SINGAPORE – If the anti-vaccination movement had taken root in Singapore during the Covid-19 pandemic, the country’s death rates would have been much higher, said Health Minister Ong Ye Kung.

“The only reason why Singapore has one of the lowest excess deaths during the few years of Covid was because the great majority of Singaporeans, especially the seniors, took the vaccine and then with that, we could open up Singapore,” he said. 

Excess deaths refer to higher rates of death than would normally be the case and this has emerged as a leading measure of the overall impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Speaking on The Straits Times’ current affairs podcast The Usual Place on March 24, Mr Ong said Singapore’s excess death rate during the Covid-19 years between Jan 1, 2020, and Dec 31, 2022, was “about 980 or so” per million people; compared with 3,000 in the United States and the 2,000 in Britain and most parts of Europe, where there was much more reluctance to take the vaccines.

The data was drawn from Our World in Data, a collaborative effort between researchers at the University of Oxford and Global Change Data Lab, a non-profit organisation.

“In Singapore, I think so far it’s quite contained,” he said.

Mr Ong added that in the case of vaccinating against Covid-19, there was data on how it would benefit people and what the risks were.

“I think Singaporeans are very wise and informed in that sense. There was a minority of anti-vaxxers in Singapore and so long as the numbers are not big, those who are prepared to take the vaccine will basically protect them.

“But if their numbers grow, then it is difficult to protect them when you do not have enough critical mass of people who take the vaccine to protect those who refuse to,” he said.

Pointing to how potentially very serious not getting vaccinated can be, Mr Ong cited the resurgence of measles in various parts of the world. Measles is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus that can lead to severe complications and death.

This, he said, is happening in certain communities in the US where the vaccination rate is low. Measles has also made a comeback in Thailand, Vietnam and other parts of South-east Asia, where vaccines were not available.

In the Republic, as part of the Si...