Is Seniors being made the scapegoat for Covid19 worsening situation ?

 I find it troubling that our seniors are being made to be the scapegoat for Spore covid19 worsening situation. Recently a local site The Independent News carries an article by an Australia newspaper titled "Singapore recovery stalled by 100K seniors who won't get jab".

Foreign press gets the impression that seniors are the problem is because our government has been indirectly implying that seniors are the one spreading the infection. Govt keeps highlighting senior’s infection rate but not other age group.  Looking at the statistics, on average senior’s daily infection rate is around 12 to 15% but the focus is always on them. We know that even with vaccination, one still can get infected and die. Why is the govt giving the impression that those seniors infected are not vaccinated?  

Our local media recently interviewed seniors who are outside saying they can’t stay at home as they are bored. It is skewed and biased as they are interviewing small numbers of seniors who apparently enjoys being out. But the damage is done – the message is seniors get infected and spreading the virus because they move around too much.

Minister Ong has said that those 70 years old and above is 87% jab, while the vaccination rate of 60 to 69 years old is more than 90%. Our senior aged 65 and above population is 639K, with the home vaccination program and the campaign to get senior jab, the unvaccinated seniors numbers has dropped from 200k to 70k. MOH should POFMA The Independent site for publishing a divisive article and spreading untrue information.  It is sad that even local site is supporting biased views targeting our seniors.

I wish to highlight that low vaccination rate amongst senior initially is because the government did not realise many has mobility problem. Besides, during the early stage of vaccination, only those healthy seniors were encourage to jab, those with underlying health conditions were told to check with their doctors and immune compromised were told not to jab.  Seniors may not be able to ‘reset’ their mindset when later government changed directive which encourage practically all groups to be vaccinated.  So why keep giving the impression seniors are anti-vaccination? Why don’t government provide data of those below 65 who are not vaccinated?

We are told that for those elderly, especially those with health problem they should be vaccinated to protected them from covid19.  But now if vaccinated seniors with underlying health problem die – the blame is on their underlying health condition, not the vaccine ineffectiveness.  It seems that for seniors who are infected or dying it is all due to their fault. Is this fair?

Why is Polyclinic consultation fee so high ?

The consultation fee in Polyclinics has been rising almost every year.  It is also relatively high compare to what HDB heartland GP charges.  Currently it is 48.13.  The average consultation fee of GP is around 20+.

Polyclinic is meant for the public masses, it is ridiculous to jerk up the fee and then provide govt subsidy.  It looks like the govt is very generous with the subsidy but in actual fact the out of pocket payment by patients is more due to the high fee.

Those who have CHAS card is better off seeing their GP.  Reasonable fee, much shorter waiting time even if there is no prior appointment and simple administration for registration, collection of medication, payment....etc.    At polyclinic the waiting time to see a doctor can be around 3 hrs without appointment.  Then patients have to more from one counter/station to another for registration, collect medicine, etc... which the elderly finds it hard to handle.

US canine war hero

US president posted a photo of the war canine hero in his tweet. Its name is not revealed because according to a US Army General, they need to protect the dog's identity as it is carrying out secret missions. The dog is under classified unit and so the dog needs some degree of anonymity.

I find this funny - isn't a picture of the dog more revealing than its name ? I suppose US president tweeted the photo without knowing that the dog is 'classify' something like a spy whose identity needs to be protected.

$4.7M white elephant bike parking lot

I read with disbelieve that our govt spend $4.7M to build a bike parking lot which will be scrapped just after 2 years of operation. It took 4 years to build the bike lot.

It was reported that this bike parking lot is the first auto underground parking system to be build in S'pore in Admiralty under Sembawang GRC.  It was opened in Jan 18 and will be closed by Dec 19.  There was a 1 month free trail at its opening and then charges were fixed at $22 for unlimited parking or 25cents/hr.  The rate was increased to $48 or 45cents/hr after Apr 18.

It has 500 lots and it was reported that only 3 lots were utilized between Feb 18 to Sep 19. How can this be ? It that some mistake in reporting ?  Granted it is a badly conceived project - such ridiculous take up rate means that is something very wrong with our govt planning.

What is worrying is this case could be indication of a systemic problem with our govt wanting to be a SMART nation at all cost, without thinking through what are the must have changes vs cosmetic frills.  Our govt is responsible to use public fund wisely.

This bike parking lots speaks volume of govt lack of understanding of public needs and sentiment.  I suppose all these ministers with high salary would not be able to understand that anyone with common sense will not pay $48 to park our bike. We cycle to MRT station....is to save money on transport.  Paying for bike parking would wipe out whatever saving. Besides, bike parking is free and so convenient above ground.  This underground auto parking may not be so convenient after all.

The increase in parking fee after a short period of  3 months reflected greed. I do not know the details but it does not make sense to increase fee when there is weak demand. This whole episode is a reflection of a worrying trend of governance in S'pore.

NEA vs Aqicn.org data on haze

On 19/9/19 in Today paper "NEA addresses questions over the veracity of PSI, as alternative air quality reading emerge".  Same old story over the years every time when haze descends upon Singapore - NEA desperately defending their 24hrs average data.

NEA Dr Khairunnisa Yuhya even accused aqicn.org haze reading as being 'incorrect' compare to NEA 24 hr PSI reading. Aqicn.org is not incorrect but more accurate as it is instantcast reading.  Besides their data is obtained from NEA hourly reading, so how can it be incorrect ?  If NEA converts its 1 hr PM2.5 reading in ug/m3 into PSI, its reading will be very close to those of aqicn.org too.

Why does NEA not convert its hourly reading into PSI ? Their 24 hr average PSI reading is actually  converted from ug/m3. The only reason for not doing so for the 1 hr reading is that they don't want the public have easy comparison.  Most folks only remember the number above '100' PSI means unhealthy. But they may not be aware that 56 ug/m3 in the 1 hr reading is equivalent to above 100 PSI. The descriptive 'elevated' in 1 hr reading has the same meaning as 'unhealthy' in 24 hr averaged data. (note: as safe exposure limit for PM2.5 is base on 24 hrs, for conservative safety reason, we can base 1 hr safe expose limit on the 24 hr recommendation ie 56 ug/m3 'elevated' being the start of unhealthy range)

NEA don't seems to understand that for public safety - its 24 hr average reading is not helpful at all.  As an analogy, if there is a chemical gas leak in a factory - workers will be evacuated base on real time reading. Emergency response team will put on protective mask base on real time reading.  This is the same for environmental pollution - public should base their decision on real time reading and NOT averaged down 24 hrs data.

Environment pollution 24 hour data is used to gauge exposure health issues that may arises. Public decision to wear face mask or to stay indoor or not - should be based on real time reading (1 hr data).  It is NOT safe to base decision on 24 hour averaged down reading !

Aqicn.org under their FAQ explains in details how they derive their reading.  They also explained why they think 24 hr averaging is a "very bad idea" as air pollution is dynamic and no one can wait for 24 hrs before knowing that the air quality is good.

NEA should consider using Nowcast data formula suggested in aqicn.org website which is more reflective of haze suitition.

The NowCast is computed from the most recent 12 hours of PM monitoring data, but the NowCast weights the most recent hours of data more heavily than an ordinary 12-hour average when pollutant levels are changing. The NowCast is used in lieu of a 24-hour average PM concentration in the calculation of the AQI until an entire calendar day of hourly concentrations has been monitored." 

NEA should stop being so defensive and get their priority right by making the haze reading/descriptive easy for public to understand.