Singapore — The Ministry of Health (MOH) issued correction notices under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) to author Cheah Kit Sun and opposition politician Goh Meng Seng on Monday (Nov 29) for “falsely” claiming that Covid-19 vaccines were dangerous and leading to more deaths.
MOH announced on Monday that there were “false and misleading” statements about Covid-19 vaccines in a blog post by Mr Cheah titled “Do Not Participate In A Society that Rejects You”, published on Oct 20, 2021.
Mr Goh, who is the leader and founder of the People’s Power Party, then shared the same blog post on Facebook on Oct 20.
The post contents have been 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, MOH noted.
“These claims are false. Covid-19 vaccines approved for use in Singapore are safe. They have been assessed to be safe and effective internationally by reputable health and scientific agencies, and in Singapore by both the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) and the Expert Committee on Covid-19 Vaccination (EC19V),” said MOH.
The agency added that, to date, there had been no deaths attributed to the Covid-19 vaccine, with the benefits of inoculation far outweighing the risks.
MOH also highlighted three points to counter Mr Cheah’s claims, citing the United States’ Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) data.
MOH said that Covid-19 vaccines were administered to a very large proportion of the US population in 2021, while other vaccines have been given to substantially few individuals in any given year.
Thus, it is misleading to compare the absolute number of reported adverse events and deaths for Covid-19 and non-Covid vaccines, said MOH.
“Second, there is much higher surveillance and awareness of adverse event reporting for Covid-19 vaccines, compared with other vaccines.”
Lastly, MOH noted that any member of the public could report adverse events and deaths to VAERS without proper verification.
“They often lack details and sometimes contain errors. No proof is required that the adverse event or death was caused by the vaccine. And adverse events need not be serious; they include mild side effects such as rash, cold or headaches,” said MOH.
The post has been written to falsely exaggerate the dangers of Covid-19 vaccines and to discourage people from taking them.
MOH noted that if people believe such falsehoods, there could be serious health consequences for those who then remain unvaccinated.
“It is important to correct these falsehoods, especially given the ongoing vaccine booster exercise,” said MOH.
Mr Cheah and Mr Goh are now required to publish the correction notices as specified by POFMA Office for each webpage and social media post containing the falsehoods.
On Tuesday morning (Nov 30), Mr Goh took to Facebook to comment on the correction direction.
“Do I agree with MOH POFMA? Definitely not. Why not challenge it in court? I am too old and wise,” he wrote, adding that he would go live on Facebook the same day for a “policy chat.”
At the same time, Mr Cheah took to Twitter on Monday to comment on the matter.
“The government has declared that I have shared online falsehoods. Having further analyzed the content they have highlighted, I now feel compelled to make amends. Let us all find the truth for ourselves,” he said.
Mr Cheah has since issued the correction notice on his Twitter handle. /TISG
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