Zhu Houren receives his second dose of COVID-19 vaccine

Singapore — Veteran actor Zhu Houren took to his Instagram on February 26 to share that he had received the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in the morning after receiving the first dose earlier this month on February 5.

Speaking to 8days.sg in a phone interview later in the afternoon, the 66-year-old happily spoke about his experience. Zhu said that he was approached to film a PSA (Public Service Announcement) video about the COVID-19 vaccination process and that he got his jab at the vaccination centre run by Raffles Medical.

He shared that when he went for his second dose of the vaccine, he saw that there were “a lot of old people there to get the vaccine too”. Zhu said that all of them were very “steady” and that when he looked around, no one seemed to be worried. It was like a normal vaccination to them.

The actor went for a quintuple heart bypass surgery in 2006 and he went for the vaccination following the opinion of his doctors.

Zhu asked his family doctor, as well as his cardiologist and they both said that it was fine for the actor to receive the vaccine. In fact, they were of the opinion that he should go for the vaccine, ‘cos it doesn’t just protect oneself, it protects others as well.

“My family too, they were really supportive of me. My wife was a little worried, and kept asking me to ask and clarify with the doctors about the vaccination. So I told her that I did ask both our family doctor and my cardiologist, and they all asked me to go for it,” he added.

“We should [definitely] all ask questions, and make sure we’re clear about what’s going on, so I really did my due diligence before I went for the vaccination. This way, my family members would not be worried,” Zhu said.

Zhu’s younger son, Joel Choo drove him to the vaccination centre earlier that morning.

“My [younger] son actually drove me to the place today, ‘cos we weren’t sure how I’d feel after the vaccination. Then, after I got the vaccination, he drove me back. In my opinion, for those who drive, it’s best that you get someone else to drive you there. The staff-in-charge also advised us about this beforehand, ‘cos everyone might react differently after the vaccination. I heard that some people might feel a little faint, so they don’t recommend for us to drive there ourselves,” he said.

As for side-effects, Zhu reports that he did not experience any adverse side-effects after both doses.

“After the first dose, my arm hurt a little if I pressed down on [the injection site], and it felt a little swollen. For the second dose, it didn’t hurt at all. There were people who told me that the second dose would be worse than the first, but I didn’t feel it. It might differ based on each individual’s experience, but I didn’t feel any pain at all,” he said. /TISG