Singapore — A member of the public spoke up about the discrimination being dealt with by those who were unvaccinated, calling it “new age racism”.
The netizen took to Facebook to speak up about how differently the vaccinated and the unvaccinated were being treated in Singapore and posted her point of view in a Facebook group named “Complaint Singapore“.
In her post, she included a screenshot of a conversation with an employee at the Early Childhood and Development Agency (ECDA). The employee explained that ECDA has implemented new Covid-19 measures, requiring parents to be fully vaccinated to enter the Early Intervention Centre premise.
At the end of the message, the employee asks if the parent accompanying the child for the screening session has been fully vaccinated.
“It is ridiculous to expect parents to be fully vaccinated before allowing entry,” wrote the netizen. She added that both she and her partner could have underlying conditions that may compromise their health if they receive the vaccination doses. If such a complication were to occur, her child would have no caretakers.
The netizen questioned the purpose of implementing such measures since vaccinated people can still contract the virus and spread it to others.
She also mentioned that she also similarly questioned the dining-in rules. The most recent measures allow groups of two to dine in at hawker centres and coffee shops regardless of vaccination status because of their open-air nature.
“So many markets and hawkers were closed recently – aren’t they all open air?” the netizen asked. “Didn’t we do well with 2 pax, 5 pax, 8 pax dine in last year at restaurants before vaccines arrived?”
She also remarked that restaurants are typically safer due to the lack of queues, mingling, and close contact with others. The environment is stricter and more controlled since such eateries would be wary of incurring penalties.
If unvaccinated people were to be responsible in terms of hygiene and social distancing, they could be allowed to enjoy similar privileges too, she suggests.
The Covid-19 virus spreads due to people acting irresponsibly and it spreads to a person whether or not they are vaccinated, the netizen added.
She ends off her post by emphasizing that being fully vaccinated does not indicate that an individual becomes immune to the Covid-19 virus; it simply means that the vaccination could save them due to the reduction of symptoms.
A few netizens agreed with the poster, saying that the unvaccinated were indeed being discriminated against.
Some expressed that they were sympathetic towards those who are unable to receive the vaccination due to health complications such as allergies but were otherwise indifferent to those who refused to administer their jabs.
Another citizen shared that they were happy with the current measures and steps that were being taken to protect the country from the Covid-19 virus.
You Zi Xuan is an intern at The Independent SG. /TISG