To the world | Public health basics are the most important things

Singapore has got locally-transmitted cases down to near zero and topped Bloomberg’s COVID Resilience Ranking in April, 2021. It is worth to notice that only 20% of Singaporeans are fully vaccinated. Please check out this story: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-resilience-ranking/

Right after the vaccines became available, many officials and experts kept emphasizing high coverage to achieve herd immunity. I wrote an op-ed article this January to remind that herd immunity may not be the only goal that COVID vaccination could pursue. I believe Singapore’s success helps justify my analysis.

(The op-ed article in South China Morning Post: 

https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3118214/coronavirus-response-lessons-swine-flu-pandemic-show-need-focus )

I actually wrote another article last August to remind that, as of August 14, Singapore had around 20,000 new confirmed cases after lifting its first lockdown, but Singaporeans have switched to watch hospitalization rate carefully, instead of rushing to the second lockdown, and finally the death toll therefore increased by three only.

(This article in Pacific Daily News: 

https://www.guampdn.com/story/opinion/readers/2020/08/19/hospitalization-rate-not-daily-test-results-important-watch/3388973001/ )

So, once again, I’d like to say vaccines are a really powerful tool and we need to promote the vaccine rollouts. However, we also need to remember the public health basics are fundamentally the most important things to a successful pandemic response. Just like what the Bloomberg story emphasized, “if there’s one lesson from April, it’s that vaccination alone isn’t ending the pandemic.”