Dun Talk Cock Lah!: Chee Soon Juan continues to use Zika spread half-truths to attack logic

Saturday, September 3, 2016

Chee Soon Juan continues to use Zika spread half-truths to attack logic

Singapore ~~Demoncratic~~ Democratic Party (SDP) Chief Chee Soon Juan continues to take advantage of the current Zika outbreak to spread half-truths to create a climate of fear and feed conspiracy theories of cover-ups

In a FB post on 2 Sept 2016, Chee Soon Juan disingenuously strings together a timeline of events to imply that the sudden explosion in the numbers of Zika cases was due to the Govt's incompetence and stated that "the Govt must be held accountable".

Well, we do wonder where Chee Soon Juan is getting his information. Afterall, SDP has in its ranks, an expert in infectious diseases, Prof Paul Ananth Tambyah.

Has CSJ consulted Prof Tambyah if the Govt's response and actions on the current Zika outbreak has been appropriate and adequate?

And if there was indeed a Govt attempt to "cover-up" the extend of the outbreak, Prof Tambyah would know right? Afterall, he is working in NUH as a Senior Consultant in the Division of Infectious Diseases.

But Prof Tambyah has made no such allegations of any cover-ups or incompetence on his own Facebook page. Instead his latest FB post on the Zika outbreak was on the WHO press conference on the Zika outbreak where WHO's Executive Director for the Health Emergency Programme, Dr Peter Salama, praised Singapore for their response to the Zika outbreak.

In an interview with Straits Times on 22 May 2016, this is what Prof Tambyah had to say:

Professor Paul Tambyah, an infectious diseases expert who is secretary-general of the Asia-Pacific Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infection, said: "People might think that they just have a flu-like illness, with a non-specific rash."

He added, however, that the risk that the virus continues to circulate silently in the neighbourhood is low, given heightened public awareness and the NEA's prompt action.

Even Dr Chi, one of the three doctors who raised the alarm over the possibility of a local Zika infection, did not think there was any cover-up. See Dr Chi's FB Post here.

Instead of sharing factual information about the Zika virus, CSJ has chosen to use this outbreak to spread half-truths to create distrust in not only the PAP Govt but in our own healthcare and public health agencies.

Does CSJ really have the interests of Singaporean at heart?

Look at all of CSJ's statements about the Zika virus. All he does is to mindlessly criticize the actions and tries to push the myth of a govt cover-up. Does he give any helpful suggestions or point out any possible blind spots?

Does he spare a thought for our public healthcare professionals from NEA as well as MOH who are hard at work dealing with the outbreak? What about their professionalism and integrity? Are they not Singaporeans too?

This latest antic by CSJ only demonstrates how ready CSJ is to sacrifice Singaporeans's interest to further his own selfish interests and political career.

Other recent Zika related posts from SDP/CSJ

Stop fearmongering! False info put out by SDP... SDP claimed that the “first case was detected on 31 July 2016. This claim is false. The first case detected was on 27 Aug 2016 and after MOH’s investigation, then it was traced back to 31 July.

Quoting Minister Gan, “It was not a case whereby we did not know, and there’s sudden emergence of these cases. Out of 41 cases, 36 were (detected) due to this active testing.” Pic: FLOP