Minister Cautions Against Anti-Vaccination Beliefs Seeping Into Society

Covid-19 Death Rates Here Would Have Been Much Higher If Trend Had Taken Root, He Says

- Judith Tan

If the anti-vaccination movement had taken root in Singapore during the Covid-19 pandemic, the country's death rates would have been much higher, said Health Minister Ong Ye Kung.

"The only reason why Singapore had one of the lowest excess deaths during the few years of Covid-19 was that the great majority of Singaporeans, especially seniors, took the vaccine and then with that, we could open up Singapore," he said.

Excess deaths refers to higher rates of death than would normally be the case, and this has emerged as a leading measure of the overall impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Speaking on The Straits Times' current affairs podcast The Usual Place on March 24, Mr Ong said Singapore's excess death rate during the Covid-19 years between Jan 1, 2020, and Dec 31, 2022, was "about 980 or so" per million people. This compares with 3,000 in the US and 2,000 in Britain and most parts of Europe, where there was much more reluctance to take the vaccines.

The data was drawn from Our World in Data, a collaborative effort between researchers at the University of Oxford and Global Change Data Lab, a non-profit organisation.

"In Singapore, I think so far it's quite contained," Mr Ong said.

He added that in the case of vaccinating against Covid-19, there was data on how it would benefit people and what the risks were.

"I think Singaporeans are very wise and informed in that sense. There was a minority of anti-vaxxers in Singapore and so long as the numbers are not big, those who are prepared to take the vaccine will basically protect them," he said.