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SINGAPORE – Singapore will use Covid-19 vaccines no matter where they are made, as long as they are safe and effective, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in an interview with the BBC broadcast on Sunday (March 14).
“We will use vaccines from any source. Vaccines have no nationality. Is it good or not good? Does it work? If it works, then we will use it,” he added.
Singapore has placed orders for Sars-COV-2 vaccines from multiple suppliers to hedge its bets, and has received supplies of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which have been approved for use.
At the end of last month (February 23), it received its first shipment of the Sinovac vaccine from China, which has not yet been cleared by the Health Sciences Authority for use in Singapore. The agency is in the process of evaluating its safety and efficacy.
With mass vaccination campaigns underway around the world that result in vaccine diplomacy (countries that use vaccines as instruments of influence), some commentators have suggested that China may be pushing for Singapore to approve the Sinovac product.
When BBC World News Asia business correspondent Karishma Vaswani was under pressure to use a vaccine made in China, Lee said: “We are in the process of evaluating the vaccine. If it passes the test in terms of safety and efficacy, it will. will use “.
He added: “I don’t think there is any basis for people to say, a vaccine comes from China, it is not good, or on the contrary, a vaccine comes from China, it must be good because I am Chinese and it matches my DNA. Vaccines they are vaccines. “
Mr. Lee also pointed out that China has capable scientists, biomedical researchers and vaccine researchers, adding that he had no doubt that they were capable of producing good vaccines.
Since Singapore’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign began last December, more than 610,000 doses of vaccines have been administered.
On why Singapore wasn’t moving faster despite getting vaccinations quite early, Lee said the government wanted to persuade people to join.
“We haven’t been under so much pressure because we didn’t have that many cases nationwide, and there was time to explain to people, persuade them, reassure them and allay their concerns and anxieties, and do it in a way.” systematically, “he added.
“But we hope to do it in due time, and certainly before the end of the year and before.”
Lee also hoped that as countries move forward to vaccinate their populations, those with a substantial proportion of people who have been vaccinated will be able to reopen their borders for international travel, hopefully later this year or early next.
Describing how this could work, he said: “It would not be like before, where you can just buy a ticket, get on the plane and go to Hong Kong, Bangkok or Bali for a weekend and a casual vacation.”
“You have to plan it, you have to have some documentation, you need some way to show that you have been properly vaccinated and maybe they will give you a test to show that you have the antibodies when you fly.”
Some have said that such vaccine passports present ethical problems. For example, there is the possibility that they are used to deny people essential goods and services.
Noting that these mechanisms were also used before, and that people had to show proof of vaccination against yellow fever or cholera to travel, Mr. Lee said: “I think that will happen again. There are ethical issues, but I don’t think you can run away from a practical solution. “
Singapore had also discussed opening safe corridors or travel bubbles with places where outbreaks are under control. A travel bubble with Hong Kong was supposed to have started last November, but was postponed after an increase in the number of cases in Hong Kong.
When asked if the world has seen the worst of the pandemic, Lee said that while cases have decreased in the developed world with the proliferation of vaccines, the effort to vaccinate people around the world is a daunting task.
“Nobody has tried to vaccinate the entire population of the world in a year, or two or three years, and invent a vaccine, test it, manufacture it and then do it in about 200 countries around the world. That is a huge task,” he added.
“We cannot assume that everything will go well and that it will always be on time. We will be struggling with this for some time yet, but we are no longer helpless.”
Lee also noted that pandemics have happened before and decreased, and the Covid-19 pandemic will end similarly, though not for another three to five years.
“The most unpleasant way is to go up the hill and down the infection curve to get to herd immunity, and have a great human cost down the road. Better if we can get vaccinated and protect people, and at the same time, therapies for we treat people, so we can get to a safe place, and learn to live with it if it doesn’t go away, “he added.
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