Singapore slams opposition claims linking Covid vaccines to excess deaths

The People’s Power Party attempted to draw associations between high vaccination rates and excess deaths in a Facebook post last Wednesday, citing “studies and analyses by prominent medical experts”, the ministry said in a media statement on Monday.

The party claimed that Singapore has been experiencing “unusual and exceptionally high excess deaths” since 2021, when Covid-19 vaccination was introduced, as compared to pre-vaccination years.

“It is more worrying that such high excess deaths situation is not unique to Singapore as other highly Covid-19-vaccinated countries and region are also encountering similar problems,” the opposition party said in its Facebook post.

The health ministry said it categorically rejected the egregious and false claims, adding that people must “draw the right conclusions and follow the scientific evidence on the safety and effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines”.

“The primary reason why Singapore recorded one of the lowest excess death rates in the world during the pandemic is because the majority of Singaporeans took the vaccines,” it said.

The health ministry said that contrary to claims that vaccination led to excess deaths, multiple studies have shown that Covid-19 vaccination reduces the risk compared to unvaccinated populations.

This includes countries that predominantly use the mRNA vaccines, it added.

“In fact, 19.8 million deaths from Covid-19 were prevented globally within the first 12 months that vaccines became available [December 2020-21]”, the ministry said.

Excess deaths in Singapore during the pandemic were attributable to deaths of people infected with Covid-19 or those with a recent infection, it said. Of those who died, there was an “over-representation” of people who were not fully