As Singapore gradually revises its Covid-19 strategy to living with the disease as an endemic one like influenza, the Government is changing its message to nudge the community in that direction.

Finance Minister Lawrence Wong, a co-chair of the national task force addressing the pandemic, recently said that Singaporeans should not get too anxious over rising Covid-19 cases, which could hit 5,000 by mid-October.

He also said that it will be a matter of time before many in the population contract the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus, but people would have mostly mild to no symptoms.

However, given the thousands of positive cases, with a record 3,577 new cases reported in Singapore on Wednesday, for example, some people may find it hard to let go of that fear and learn to live with Covid-19 as a disease circulating freely in the community.

TODAY speaks to experts about the risks involved, and how society as a whole can move past the fear.

SHOULD WE BE SCARED OF COVID-19?

Professor Ooi Eng Eong, from the Emerging Infectious Diseases programme at Duke-NUS Medical School, said that although safe distancing measures to curb the spread of the disease were necessary last year, things have changed with vaccination.

“Vaccination has changed an infection that carries a high risk of severe respiratory disease into one that is mostly asymptomatic or present with only mild flu-like illness.”

Other infectious diseases experts have echoed similar sentiments before, in stating that Covid-19 is a condition that can be managed now with vaccination and should not be feared.

WHAT ABOUT THE LONG-TERM EFFECTS?

Various reports have highlighted how some patients suffer from some long-term effects for weeks or even months after they have recovered from Covid-19, a condition termed “long Covid”.

These long-term effects include fatigue, headache, attention disorder, hair loss and breathlessness, based on an academic report in scientific journal Nature.

Long Covid was recently defined by the World Health Organization as “occurring in individuals with a history of probable or confirmed Sars-CoV-2 infection, usually three months from the onset of Covid-19 with symptoms that last for at least two months and cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis”.

Prof Ooi said that these symptoms can be debilitating in some people and limit them from achieving full productivity at work.

Such symptoms are common among Covid-19 patients that have an inflammatory response, but the cause of long Covid remains to be clearly determined, he added.

Dr Asok Kurup from Mount Elizabeth Hospital said that more serious long Covid symptoms tend to develop among Covid-19 patients who were critically ill in the earlier stages of their infection, particularly those with severe pneumonia.

In addition, Prof Ooi said that the extent and duration of inflammation are proportionately shorter among vaccinated Covid-19 patients, since the vaccine would have reduced the infection levels and also the duration of infection.

Therefore, the risk of suffering from long Covid is lower among those inoculated, the experts said.

HOW ABOUT CHILDREN WHO ARE NOT YET VACCINATED?

At the moment, only individuals 12 years old and above are able to get their Covid-19 vaccine shots in Singapore because they have not yet been approved for use for children under 12.

However, experts believe that the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine among children aged between five and 11 is likely to be approved soon, because clinical trials in the United States have been completed.

The vaccine, like the one made by Moderna, uses the new messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology.

On Thursday, Pfizer asked the US Food and Drug Administration to authorise the emergency use of the vaccine for children in that age bracket.

Prof Ooi said that children appear to be less prone to developing severe illness from Covid-19. Instead, they develop mostly mild flu-like illnesses.

In the meantime, Dr Asok said that parents and teachers should get themselves vaccinated, even while schools can safely remain open.

HOW TO MOVE BEYOND FEAR?

Social science experts said that the shift in the messaging around Covid-19 seeks to normalise the rising case numbers while Singapore gradually learns to live with it as an endemic disease.

Associate Professor Tan Ern Ser, who teaches sociology at the National University of Singapore (NUS), believes that the population is now less concerned about the overall case numbers but is focused on the number of patients that require oxygen support.

“There would be some people who are fearful of the possible long-term impact, but I believe, right now, most people are too fatigued about being in a state of ‘siege’ to the virus, and just want to get back to a ‘new normal’ life… The benefits of being able to get off the ‘roller coaster’ far outweigh the costs of being infected,” he said.

Dr Sheryl Chua, a lecturer in the public safety and security programme at the Singapore University of Social Sciences, said that the feeling of fear is fundamental and the authorities should “acknowledge and normalise the feelings of fear”.

To overcome this fear is to shift away from a survival mentality to a mindset that involves thriving, Dr Chua said.

One way to reframe people's mentality around this current crisis is by showcasing how individuals or communities have responded positively as Singapore makes its transition to an endemic stage of dealing with Covid-19.

Assistant Professor Edmund Lee, from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at the Nanyang Technological University, said that constant social support, where people know they have someone to rely on in times of crisis, is also important to build psychological resilience.

As for what the authorities can do, Dr Chua said that the national Covid-19 task force can continue to be the source of information to build trust and credibility by simplifying messages to "actionable" steps.

“(This is) so that people feel they have control over how they can protect themselves and what they can do when they test positive for Covid-19.

"Messaging needs to be tailored and targeted as well to address different types of fear people may have,” she added.

Asst Prof Lee said that to strengthen public support for the task force's policies, it needs to show how decisions have been made after speaking with multiple stakeholders, including the everyday Singaporean.

Ultimately, a clear end point needs to be communicated, the experts said.

Assoc Prof Tan of NUS said: “Basically, we need the leadership to weigh the options and trade-offs based on scientific evidence and ground feedback; communicate clearly the actual capacity of our healthcare and back-up infrastructure and manpower; and then decide on what it considers to be the optimal option… plus provide a set of indicators that would signal the end point.

“This would give people a clear sense of direction towards the goal... (as) we enter an endemic situation. Also, whatever protocols are set up must be backed up by adequate infrastructure and manpower, so that the people would not lose confidence in the response to the pandemic.”

Source:
courtesy of TODAY

by JANICE LIM

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