Prolific social media commentator Ho Ching has weighed in on the pandemic situation in Shanghai, China, where Covid-19 cases have been reaching record highs and a complete lockdown was declared on Tuesday.
This has affected some 25 million residents, making Shanghai the biggest city placed under lockdown since the start of the pandemic. News reports have said that some people are complaining they are going hungry, as stores struggle to meet online orders because of shortages in supplies and delivery staff.
Madam Ho, 69, wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and chairperson of Temasek Trust, posted a link to a BBC article on the Shanghai lockdown to her Facebook page on Apr 6.
Neither mass testings nor total lockdowns are solutions to the pandemic, especially as Covid is becoming endemic, she comments:
“Lockdowns are never perfect,” she adds.
“We need to eat. This means we need to keep the food supplies flowing, from land, sea and air.
“We need medical services. From delivery of medical supplies to delivery of babies.
“We need essential services. From power generation to clearing of trash.
“We need emergency services. From fire departments to hospitals and clinics.”
As the coronavirus has evolved, what worked two years ago would now be “too slow and cumbersome”, she adds. Omicron, the most recent Covid-19 variant to spread globally, has a shorter incubation period, so trying to control it with a series of shorter lockdowns would only be a “waste of time, money, resources and opportunities”.
Today’s weapons against Covid-19, including Omicron, she says, include antivirals that cut the risk of severe illness for the elderly and immuno-compromised, as well as vaccines, particularly mRNA vaccines that have a proven success rate.
Madam Ho says:
“Shanghai will do well to step up vaccination of their seniors to reduce their death rates. Do that as urgently as they do the mass testing. Not just vaccinate with 2 shots of their Sinovac and SinoPharm, but fully vaccinate with 3 shots, and also boost with a 4th shot.
“Better still, authorise the Pfizer mRNA vaccine as a pilot for Shanghai, to use as their 3rd shot booster for seniors who already have their 2 shots, to use for unvaccinated seniors who have not yet had their shots, to use as a 2nd booster for the immuno-compromised.”
At this stage, to manage Omicron infections “is not about controlling the virus”, she added.
“In the fight against the Omicron, we must make full use of the tools, and tackle the problem at its core. After all, we don’t treat flu as scary, right?
“So we must do what we can now that we have the tools to reduce the risks of an Omicron infection.”
She concludes by advocating for an overall strategy that protects lives and livelihoods, reduces the risk of death and severe illness to manageable levels, as is done in the case of flu and other infections, “while enabling the fully vaccinated to go about life step by step towards normalcy”.
Summing it up, she says: “Help save lives and transition towards sunshine.”
/TISG