Being useful, relevant and productive during Covid

 By Lim Siang Jin

DURING the early days of the pandemic, there was a lot of confusion and, like many others displaced from their routines, I was disoriented. To keep myself rooted in reality, I decided I should do things that are useful, relevant and productive. But what? These are motherhood ideas that meant nothing without any translation into actual practices. I began to get my bearings after a month or two, so during the Covid years I did three things, apart from keeping myself physically and mentally fit:

• Completion of editorial projects. With the large amounts of free time I had, I decided to complete the following:
• WPS Beacon Issue No 2: For our first issue, we had more than 30 pieces. By the start of 2020, we only had a handful for the second issue. I decided to add a series on the games we played as children to bulk up the issue 
• Being brave and angry – IOCU 1982-83: Articles published by the Regional Office for the Asia-Pacific of the International Organisation of Consumers Union (IOCU). Due to the  probability of being sued for libel (we were critical of transnationals like Nestle and Ciba-Geigy), I have decided not to publish these material but keep them in my private records. 
• “Four cheers for the backroom”: An article detailing four out of the ordinary events related to The Edge production team (to be published later)

• Covid-19 and beyond: There was a dearth of reliable information on Covid-19 in the early months. I thought if I could collate and disseminate material from reliable sources, I would be able to assist friends and other professionals in journalism, academia and think tanks in their work. I recalled that in 1982-83, when I was with IOCU, we published a monthly news digest called Consumer Currents. These days, with the internet, a “CC” would take a very different form. Every entry of the Covid-19 and beyond website has (a) labels to facilitate search (b) a brief excerpt of the story with its source and a link to it and (c) date and place of origin. I approached Seng Sun and Guan Khim to help out initially but it was impossible to co-ordinate so we gave up after a few weeks. I carried on alone. Eventually, the project from March 2020 to November 2021 garnered a collection of over 1,900 pieces. I am quite proud especially to collect most of the pieces from writers like:
• Amar Singh
• Arundhati Roy
• Pulitzer Prize winner Ed Yong
• Jeyakumar Devaraj
• Jomo Kwame Sundaram
• P Gunasegaram
• Tomas Pueyo

Also labelled were journals like BMJ, The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine. An array of topics was included, like misinformation, neoliberalism, equitable access and vaccination implementation. Please click on the names or terms to view the collections.

• Restart my art: I managed to start painting seriously again in 2020 after a break of 30 years. This year I held a solo exhibition at APW in Bangsar from Oct 21-30. Read here (The Edge) and here (The Malay Mail). Articles were also carried in theSun, New Straits Times, Mashable and Says. I am very thankful to my many media friends for their support. For the project, I also started a website, www.limsiangjin.art.

Bickering Over Durian, June 2022, acrylic, ink and pencil on paper, 30in H x 22.3in W

There must be better explanation for fatal cases

Republished from New Straits Times, Jan 21, 2022,
with the author’s permission. Read the original here.

By Yong Soo Heong

“UNREASONABLE haste is the direct road to error” was a quote that came to mind when I read that some clear-minded thinkers in our local medical fraternity were cautioning against the rollout of a second booster shot under the Covid-19 National Immunisation Programme.

That quote belonged to 17th century French playwright Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, better known by his stage name Moliere, as he expounded the virtues of deliberation before acting in haste.

The New Straits Times had cited several people well-versed in medical science that Malaysia ought to study all relevant data on the efficacy of the booster shot, which has yet to reach the arms of many.

I subscribe to that view as many cases unpleasant to the ears had surfaced of late with regard to casualties after getting the booster shot, elegantly classified as Adverse Event Following Immunisation (AEFI).

There has to be greater clarity as I believe all authorised Covid-19 vaccines must have the highest degree of efficacy and safety.

What if the lines of safety are blurred because we've not undertaken a serious study ourselves and had blindly kept in step with the Joneses?

Datuk Dr N.K.S. Tharmaseelan, a former Malaysian Medical Association president, said more data was needed and even the World Health Organisation (WHO) had yet to endorse a global rollout of booster shots.

WHO says: “Safe and effective vaccines are a game-changing tool: but for the foreseeable future we must continue wearing masks, cleaning our hands, ensuring good ventilation indoors, physical distancing and avoiding crowds.

“Being vaccinated does not mean that we can throw caution to the wind and put ourselves and others at risk, particularly because research is still ongoing into how much vaccines protect not only against disease but also against infection and transmission.”

We’ve to probe deeper, especially our own environment. As things stand, 26 million or close to 80 per cent of our population had received the first dose and 25.6 million or 79.6 per cent had taken the second. Nearly 30 per cent or 9.7 million had the third dose.

I'm drawn to morbidity or mortality cases following the third dosage.

There have been several high-profile cases of late. The usual culprit is often blamed on heart attacks. As easy as that? Clarity on how these fatal cases came about is sorely lacking.

Now we have been alerted to another high-profile case involving the father of a state-level religious figure. The authorities told us that the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency is investigating after the religious official revealed that his father vomited, became weaker and even had a stroke after the third dose.

Why is this so when medicines are supposed to fortify one's body? Perhaps as a layman I wouldn't know why.

I’m just asking like any normal person why a trip to the clinic or hospital has to end like that. Someone must explain convincingly.

While we’e bent on achieving herd immunity, I suppose not everyone can be corralled into that herd. Although there's compensation from a fund for extended AEFI cases between RM50,000 and RM500,000, no amount of money will placate the loss of a dear one.

I support the proposal by Dr Zainal Ariffin Omar, chairman of the Volunteers for Community Engagement and Empowerment for Covid-19, who called for the formation of an independent technical committee to address vaccine hesitancy.

There’s still 20 per cent of the population who have yet to be jabbed and another 70 per cent to go for the booster.

Amidst all these, I’m terribly amused by a recent father and son conversation. Daddy told his son that he was better off getting Covid-19. His son was non-plussed at the sudden remark.

His dad then said he had at least a fighting chance of staying in conversation and be alive for three weeks or so in combating the virus before he succumbs. And, if he is lucky, he will get to stay alive.

But with the booster shot, it may boost his chances of meeting his Maker faster! It’s a sobering matter we’ve to consider seriously.

• Datuk Yong Soo Heong is a former chief executive officer and editor-in-chief of Bernama. Read more about him here.