Ho Ching shares post from musician Jeremy Monteiro saying catching Covid now a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if’

Singapore — Madam Ho Ching, the wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and outgoing chief executive officer of Temasek Holdings, continues to help educate the public concerning the Covid-19 pandemic, including sharing a post that says catching the virus is a matter of “when” and no longer “if.”

The post she shared is from award-winning jazz musician Jeremy Monteiro, which he published on Sunday (Sept 26) to encourage people to get their vaccine shots.

“As it is now it is probably a matter of ‘when’ and not ‘if’ one will catch covid here in Singapore, it scares me to death that some of my unvaccinated friends are in danger of getting very sick or die if they catch covid,” Mr Monteiro wrote.

The musician went on to write about a young man in the United States who had asked his friends to not get their Covid-19 vaccine shots. The young man went on to get severe Covid, and he died. But before he passed away, he asked his friends to promise they would get vaccinated.

“They organised for a nurse to come down to the wake of this young ringleader so that they could all get vaccinated outside the wake,” he added.

Mr Monteiro went on to write about a 50-year-old man in Singapore who recently passed away due to Covid. He had been unvaccinated and had no co-morbidities. The man, who is the youngest Covid fatality so far, died last Tuesday (Sept 21).

“I really pray and hope that everyone I know in Singapore gets vaccinated. 

If you live in a country with wide open spaces, maybe you can hide. 

But in Singapore with our small land space and high population density, it’s almost inevitable that you will eventually catch covid-19. 

And if you do, the vaccine will give you a good chance of just experiencing mild or no symptoms.”

He urged people to take his words seriously and warned his “anti-vaxxer friends” that if they post “nonsense and anti-vaxxer stuff,” these would be deleted.

“Don’t vacillate. Just vaccinate,” he added.

Mr Monteiro, 61, who is known as “Singapore’s King of Swing” has been a professional jazz musician from his teens and was awarded the 2002 Cultural Medallion (in the Music category) by the National Arts Council.

The man who died of Covid in the US that Mr Monteiro was referring to may have been Mr Brandon Haynes. His mother arranged for a makeshift vaccination clinic to be held during her son’s memorial service. /TISG

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