do them good. The backfiring is not in terms of covid or deaths, but in terms of the mental anti-fragility of the people & being outward-looking & openness.
But each country & person gotta do what they gotta do! Lol
Spur,
DeleteYou and your homemade extrapolations... You har!
I'll refer to official source:
Update on local Wuhan Virus Situation
For the past 28 days, 98.3% has NO or MILD symptoms.
Death is 0.2% or 68 persons - 32.4% fully vaccinated; 67.6% unvaccinated/partially vaccinated. (Nowhere near your 150!)
Make no mistakes. The death figures will go UP and UP.
Until it exceeds the 588 deaths annually from plain vanilla influenza.
Hopefully with new drugs coming onboard - like the Merck's new orally taken pill - serious complications and deaths from the Wuhan virus will come down.
But let's not expect ZERO deaths.
People die from home accidents and mishaps...
People die from traffic accidents annually...
Planes crash, trains derail, ships sink.
I understand you. There are some Singaporeans who feel opening up will mean more foreigners will come and infect us...
When its foreigners who would be more afraid of coming here looking at our statistics!!!
We can't blame foreigners now; not when we are ownself infecting ownself with all the local transmission cases going off the roof :(
Smol,
DeleteDeaths are a lagging indicator, about 3-4 weeks after cases. Hence reported deaths are from cases a few weeks ago.
So far cases are still rising. Until cases peaks & tapers off, death rate will continue to rise. So good chance to hit 150 deaths/mth in a couple of weeks.
But really ... it's "no big deal" in the bigger scheme of things. Of course it's devastating to the individuals & the individual families. But big picture & in the name of nation building ... gotta move forward.
E.g. 1
Tel Aviv: It's like there's no covid.
E.g. 2
Tale of 2 companies, both catering to in-person entertainment & events/concerts etc.
mm2 Asia in S'pore versus Live Nation Entertainment in US
Checkout the 1-year charts.
Spur,
DeleteDon't worry. We are in agreement that deaths will go up before they taper down, however morbid that may sound.
Its not being cold or callous.
If we drag our feet and fall being those countries that open up earlier, the bigger worry is when the 98% lost their jobs as more businesses fail, new graduates find it harder to get jobs as companies do austerity, throw in lesser foreign direct investments, that's when the cure is worse than the disease...
The person who can't stomach making tough decisions should not be the next PM.
When I have a close contact with a confirmed case, I didn't get any QO or SHN because it is considered transitional. Less than 10 min.
ReplyDeleteBut I was standing side by side with him and talking to him
So as a precaution, I went to my dad Vacant house for the first 2 days and ART myself.
Thereafter, I returned but wear a mask and Stayed away from my family members. When they are in the living room I sit at the kitchen with my mask on.
Ten days of self monitoring. I ArT eve4day. After 7 days then did I mask off but is still ART until the 10th day. I have elderly and young kids at home.
The funny thing is the family which "deposit" the young kid at my place for my MIL caregiving actually laughed at me. I wonder who I am doing this for.
But I learned 2 important things:
1) we should take care of ourselves. Guidelines are guidelines. I am also in for reopening ... But please tighten the procedures for elderly homes. Let there be visits, but please control the activities. Visiting elderly, the thing to do is to bring food. Please think thro the area where they can eat... Wards definitely is not a good idea..
2) it means that mask actually work. Yes.it less than 10 min, but no need scare like what some stupid papers sat, is in the air, breath also will kena. So wear mask no use.
Sillyinvestor,
DeleteWe should not overly frighten and panic ourselves - yet at the same time we need to be socially responsible.
People are quick to "blame" others - those idiot KTV people; those foreigners... Yet now its us ownself infect ownself...
Masks do work - it helps to prevent us from spreading TO others when we speak, especially when we are asymptomatic.
That's why we encourage people not to talk in MRT and buses. But how many follow?
Masks do not prevent us from getting infected if the virus is already in the air. Not when it can easily enter via our eyes. If we are worried about getting Wuhan virus from others, we need face shields.
That's why we pivot from "sai suey" to making wearing of masks MANDATORY.
Its to prevent us from SPREADING to others.
Not the other way round.