Coronavirus: Lessons Learned From Singapore

[@reallyfaithful]

Sadly, Singapore is imploding . 368 cases today adding to a total of almost 3000. Per million of population we have the highest COVID in South East Asia. They should have made it mandatory to mask up right from the start, stopped people travelling, lockdown and looked into the foreign workers dormitory as one of the earliest clusters were from dormitory. The government should have looked to China, HK, Taiwan and South Korea instead of just listening to WHO. Lack of foresight, indecisiveness and wait and see reactive approach got us here. Yes, it is a difficult situation to manage for all leaders. Jacinta Arden, PM of New Zealand earns our respect. The Singapore Government earns kudos for testing all 200,000 foreign workers and looking after them after the horse has bolted. Hopefully , we will see better days

[@celluloid451]

Is there scientific evidence of reduced transmission rate from the healthy public wearing surgical face masks?

[@laykiokng9515]

Unfortunately, for the last three days, after this interview, the number of locally transmitted COVID 19 cases in Singapore has been increasing exponentially. There are worrying clusters found in foreign (residents ) worker dormitories and preschool premises. To contain imported cases, draconian measures such as closing border and mandatory 14 days stay at designated quarantine centres for all travellers who returned from overseas were evidently effective. Yesterday, there were 120 cases, 116 of which were locally transmitted. There is a spike of local community transmission cases. Total no. of cases yesterday was 1309. Tomorrow, on 8 April, Singapore will implement a partial lockdown... schools and tertiary institutions will be closed for the first time, despite parents' calls to do so earlier. Some workplaces will also be closed. Singapore is not implementing a full measure to stamp out the spread. Safety and health before GDP and politics. For Singaporeans who have survived the onslaught of SARS in 2003, we support an aggressive, stay ahead, a speedy and proactive approach ("Kiasu"), rather than a reactive and half measure response. It is painful but 。。。 长痛不如短痛❗

[@lifejourney08]

Today 14 April, total 2918 cases in Singapore! Makes the title of this video just a "song and dance" a premature blowing of a trumpet! Your award-winning strategy was "don't wear mask"!

[@lifejourney08]

27 April, at 14,423 cases, rewatching this video and notice how stupid and lackadaisical the reasoning was!

[@SandyJohnson-ur6xi]

Isn’t it just the heat?

[@scotuslaurentius2763]

Rudd for PM 2022 - 2007 was the last time we elected a decent PM. Dr Teo is so polite it's pleasant. Australians have such a severe lack of social responsibility and our current government is perhaps most horribly inept we have yet had.

[@morango57]

No matter how good a strategy is employed, if You have foreign workers being accommodated in such cramped conditions, you can guaranteed of transmission. This is the fundamental problem that need to be resolved

[@jstan3076]

Can a mask be used for 1 week ? Can it be treated disinfection liquid after used ? I think all people going out must wear masks because some do not show sign of the virus.

[@pokya-anakrantau8845]

With respect to the claim that it had been observed that there was reduced transmisibility of SARS in warmer climates; I find this observation strange because SARS' epicentre in early 2000s was actually in Cantonese speaking areas like Guangzhou, Hong Kong and adjacent areas in Southern China which all have hot and humid climates, being that they all were subtropical and tropical. This is a very curious statement and observation!

[@songssounds8635]

May I re-invite you back to Singapore to UN-learn what's old and RE-learn what's new!

[@cam24p]

I agree that the three policies that the Professor mentioned should be enacted for all countries dealing with COVID-19. But, the question is how does this translate outside of a city-state like Singapore to a traditional western liberal democracy? This is why I would disagree with the Professor about wearing of mask if a country is allowing non-essential people to go back to work, and not closing of schools. I feel that the Professor's motorcycle helmet analogy has a flaw in it, because the virus is invisible and asymptomatic people can transmit the virus to others. We cannot discern between the virus road from the safety of the sidewalks and why the mask is important if people were to leave their homes. Yes, social distancing is very important and should be practiced religiously. But, here is the rub, many people catch the COVID-19 from touching the surfaces contaminated with the coronavirus and then transferring the virus to their face by touching their face. By wearing the mask, this helps in preventing the buildup of droplets forming on surfaces in public or common areas in a office, and also reminds the person not to touch their face. Mr. Prime Minister, I have notice on past video's that you have a habit of touching your face. Please, try to stop this habit. You are an asset to this world.

