How Singapore is preparing for the next pandemic: Foreign Minister

Singapore, February 12 – Singapore's Foreign Minister Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan yesterday highlighted the global vulnerability to the next pandemic without strong multilateralism in healthcare five years after Covid-19 .

In the keynote speech at the second APIC-ADVA Asia-Pacific Summit on Infectious Diseases and Vaccinations here, Dr. Balakrishnan has reported on climate change, medical misinformation and the World Health Organization (WHO) of at least two countries. We cited recent threats such as pulling out. It potentially affects funding for global health security.

last month, President Donald Trump signed the executive order It has withdrawn the US from WHO and cited the UN agency's “mistakes in the Covid-19 pandemic that arose from the global health crisis in Wuhan, China and other global health crises.”

“Negotiations on the pandemic treaty remained stuck, and there is clearly a lack of trust and political will, Dr. Balakrishnan told the conference.

“All of these should be the source of concern for us all. Without a strong and effective multilateralism in healthcare, we are vulnerable and equipped to tackle the next global health crisis. You will have a well-established world, and the next healthcare crisis is inevitable.

“What hurts the most is the unnecessary loss of life, not just because we didn't do what we needed to do from both prevention and action perspectives when a crisis actually manifests itself.”

Dr. Balakrishnan has proposed three measures: Singapore, Southeast Asia and the global preparation for the next pandemic or global health crisis. Data sharing; and domestic resilience.

Regarding multinationality and vaccine equity, the Foreign Minister said, as a small country, all vectors will eventually pass through Singapore and pass very quickly, as seen during the SARS epidemic and the Covid-19 pandemic. I paid attention to this.

“Perhaps due to our own vulnerability, Singapore clearly understands the importance of multilateral cooperation. These are blindly evident for us, not just a form of words,” Balakrishna said. Dr. Ng said.

“That's why Singapore is constantly expanding our solid support for WHO. Singapore is one of the first countries in Asia to contribute to WHO's first investment round from 2025 to 2028. It was the first country to contribute, particularly towards building domestic capacity to prepare, prevent and respond to health crises and emergencies in developing countries.”

Singapore's Foreign Minister said that during the past five years of the Covid-19 pandemic, and even during previous outbreaks like the Ebola outbreak in West Africa during the 2014-2016 and the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, the world has been vaccinated. acknowledged that there was a lack of achieving fairness.

“The irony is that the virus is not bound by ideology, political boundaries and attitudes,” said Dr Balakrishnan, who described Singapore as the “early champion” of vaccine equity.

He cites his experiences in Singapore in collaboration with Switzerland, finds and co-chairs Govax Facility (FOF) Group co-led by Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance and WHO to promote equitable access. 19 Vaccines.

“This is not a political stance. It's simply about responding to the brutal reality that threats are threats to all of us, anywhere on this planet, to humans, and we can do more. You should do it.”

Dr. Balakrishnan has created the role of Singapore to help set up a global initiative on sharing all influenza data (GISAID), the world's largest database of SARS-COV-2 virus sequences, created by researchers from over 170 countries. I advertised it.

“Thanks to the diligence and academic generosity of these researchers, the genetic sequences of the omicron mutants of Covid-19 were uploaded immediately when detected in South Africa and in other regions such as Botswana and Hong Kong. It's now possible to identify, at a very early stage of its emergence. During a period of confusion and panic, Gisaid allowed for more clarity and adjustments,” he said.

“That's why Singapore's Science and Technology and Research Institute (A* Star) played a major role in setting up and maintaining GISAIDs, and by submitting and classifying genomic sequences, it played a major role in setting up and maintaining GISAIDs. Ta.

“As a science and technology hub, Singapore can ensure that GISAID and this kind of effort will continue to support GISAID.”

Dr. Balakrishnan's third point was about how the country's health care systems and infrastructure form the “bedrock” in response to the health crisis.

“In Singapore, we have always emphasized the need to train and maintain medical professionals in our national system. Intakes to local medical schools have increased by about 30% over the past decade. “We provide awards and grants to attract Singaporeans who have graduated from overseas medical schools and returned home to contribute to the local public health system,” the Foreign Minister said.

He promoted the Singapore Angel Scheme, which was released last September. It aims to maintain nurses in the public health system by providing them to approximately 29,000 nurses up to S$100,000 (RM329,514) each over 20 years.

Singapore's Health Minister On Ye We have also recently announced an increase in salary By the middle of the year for allied health professionals (physiotherapists, occupational therapists, nutritionists, etc.). Pharmacists; and management, assistance, and support staff.

“Overall, we have 37,000 people. It's a very diverse group, but they're a very important part of our system,” Ong said on January 29th last year.

Dr. Balakrishnan said that Singapore will strengthen its disease surveillance system and establish an infectious disease agency this year to integrate public health functions such as genome and wastewater testing, predictive AI to ensure new waves of infections He said new uses will be established. was detected early.

“Our robust surveillance systems can act as early warning systems for new outbreaks. These systems enhance our preparedness and capabilities to respond to our region and the world.”

The Singaporean Foreign Minister emphasized that the next global health crisis is not a “if” issue, but a “when” issue.

“We must prepare to respond quickly and effectively on a global level, in a collaborative and scientific way, based on data and science. This is what we need to do to meet. And this room needs to have an encapsulated spirit, which must be sown outside.

“We need a 'pandemic' of science and collaboration. ”

The three-day APIC-ADVA summit by the Asia-Pacific Vaccination Coalition (APIC) and Asian Dengue Voice & Action (ADVA) was convened from yesterday until tomorrow.

The theme of “Infectious Diseases and Vaccination in the PolyCreis era” is the summit that appears to address multifaceted challenges, pandemics, climate change, geopolitical tensions and misinformation.

Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah, former director of the Malaysia Health Bureau, participated in a roundtable discussion at a meeting with other health DGS yesterday.

A panel discussion on vaccine security in the ASEAN region took place early this morning, but there were no Malaysian representatives, including representatives from Thailand and Indonesia instead. Malaysia is the chairman of ASEAN this year.