As a public service, we republish two posts by Ho Ching on 1 Dec 2021 on her Facebook page. She explains why vaccination has lowered death risks and she puts into perspective the uncommon side effects of vaccination.
Prior to covid, we have had mortlaity from flu infections for all age groups.
Flu is especially lethal for the very old, and also to the very young from various complications.
Without vaccination, a Covid infection is more lethal than flu, except for the young people including young kids.
With vaccination, the covid risks of death are lower for adults, than if they have had flu in the pre-covid years.
For the seniors, the risks of death from a covid infection is slightly lower than from a flu infection in the pre-covid years.
Hence, our risks have been lowered to below that of an ordinary flu infection that we face every year, with seasonal peaks twice a year, from new variants from the northern as well as southern hemisphere.
Boosting will further reduce these risks.
Vaccination is a big help in protecting our people against the worst ravages of a covid infection, including for pregnant women, breast feeding women and their babies.
With the Omicron already on the horizon, it is a matter of time before it seeps into Sg.
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| No good religious reasons not to vaccinate |
Many are misguided by friends, or even religious leaders who are themselves misguided.
These are the sad ones.
Others were fearful of side effects, and decided to take their chances earlier bcos we were working on covid zero, and so their risks of getting infected were low. That lowers their perceived risks from covid, vs what they felt were definitive risks from side effects.
There have been some rare side effects, esp for younger people, like inflammation of the heart muscles or membranes. But these were typically mild, and recover with usual standard of care.
This was also why there is an advisory not to do strenuous heart pumping activities for 2 weeks after vaccination.
This is not so different from other medical advice not to do strenuous exercises or activities during a bout of flu or shortly after recovery.
There are some puzzling cases, but these appear to be even more rare that we don’t get much signals or reports from international surveillance.
The most common, apart from the typical side effects from vaccination like fever, soreness, etc, would be the allergic reactions.
But these are quite specific allergies, so people who were allergic to certain seafood are usually not allergic to the vaccine ingredients.
Nonetheless, we do see some folks with hives etc.
But folks who had anaphylaxis before got their vaccinations without anaphylaxis, and folks who got allergic swollen eyes from having Panadol went through their vaccination without side effects.
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But the fear for discomfort still remains.
Yet with each new variant that is more infectious, and the increased risks of meeting the virus means quite many have recalibrated and gathered enough courage to get vaccinated.
I hope you would encourage others to be vaccinated esp if they are seniors.
The mRNA vaccines do not involve any animal or human cells in the mfrg processes.
Strictly speaking, viruses are not living creatures either, so destroying viruses do not destroy any lives, however minute.
In fact, vaccines save lives, and all religions put priority on the sanctity of life.
So keep safe, and help save lives.
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Ho Ching was CEO of Temasek Holdings for 17 years and is the spouse of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. She posts frequently on her Facebook page here.