Paul Tambyah: We need ‘a sensible plan that actually shows a way out’ of pandemic

Singapore — Infectious disease specialist and chairman of the Singapore Democratic Party Paul Tambyah in a Facebook post on Tuesday (Sept 28) was critical of the government’s management of the Covid pandemic, which has made things difficult for Singaporeans.

Dr Tambyah, the president-elect of the International Society for Infectious Diseases, posted an excerpt from SDP’s “Sensible and Foresighted Plan to Exit the Covid Pandemic,” which the party published on its website yesterday.

He included the following:

“The handling of the Covid-19 pandemic by the Government’s Multi-Ministerial Task Force has been plagued with a distinct lack of coherence and direction. This has left Singaporeans confused and frustrated.

The lack of a clear strategy in dealing with the pandemic has also left businesses unable to plan ahead. The reactive nature of the MMTF’s approach in dealing with outbreaks of infections has led to stop-start, on-again/off-again policies which had impacted adversely on both employers and employees.”

SDP also held a question-and-answer portion on Facebook live, wherein Dr Tambyah said, “We felt that we needed a sensible plan that actually showed a way out.”

Dr Tambyah is part of SDP’s healthcare panel of ten medical professionals who drafted the eight-point plan.

Many commenters praised SDP’s pandemic exit strategy online.

Some commented to say they hope the current MTF will listen and take the different points in the plan into consideration.

Others asked if Dr Tambyah and other qualified people could be part of national decision-making.

One said that the SDP chair should even lead the task force.     SDP has also invited the public to comment on its plan here. /TISG

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