Singapore — Lawyer and opposition leader Lim Tean took to Facebook on Sunday (Aug 1) to announce that he went to the Rophi Clinic to get his first vaccination shot and that the Sinovac jab was the vaccine he received.
Mr Lim wrote in a comment to his post that while he had registered for Pfizer, he “chose Sinovac on my own accord.”
He later added that he had done so after “doing his own research.”
Moreover, according to the People’s Voice secretary-general, the shot he received “was the most pleasant and painless I have ever received in my life!”
Mr Lim attributed this to the “world class” calibre of the Singaporean medical staff who administered the shot.
Waxing even more enthusiastically than usual, he wrote, “Honestly, I did not even feel the needle.
It was quite unbelievable and I thanked the lady medical staff who administered the vaccine to me.
I told her it was the best jab I had ever received in my life. It shows the skill of our Singaporean medical personnel.”
Writing that he has “never been afraid of needles and injections,” Mr Lim then took a trip down memory lane, recalling having been jabbed as a young boy when he lived in Moscow.
“My earliest memory of injections was when I was living in Moscow as a young boy. I must have been 8 or 9 at that time. In those days of the Soviet Union, we would visit the medical center at the American Embassy, which was just up the road from the Singapore Embassy, for all our medical needs.”
One day, when his mother brought him to the medical center for a vaccine jab, he remembered that he felt “quite fearful of what was to come.”
However, the American woman who was administering the shot put him “at ease immediately” by giving him a lollipop.
“And before I knew it the injection was done. That pleasant incident has always stuck in my memory and I am sure laid the foundation for me being unafraid of needles and injections.”
However pleasant that particular Moscow memory was, his Sinovac shot was even better, he wrote.
“I never imagined that one day my Moscow experience could be bettered. Until today! What a wonderful surprise!”
While only the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna have been authorised for use in Singapore, in May the government approved 24 private healthcare clinics to administer Sinovac shots, although it is still not part of Singapore’s national vaccination regime.
Sinovac is still unregistered and is not authorised by the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) to be used under the Pandemic Special Access Route.
This means that the vaccines administered are not covered under the Vaccine Injury Financial Assistance Programme, which provides aid in the event that people have adverse effects from their Covid-19 vaccinations.
/TISG
Lim Tean: No basis to discriminate against Singaporeans who choose Sinovac vaccine
Lim Tean: No basis to discriminate against Singaporeans who choose Sinovac vaccine