COVID-19 Opinion

The ASEAN countries have generally fared well during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although gaps remain in coverage and performance, the number of cases and deaths have not been as high as countries such as UK or US, even adjusting for different population sizes, health spending and national wealth. Speed, strong partnership between political and scientific leadership, and societal support are three important factors that have contributed to this. But while individual countries may perform decently in a pandemic like COVID-19, can the region collectively perform outstandingly by working more closely together?

A sudden spike in COVID-19 cases in countries that have recently emerged from lockdowns is now sparking concerns of a possible resurgence in coronavirus infections. Globally, many are fixated on the number of daily reported cases as they are often regarded as indicators of second waves of infection, which may potentially lead to lockdowns. “However, the measure of a country’s ability to manage the COVID-19 outbreak goes beyond a simplistic focus on daily case numbers – an indicator which dangerously ignores the impact of the outbreak on the economy and

1,375 dengue cases were reported last week, making it the highest number of weekly cases ever recorded in Singapore since 2014. The record-breaking figure suggests that Singapore might be heading for a big year, wrote Assistant Professor Hannah Clapham in a commentary zooming in on our battle against two outbreaks: COVID-19 and Dengue. While the ‘circuit breaker’ has managed to reduce person-to-person contact thereby stabilising the COVID-19 outbreak, it seems to be doing the opposite for dengue, which spreads from human-to-mosquito-to-human. Dr Clapham noted that a combination of factors may

Recently, two of the world’s most prestigious medical journals each retracted an article about treatment of patients with COVID-19. In a ScienceTalk contribution to The Straits Times, Associate Professor Mikael Hartman and Professor Lee Chuen Neng elaborated on the process of the publication and dissemination of scientific work, and discussed how critical errors can be missed when journals publish hastily generated reports. The peer review process is a lengthy one that ensures high-quality work is published in the best, most transparent and fairest way. Papers usually go through several iterations

Some may perceive Phase One of Singapore’s three-phase exit of its ‘circuit breaker’ as a mere extension, with many existing restrictions to continue. But these restrictions are needed because we have merely averted a tsunami, wrote Professor Chia Kee Seng and PhD student Ms Ong Suan Ee in a commentary for The Straits Times. They warned that Singaporeans must be mentally prepared not just for a second wave, but for multiple waves that may be the new normal for the foreseeable future. If we are not careful, if we abandon

Vaccination or immunisation is considered one of the greatest public health interventions in the world, saving millions of lives a year. For World Immunisation Week, which falls on the last week of April every year, Associate Professor Hsu Li Yang, Programme Leader (Infectious Diseases), penned a commentary on immunisation, how vaccines work and are developed, and why a COVID-19 vaccine is no magic bullet. In an ideal situation, we are able to develop a COVID-19 vaccine that provides universal lifelong protection. But this may not be the case and the

The COVID-19 pandemic is a global health and economic crisis that requires a concerted global response. So far, responses have mostly been at the country or city level, in part because pandemic preparedness planning and implementation have largely been the responsibility of individual governments. But this has to change if the world is to emerge from this pandemic stronger, wrote Dean, Professor Teo Yik Ying and Professor David Heymann in an opinion editorial for The Straits Times. They said that country lockdowns that are individually executed have limited effect. “They

With the world in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is easy to lose sight of other slow-spreading pandemics that still afflict us, like tuberculosis (TB) for example. World TB Day is commemorated on 24 March, in memory of Dr Robert Koch’s discovery of the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis in 1882. For World TB Day this year, Associate Professor Hsu Li Yang, Programme Leader (Infectious Diseases), contributed a commentary on how COVID-19 could affect TB control measures. The current COVID-19 outbreak threatens to disrupt TB public health and treatment programmes