Singapore — Less than a week has passed, and opposition politician Goh Meng Seng was issued another correction notice under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) on Friday night (Dec 3) over false claims about the Covid-19 Omicron variant.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) said that it had instructed the POFMA office to issue a correction direction to People’s Power Party leader Mr Goh for the “false and egregious” claims regarding Omicron, which lacked concluding bases.
Mr Goh had posted a video on Nov 27 on multiple Facebook accounts claiming that HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) and the virus causing Covid-19 can combine in a fully vaccinated individual, resulting in an airborne HIV that is vaccine-resistant.
Mr Goh had also claimed that the Omicron variant is most likely a combination of HIV and the Covid-19 virus known as Sars-CoV-2. He alleged that the two viruses combined before June 4 this year.
MOH clarifies the facts
In a press release on Friday, MOH countered the claims, noting they had no scientific merit.
The Covid-19 and HIV viruses cannot combine and become another virus that has the characteristics of the HIV and Covid-19 viruses, said MOH.
“Viruses simply do not change drastically enough to take on vastly different properties. HIV is transmitted via bodily fluids (blood, semen or vaginal secretions) and will remain to be so.”
Furthermore, the Omicron variant is not a combination of the two viruses.
There is also no evidence suggesting that the currently available Covid-19 vaccines are totally useless against the Omicron variant, said MOH.
“Studies are ongoing, and there is insufficient data on how the Omicron variant affects vaccine effectiveness.”
“Most scientists believe that existing vaccines will retain some effectiveness against the Omicron variant, but protection may be less due to the large number of mutations in the variant,” MOH added.
MOH noted a police report had been made regarding the video, highlighting that the government takes a serious view over such falsehoods.
“We advise members of the public not to speculate or spread misinformation which may cause public alarm and to refer to credible sources of information instead,” said MOH.
Under POFMA, Mr Goh must publish the correction notice on each Facebook post containing the falsehoods.
On Monday (Nov 29), MOH also issued correction notices to Mr Goh and author Cheah Kit Sun for claiming that Covid-19 vaccines were dangerous and leading to more deaths.
Mr Cheah had posted information found to mislead readers into thinking that the Covid-19 vaccines are the most dangerous developed recently as they have caused a substantially higher rate of death and serious injury compared to all other vaccines over the last 10 years, said MOH. /TISG