‘Outrageous and false claims’: Health Ministry rejects People’s Power Party’s call to suspend Covid-19 vaccination, Singapore News

The Ministry of Health has rejected the People’s Power Party’s (PPP) call to temporarily suspend Singapore’s Covid-19 vaccination programme.

The political party founded by Goh Meng Seng issued a statement on May 29 calling on the Ministry of Health and the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) to stop administering vaccines amid the “increasing” number of reports of vaccine side effects.

It cited “studies and analyses by leading medical experts” claiming that the Covid-19 vaccines caused a high number of serious side effects.

The party also claimed that Singapore experienced “an unusually high and exceptionally high excess mortality of at least 20 percent during the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine.”

In a statement on Monday (June 3), the Ministry of Health dismissed the PPP’s claims as “outrageous and false”.

It was noted that Singapore recorded one of the lowest excess mortality rates in the world during the pandemic because the majority of Singaporeans were vaccinated.

“The high level of vaccination in our society has prevented many Covid-19-related deaths, saved our health system from being overwhelmed and enabled us to preserve lives and livelihoods.”

People who were not fully vaccinated were “overrepresented” among Covid-19 deaths in Singapore, the Ministry of Health added, indicating that they are more likely to die from Covid-19 infection compared to fully vaccinated patients.

The Health Ministry also found that during the JN.1 wave of the virus, which peaked in December 2023, twice as many unvaccinated elderly people were hospitalized and admitted to intensive care as those who kept their vaccinations up to date.

“Covid-19 waves occur from time to time and can cause severe illness in elderly or medically vulnerable people. The vaccines will be able to protect individuals and prevent deaths,” the ministry said.

Singapore is currently riding the FLiRT wave, which consists of the KP.1 and KP.2 strains, and the number of Covid-19 hospitalizations has increased in recent weeks.

“Transparent” in reporting side effects

The Ministry of Health acknowledged in its statement that any vaccination will have side effects, adding that it had reported transparently on the frequency of such cases.

Prior to the HSA’s report on the vaccines’ safety profiles published in July 2023, the Department of Health had regularly reported on the vaccines’ side effects, which were “mild.”

“Serious side effects continued to be rarely reported, at seven per 100,000 doses. Most recovered easily after rest and treatment,” the ministry said.

“In particular, we highlighted the relatively higher incidence of myocarditis in young men, which is approximately one in 100,000 doses.”

Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle that reduces the heart’s ability to pump blood.

According to real-world data from the United States, young men ages 18 to 29 are seven to eight times more likely to develop myocarditis or pericarditis (swelling and irritation of the thin, sac-like tissue that surrounds the heart) after a Covid-19 infection than after vaccination.

Another systematic review also showed that the risk of myocarditis is more than seven times higher in people infected with Covid-19 than in vaccinated people.

“In comparison, the long-term consequences of Covid-19 infection without the protection of vaccines can be much worse. Patients develop cardiac, respiratory and other complications (known as) ‘long Covid’ after infection,” the Health Ministry said.

Articles cited by PPP by authors who represent anti-vaccination groups

The Health Ministry has also criticized several groups that have spread misinformation about the vaccines, typically by quoting literature out of context or sharing material from unreliable sources.

To support its claims, the PPP listed several scientific articles by medical professionals in its statement.

“We note that the list of scientific articles cited by the People’s Power Party mostly comes from the same group of authors, including some who have been reported to spread anti-Covid-19 vaccination messages,” the health ministry said, urging the public to verify information found online with authoritative sources.

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