SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Monday (Jun 3) rejected “egregious and false claims” cited by the People’s Power Party, which had called for a suspension of COVID-19 vaccination.
The opposition party’s Facebook post on May 29 cited “studies and analyses by prominent medical experts”, which claimed that COVID-19 vaccines caused high incidences of severe side effects, MOH said.
It also attempted to draw associations between high vaccination rates and excess deaths, the ministry said in a media statement on Monday.
The People’s Power Party claimed that Singapore has been experiencing “unusual and exceptionally high excess deaths” since 2021 when COVID-19 vaccination was introduced as compared to pre-vaccination years.
“It is more worrying that such high excess deaths situation is not unique to Singapore as other highly COVID-19-vaccinated countries and region are also encountering similar problems,” said the opposition party in its Facebook post.
MOH categorically rejects these egregious and false claims, said the Health Ministry, adding that people must “draw the right conclusions and follow the scientific evidence on the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines”.
“The primary reason why Singapore recorded one of the lowest excess death rates in the world during the pandemic, is because the majority of Singaporeans took the vaccines,” said MOH.
The ministry also said that contrary to the claims that vaccination has led to excess deaths, multiple studies have shown that that COVID-19 vaccination reduces the risk of death as compared to the unvaccinated during the period of the pandemic.
This includes countries that predominantly use the mRNA vaccines, it added.
“In fact, 19.8 million deaths from COVID-19 were prevented globally within the first 12 months that vaccines became available (from December 2020 to December 2021)”, said MOH.
The Health Ministry added that excess deaths in Singapore during the pandemic were attributable to deaths of people infected with COVID-19 or those with a recent infection. Of those who died, there was an “over-representation” of people who were not fully vaccinated.
The high level of vaccine protection in our society averted many COVID-related deaths, protected our healthcare system from being overwhelmed, and allowed us to preserve lives and livelihoods, said the ministry.
“The normalcy in our daily lives today is in large part due to the protection that COVID-19 vaccines provide.”