I have a nagging feeling that S’pore is one of the leading indicators for where Covid will be bringing us to next. It had happened before over the last 22 months as the pandemic was developing – vaccine intro, Delta, reopening protocols/VTL etc. Let me elaborate further…
By mid-Oct, with a vaccination rate of more than 80% of the population, we started to see an unusual and sudden spike up in the number of positive cases and deaths. The lockdown was subsequently extended by another month. This was a few weeks after the fishery port and KTV incidents.
No one could explain why this was happening and chaos reigns at the start as every father, mother and son were told to be quarantined. The contact tracing system went into overdrive and everyone seemed to have visited a place where a positive case was detected, thanks to the contact tracing app.
The authorities had to walk back their pandemic to endemic strategy as they tried to figure out what to do next. A scrambled decision was finally made to roll out the 3rd booster shot to the most vulnerable group above 60 years of age. Yet the deaths continued and ICU beds were occupied with people who were fully vaccinated.
The so-called pandemic of the unvaccinated did not really happen here as deaths continue to occur for the aged. It was explained away that most suffered from comorbidities, having had other medical conditions which the virus made the eventual combination fatal. There seems to be nothing much more we can do for this group except to wait for the coming launches of the new oral drugs by Merck and Pfizer that could disrupt the incubation of the virus into our bodies.
For the remaining unvaccinated elderly, efforts continue to be made to get the shots to them via community and publicity efforts. This group has been reduced from 100k to about 60k now. I still believe that we should have a compulsory mandate to vaccinate this most vulnerable group. Work mandates recently enacted will not affect them as most may have already retired. Every life saved is an effort that is worthy of this Draconian action. Even Europe had now begun to have lockdowns just for the unvaccinated as vaccine work mandates starts to kick in.
Initially, it seemed that only S’pore had this problem where vaccine herd immunity doesn’t look like it is working. Israel had a similar problem which they addressed immediately with a quick booster shot roll out. We are more than a month into this situation and things seem to have stabilized. But some western countries are now starting to see a similar pattern like what S’pore had been experiencing recently.
More VTL (Vaccinated Travel Lane) countries have been introduced to allow for a controlled reopening of the economy. All inbound visitors must have a negative ART/PCR test before boarding the flight to S’pore. Once they land at Changi, everyone will be subjected to a mandatory PCR test and wait for the results within a few hours. All the tests are at personal cost.
As winter approaches in the western hemisphere, we are starting to see some European countries showing a similar spike up in cases even though the population has a high vaccination rate. As it gets colder, the fear is that there will be a repeat like 2020 where winter is the sweet spot for the virus as it brings together the close proximity of people staying indoors for year-end celebrations.
It looks like S’pore’s recent issues are a leading indicator of what will likely happen to other countries over the following weeks. The local authorities are always trying to stay a step ahead of the virus and to react swiftly to every new evolving situation. We thought that vaccines were the solution initially, but with new variants and the realization that the effectiveness of the shots could wane quickly over time (estimated to be 6 months now), it looks like booster shots could be the new norm, like biyearly flu shots.
The case for reopening remains strong. We have to move on to treat the pandemic as an endemic. Economies cannot remain shut indefinitely. Cautious baby steps to move forward is a minimum. Europe is now embracing the booster shots in earnest and America probably will announce that everyone should have it soon as they all prepare for a winter that may stress their medical resources again.
Meanwhile, I finally planned and locked in my next step for my lifelong learning journey this week. Having applied for more than 10+ courses after my IBM AI training was completed in Aug, I was getting used to having one rejection after another. Most do not allow you to take another heavily subsidized SGUnited course after you have had done one previously. These courses provided participants with a monthly study allowance and the fees of more than $20k is paid for.
I came across a course that my alma mater (NUS) was offering which fell under the original Skillsfuture program where a citizen above 40 years old need only pay 10% of the cost. There was a preview session a few weeks ago where we also had to be interviewed and take a test to qualify. The program has 3 modules and it will start in Jan 2022. It fits my schedule and I wanted to be a student in NUS again for nostalgic reasons.
They emailed me yesterday to inform me that I was accepted for this intake and I immediately paid up for the first module. This is a 3+ months program called NUS Fintech SG organized by the fintech lab of the school of computing. I have to pay an additional $2k out of pocket after the 90% subsidies but I can use my remaining Skillsfuture credits to offset it.
https://fintechlab.nus.edu.sg/nus-fintechsg-programme/
The timing is perfect for me as I can wind down for the year-end and start strong into the new year as a full-time student again 🙂 I should be rejuvenated after our South Spain vacation in early Dec and family Christmas/New Year celebrations plus year-end dinners with close friends.
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