Only 41% of Malaysians trust the news they read, according to Reuters Institute's 2021 Digital News Report.

Kini, Awani, Star top online reach.

Most trusted news brands of brands included in the survey: Awani, Star, TV9.

Only 16% pay for online news.

reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-r… ImageImageImage
The tiny 16% of Malaysians who pay for online news is quite depressing.

I’ve been toying with the idea of a pay wall for CodeBlue, especially since we frequently produce analyses that’s not found in mainstream media.

But this may cut the readership for our niche publication.
Malaysians in general just don’t really care about the media or see the critical role that journalists play in reporting what’s really happening on the ground.

Hence the apathy towards press freedom or freedom of speech.

And reluctance to pay for news.
Not much public demand for freedom of information either.

So the press is left to the whims of the State that decides what information the public can or can’t receive.

Perhaps it’s due to the media oftentimes parroting newsmakers without really fact-checking or challenging them
So Malaysians don’t see the value in paying for “news” that’s a reproduction of statements that can be accessed directly from newsmakers’ social media pages.

But the media may be used to being stenographers due to decades of State control and curbs on dissent.

Chicken and egg.
In the West, journalists are treated as subject matter experts.

But in Malaysia, they’re seen as stenographers who often just ask questions based on the controversy of the day, or asking a newsmaker to respond to another newsmaker.
At CodeBlue, I try to ensure that my team is up to speed on Covid developments so that we are subject matter experts who can fact-check and challenge anyone, including scientists and politicians — rather than blindly reproducing what they say.
Anyway, I guess this situation will persist for a while, until we get a govt that truly embraces freedom of speech and is unafraid of criticism and dissent, which I have yet to see in any major political party.

C’est la vie.

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More from @boosulyn

25 Jun
Malaysia may face a fifth wave, while Sg is preparing to return to the new normal with Covid as an endemic disease.

If the govt must make tough decisions, then do it. No other options. It was failure after failure on the govt’s part since last year that brought us to this point. ImageImage
Until now, no official acknowledgement of the fourth wave. No official communication on airborne transmission of the virus. No change of public health measures. Still wasting presumably millions of taxpayers money on useless public sanitization exercises.
The Govt acts as if we’re still fighting the same enemy from last year when the virus has advanced from sticks and stones to guns.

And then conveniently blame the rakyat when we’re using the same arsenal — outdated SOPs — against a far more advanced enemy.
Read 4 tweets
24 Jun
Nearly 14% Of Covid-19 Fatalities This Year Were Healthy

This year saw a gradual increase of Covid-19 fatalities without comorbidities in Malaysia, reaching about 16% in June up to June 19.

codeblue.galencentre.org/2021/06/24/nea…
527 people without comorbidities died from Covid-19 in Malaysia this year up to June 19, or about 14% of 3,877 total fatalities.

May and the first 19 days of June saw a steep increase in Covid deaths at 1,290 and 1,552 fatalities respectively, along with non-comorbid deaths. Image
Of the 527 people without underlying health conditions who died from Covid-19 this year up to June 19, nearly 85% were Malaysians. Image
Read 6 tweets
23 Jun
Two-week “total / brutal/ home arrest / whatever” lockdown will not work in Malaysia, not when we have >5,000 daily average (reported) cases.

The virus will continue to circulate and when lockdown is lifted, cases will go back up.

Lockdown is not a magic wand.
The main purpose of a lockdown is to maintain health care capacity — ie, ⬆️ testing, which means cases will ⬆️, but that’s ok since cases will be found and diagnosed quickly to prevent them from deteriorating and filling up ICUs or dying.

Malaysia is long beyond containment.
Yet the goals of National Recovery Plan are diametrically opposed: ⬇️ cases and ⬇️ ICU occupancy.

Govt can ⬇️ testing which may artificially ⬇️ cases amid high positive rate.

But lack of testing means slow diagnosis of people with Covid, which will ⬆️ ICU occupancy and deaths.
Read 4 tweets
23 Jun
The Lancet describes COVAX as a “beautiful idea, born out of solidarity” that did not materialise as “rich countries behaved worse than anyone’s worst nightmares”.

Rich countries bypassed COVAX by making huge deals directly w/ manufacturers, leaving insufficient doses for COVAX.
But Malaysia only officially signed up with COVAX on Nov 25, two months behind Singapore.

COVAX aside, our direct deals w/ vaccine developers were made later than Sg -- because of shortsighted conservative health policymakers who didn't see last year the importance of vaccines.
Countries like US ordered Covid vaccines before knowing whether the shots would work.

Sg also used the same strategy by accessing confidential data from vaccine developers before journal publication so that Sg could place early orders.

Their bets paid off.
Read 5 tweets
28 May
Malaysia's 1,046 Covid-19 Deaths In May Double 2020 Toll

1,046 Covid-19 fatalities were reported in less than a month from May 1-28 this year, more than twice the 471 deaths recorded in the whole of 2020.

codeblue.galencentre.org/2021/05/28/mal…
The highest daily number of coronavirus-linked deaths nationwide since the epidemic hit Malaysia in Jan 2020 was 63 deaths on May 26, with Selangor reporting 24 deaths, the highest in the country.
Malaysia reported 1,046 Covid-19 deaths from May 1-28 this year.

Top 5 states:
Selangor - 328 deaths
Johor - 132 deaths
KL - 110 deaths
Sarawak - 98 deaths
Kelantan - 74 deaths
Read 6 tweets
28 May
With a total lockdown for >6 weeks, non-Covid mortality will rise. Govt financial assistance must cover probably 99% of the population, with income replacement, since only the top 1% can survive the lockdown at this point.

Vax rates will likely be hit, no matter what CITF says.
We saw this with MCO 1.0 last year, and things are so much worse now. Back then, cancer patients were turned around at roadblocks.

Soldiers and policemen will look at the Covid public health crisis solely from a security lens.

So they may stop ppl from travelling for jabs.
A lockdown is not a magic wand that will destroy the virus.

When 7-wk MCO 1.0 was implemented, daily cases were <200.

We averaged 6.2k daily cases in the past 14 days, 31 times higher than MCO 1.0 cases.

A lockdown is only meant to relieve the health care system temporarily.
Read 8 tweets

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