Covid-19 crisis Big spike in infections and hospitalizations
My friend, a retired civil servant, was very angry with the ministerial task force. 

He said - Why are they so incompetent. They do not know what they are doing. They are only fighting fires, one after another.

I understand my friend's anger. He reflects the views of the majority of Singaporeans. They expect the people in charge to have a proper plan that they can execute consistently.

However, I do not agree with this friend. 

We are dealing with a situation where there is much uncertainty. If we continue with the restrictions, we do not know how long it will take, and whether many people can afford to be out of work.

If we relax the restriction and allow people to work, we do not know how serious will be the spread. 

The ministers thought that a high rate of vaccination will stop the spread. This appears to be not the case. 

The spike in infection and illness was beyond what they expected. I was also beyond what I expected. 

People who the gift of hindsight, and there they represent the majority of people in Singapore disagreed. They said - we already told you so. 

Hehehe!

Another friend retorted - if the ministers are not that smart, they do not deserve their million dollar salaries. 

I understand his sentiment. I also do not agree with the high salaries that are paid to ministers. 

However, this is a separate issue. It should not cloud the discussion on their handling of the pandemic.

I now give my views. 

I support the decision of the ministers in relaxing the restrictions and allowing life to return to normal, as much as it is possible. 

The ministers said that they expected higher infections, but they do not expect it to occur so fast. 

I do not fault them. I also do not expect the spike to occur so fast. 

Having learned about the spike, they are taking the appropriate actions to deal with the new situation. 

Many people said that their response was chaotic. 

I disagree. When events are happening so fast, it is not easy to organize the right response quickly. The ministers need some time for the dust to settle. 

We cannot expect magic. 

I do not agree with the ministers on many of the actions that they took in the past to deal with the pandemic. My disagreement are based on their response to the known data. I think that they took many wrong decisions. I have expressed my differing views on several occasions.

However, I am aware that they could be right and I could be wrong. 

I now come back to the issue of the ministers' response to the big spike in infections.

I believe that they have taken the right decision to relax the restrictions and allow life to return to normal, as much as is possible. Although the spike in infections and illness is faster that they had expected, I do not fault them.

I also consider that their response to the new situation to be quite good.

Tan Kin Lian


 

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