[@cvhawkeye6255]

Prof Teo with due respect you are beginning to show yourself as a paper academic. Children are just as prone to being infected as anyone else. We had a child of 5 yrs old die due to CV. Although symptoms and deaths are far lower in the young, you cannot discount for the sake of convenience that children are not vector carriers however unlikely (your paper will be thrown out the window for such statements in a peer reviewed article), they are likely to be asymptomatic carriers if they were infected (you have no evidence because the virus hasn't penetrated schools yet at the time of your video publication and because the level of spread in Singapore is still low, your statement that there is no evidence that the young are vector carriers is misleading at best). You will also be putting elders at risk if you think due to cultural reason its even debatable for elders to babysit. In fact a proper duty of care for children of health workers if schools are closed is to provide proper and free childcare (to ensure no at risk person would be unnecessarily exposed). The level of infection has been relatively low but creeping up fast. I know the guidelines to close schools are changing as the penetration of the infection in communities is increasing. NZ has a good balance for schools to remain open for children of medical and essential workers, while the other children will get HBL. This would free up school density to ensure social distancing in class.

[@cvhawkeye6255]

Masks is one of the essential tools and should be a base line PPE when in public. Ideally everyone should be wearing it in public, please don't mix economical/manufacturing shortages of masks (because you would like to save it for health workers) or the scale of demand to the scientific benefits of wearing it. In high density areas like Singapore even under lock down, social distancing which everyone knows assumes a static distance of say 2m, but unfortunately in Singapore even if you follow a person 2m ahead of you there is plenty of chances to repeatedly walk through the path of another person just seconds after. If you going through with a lockdown do it properly, don't lockdown your entire home and leave the backdoor unlocked. Wear a mask in public it could save someone's health/life and them to you.

[@geoffmcmahon4314]

Stop sucking up to Australia's future owners and over lords

[@shukrinaabdulrahman1740]

Was too early to praise

[@judiannbuhl5003]

Sir, How about Hand Made Masks.....Would these be better then nothing???

[@angelasidney6912]

judiann buhl yes home made mask in many places

[@lifejourney08]

Absolutely! this should have been promoted, instead of covering up their mistake (no stockpile of masks) by irresponsibly saying "don't wear masks" when many medical experts were sharing Infos about asymptomatic infections.

[@simontay1187]

Mr Kevin, Sir, when Mr Lee Kuan Yew took the oath of office beside the the 1st President Encik Yusof Ishak with his 'right hand raised' that the National language for Singapore is 'The Bahasa'. But, this political promise is being down-played and omitted. Sir, do you consider it as 'a treason' especially from a lawyer? Thank you.

[@asvanix]

This interview did not age well.

[@unsatura]

errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....................................

[@mojazzz284]

With spikes in cases for the last 2 weeks, Singapore gold standard accolade is out of the window now due to lapse or rather ignoring certain group in the society that are at higer risk of infection spread. The government should placed more efforts on the migrant workers which sadly have to cram themselves in a small room in their dormitories. This is certainly a recipe disaster. Sadly the wellbeing of this group of prople are normally ignored by society and the authority.

[@cvhawkeye6255]

Prof Teo: In one week your recognized advice and standards that the world had praised on the Singapore Model is now worth as much as the toilet paper it was written on. With the Per Capital level of infection being x2.5 of Malaysia/HK x1.6 of S. Korea (a previously known hotspot), Now your advice is middle of the road at best.

[@plb475]

Thanks for this very informative video, your knowledge around the world especially in our region would still make you a good PM, I hope someday the Labor party would admit they have turned the Australian politics upside down, please bring back the Kevin 07 feeling again.