Singapore — Former NMP Calvin Cheng has taken to social media to weigh in on a memo released on Monday (Feb 10) by a group of four senior doctors.

In a Facebook post yesterday (Feb 12), the former Nominated Member of Parliament said that the doctors “advise the public to wear masks at all times as two barriers are better than one. (Sick person wears, well person also wears)”.

He wrote: “In Chinese, we call this 废话.”

According to Google Translate, Mr Cheng called the advice “nonsense”, or as he put, “making an obvious but meaningless statement”.

In balancing individual risks against societal costs, Mr Cheng said that, yes, it may be better for everyone to wear masks everyday, but, he asked: “What are the societal costs of everyone wearing masks at all times?”

Pointing a finger at China, he said: “That’s what they are doing, and healthcare professionals who really need masks are running out. And they have their own mask factories. We don’t.

“These doctors giving useless advice, and the people circulating them, are thus not helping.”

Citing examples of people wearing masks every day but not needing them, Mr Cheng said: “Saw drivers sitting in car by themselves wearing masks. Er … you realise you can only catch virus from someone else?”

He added that there were people walking outdoors wearing masks with nobody near them. The risk of these people contracting the virus would be very low, as the primary modes of transmission are droplets and contact. /TISG

Mr Cheng’s full post:

Read related: Four Singaporean doctors advise wearing a mask at all times in direct contradiction with the MOH’s advisory