Vaccination-Differentiated Safe Management Measures (VDS)

Our government currently foot the full COVID-19 medical bills of all Singaporeans, permanent residents and long-term pass holders, other than for those who test positive soon after returning from overseas travel. Travelers should always purchase their own medical insurance that covers Covid-19 infection, travel delays, recovery and all required quarantine . 

I raised eyebrows when the government finally bit the bullet and announced that from January 2022 onwards, Covid-19 patients who are unvaccinated by choice will have to pay for their own medical bills if they're admitted to hospitals or other treatment facilities. They finally did it. OH YES. I'm not sympathetic towards anti-vaxxers. I have neither empathy nor patience to listen to their side of the story. I'm most certainly not inclined to have the government cover their medical bills from my taxes paid. 

Implementing Vaccination-Differentiated Safe Management Measures (VDS) is the way forward. We're not actually living in the endemic phase yet; we're very far from it. The government has pushed us hard to get vaccinated and is using all ways and means to restrict and convince us to do so, and when we do, we expect a gradual easing of restrictions, and not stupid measures. At least they have now allowed restaurants to play music softly. Stopping restaurants from playing music was a mind-boggling sort of rationale. 

Source: Ministry of Health, Singapore. 

Dining out is still a PITA. But I can't say I'm entirely displeased about it. The pandemic dining restrictions absolve me of all obligations known as 'family meals' and gatherings. Those are a giant PITA. Meeting with friends isn't an issue since I prefer meeting one-on-one. It would nice to go out in fours or fives, but there aren't many I want to gather with, so I can easily work around that. We'll live. We simply visit one another's homes two by two. 

The politicians were quoted as saying that we would open up in a progressive way instead of doing a free-for-all. We would have "three sets of brakes to stop Covid-19 from hurtling out of control" — "In Singapore, the three sets of brakes are safe-management measures, border controls and vaccination and booster take-up rates." Yawn. We can't overwhelm the medical system/structure, we can't let people die. And our population density is such. We still don't have space to fan out and breathe. Riiiight. We'll be in 'safe-management' mode till 2023.

The Health Minister said that managing Covid-19 is like riding a bicycle going downhill. Okaaaaayyy. 

"That is why we apply brakes - so that the bike goes downhill at a controlled speed and we can safely arrive at our destination."

The Trade Minister elaborated, 

"We don't really want to dismantle the brakes," Mr Gan observed. "We want to be able to continue to monitor as we ease off the brakes and allow the bicycle to continue the journey.

I don't cycle, you know. I really hate it when our politicians use analogies. 😑