Thread by @sailorrooscout

“The vaccines don’t work- look at Singapore.” Alright, let’s.

Cases are at record highs due to Delta, however, ALMOST 99% of Singapore’s vaccinated cases are MILD or have NO symptoms. In addition, the nation has had VERY FEW deaths despite a surge in cases.

I’m not done.🧵

Almost 84% of Singapore’s population is considered to be fully vaccinated. IMPORTANT TO NOTE: Singapore transitioned away from a ZERO COVID approach. The rise in cases upon attempting to reopen was to be expected as part of attempting to “live” with the virus and reopen.

According to their MOH, over the last 28 days, of the 96,376 infected individuals, 98.7% are MILD or have NO symptoms, 0.8% required oxygen supplementation, 0.3% required ICU care, and 0.2% had died. moh.gov.sg/news-highlight…

So why are they seeing these numbers? Let’s break this down. “Hospital beds are filling up because of the country’s “very cautious” approach, and NOT because that many people need acute medical care.” I spoke about this before. See: cnbc.com/2021/09/27/sin…

Over the past 7 days, the number of fully vaccinated and non-fully vaccinated cases who are critically ill in the ICU are at 0.5 and 4.5 per 100,000 population respectively. Over the same period, the number of fully vaccinated and non-fully vaccinated cases who died are 0.1

and 0.9 per 100,000 population respectively. Among seniors aged 60 and above, the number of fully vaccinated and non-fully vaccinated cases who are critically ill in the ICU are 1.9 and 35.9 respectively. The number of fully vaccinated and non-fully vaccinated seniors who died

0.3 and 8.2 respectively. In other words, the death rate and rate of critical illness for unvaccinated individuals in Singapore is 8X HIGHER than that of fully vaccinated individuals. According to their Senior Minister of State for Health, Singapore has managed to keep the number

of COVID-19 fatalities "very low” with a death rate of 0.2% compared to 3% or more in countries that experienced a surge in cases before vaccination, and that the COVID-19 death rate of 0.2% is “comparable to catching pneumonia” and as such their healthcare system is “stressed”

but NOT overwhelmed. He also added that close to 95% of those who died in the last six months were seniors aged 60 and above and that 72% of all deceased cases had NOT been fully vaccinated. “We are trying to get to the point where the combination of high vaccination rates,

booster jabs and even more boosting from mild infections means that COVID-19 will no longer spread as an epidemic in Singapore. And we are trying to get there without excess mortality,” he added. “In other words, though we will have fatalities as a result of COVID-19, we will NOT

see more overall deaths than we would in a normal non-COVID year. Eventually enough of us will be vaccinated or will have been infected, that we will see the case numbers come down and the situation stabilizes. But in getting there, we should try to keep the number of deaths

as low as possible.” Experts also say that Singapore's climbing cases, more than half of which are in vaccinated individuals, may signal that COVID-19 is becoming an endemic disease in the city-state, meaning COVID-19 circulates in a population like its four coronaviruses cousins

but doesn't upend lives due to widespread immunity. As long as deaths remain low, Singapore can set an example for how other countries, especially those that have maintained zero tolerance for COVID-19, can emerge from the pandemic. Singapore's successful vaccination rate has

kept severe cases AND deaths down, potentially proving that living with the virus- versus trying to eradicate it- is the surest path out of this pandemic. Singapore PROVES vaccines work. “There is hope. The current situation will not last forever.” Read: channelnewsasia.com/singapore/sing…