Experts declare daily COVID-19 stats ‘meaningless’ — Netizens suggest curbs that should go

Singapore — Those daily Covid-19 press releases by the Health Ministry are now history.

The ministry’s decision to end the routine statement of infection statistics during the pandemic has been greeted as a good sign by experts, who observed that the information was no longer meaningful. That reasoning might surprise a whole lot of non-clinicians and non-scientists.

Among other things, the experts’ reasoning is that as Singapore transitions to living with Covid-19, the daily infection count fluctuates depending on whether individuals feel inclined to seek medical care. So said Professor Teo Yik Ying, Dean of the National University of Singapore Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health.

Prof Teo told The Straits Times. that given the “considerable degree of unknowns in terms of the proportion of daily infection numbers that is symptomatic or asymptomatic, it makes interpreting infection numbers difficult and, at this stage, rather pointless too”. There is also no need to report daily deaths, he said, as this is not done for other health conditions.

Detailed reporting was justifiable when the country had no real means of protection, said Prof Teo. However, “we now have effective vaccines and also proven treatment methods, and the country is moving on from a pandemic reaction to an endemic response”.

Associate Professor Hsu Li Yang, an infectious diseases expert at the same school, said that even monthly reporting of the Covid-19 situation was not needed unless there are significant changes such as the emergence of the Omicron variant.

According to ST, the experts see MOH’s decision as a signal of the country’s transition to the next phase, which is treating the virus as endemic in the population.

“I would suppose MOH is seeking to encourage journalists to dial back the coverage they give the pandemic, which has overwhelmed coverage of other matters, including other important public health matters,” said Associate Professor Alex Cook, vice-dean of research at the school.

Meanwhile, it appears that those who subscribe to alerts sent by Gov.sg through messaging platform WhatsApp will stop receiving updates after Friday (Dec 10).

The latest message (below) was sent on Wednesday (Dec 8), notes that the WhatsApp service will stop its daily message on infection statistics on Friday.

Although MOH will no longer issue its daily Covid-19 press releases, the information, including figures on deaths and intensive care unit (ICU) occupancy rates and infection numbers, will still available be on the MOH website.

Responding to the experts’ observations, the online community is speculating if measures as TraceTogether and vaccination-differentiated safety measures (VDS) are next to be abolished.

“Since SG is transitioning to treating virus as endemic, then everything should be back to normal…dining outside, going out to the malls should resume back to normal. No need TraceTogether, no need for social distancing. Treat it as normal flu…back to the norm way of living,” said netizen Linus Tan.

“Can we abolish the TT token? It’s meaningless, right? Do we trace a basic flu? By the way, who are the experts? It’s confusing and tiring to follow experts. Why can’t they listen to us instead? In fact, there are many experts living among us, but our voice is not acknowledged too,” commented Facebook user Francis Ng. /TISG

Read related: COVID-19 Update: MOH to stop daily press releases ‘as current wave of Delta infections subsides’

COVID-19 Update: MOH to stop daily press releases ‘as current wave of Delta infections subsides’