Sigapore's health ministry files complaint against group for instigating parents to disrupt work at centres administering COVID vaccine to children

Singapores health ministry on Wednesday said that it has filed a police complaint against a group for instigating parents to disrupt work at the paediatric vaccination centres set up to administer anti-COVID vaccines to children.The group Healing the Divide asked parents to overwhelm the on-site medical staff with questions and record the answers given by doctors, Channel News Asia reported.In a Telegram message on December 27, Iris Koh, the founder of the group, had asked parents to book a vaccination slot for their child and ask to see a doctor at the vaccination centre.

Singapore's health ministry on Wednesday said that it has filed a police complaint against a group for instigating parents to disrupt work at the paediatric vaccination centres set up to administer anti-COVID vaccines to children.

The group Healing the Divide asked parents to overwhelm the on-site medical staff with questions and record the answers given by doctors, Channel News Asia reported.

In a Telegram message on December 27, Iris Koh, the founder of the group, had asked parents to book a vaccination slot for their child and ask to see a doctor at the vaccination centre. Koh also asked parents to ask questions stated in a Google Forms link.

The link includes questions such as whether the doctor was aware there are recorded deaths of children who took the Pfizer COVID vaccine overseas, and whether there are local studies to show that these vaccines are safe for children.

''It is a very serious matter, and Ministry of Health (MOH) has therefore made a police report. We urge everyone to exercise social responsibility and not be misled by the promptings of the group, which has a history of sharing misleading information about COVID-19 and its vaccines,'' the ministry said in a Facebook post.

The ministry said that the government ''takes a serious view of the deliberate communication of these falsehoods and will not hesitate to take action against those who put the public’s health and well-being at risk by spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines''.

The ministry said that it was aware that the group ''has exhorted parents through a message on their Telegram channel on December 27, 2021, to visit the paediatric vaccination centres to overwhelm on-site medical staff with questions''.

''Such an act will greatly disrupt operations at our paediatric vaccination centres, and amount to an instigation of harassment of the medical staff,'' the ministry said.

The ministry highlighted that the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) and other regulatory authorities around the world have approved the Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine for use in children aged 5 to 11, after comprehensive clinical trials.

Pupils of primary classes from 4 to 6 in Singapore started receiving their jabs on December 27, when the first seven centres opened.

''This is no different from how other drugs have been approved for use,'' the ministry assured.

The ministry said that designated paediatric vaccination centres have been set up island-wide to administer safe vaccinations for children.

In November, Koh and her husband, Raymond Ng, were under investigation for allegedly instigating members in the Telegram channel to call and overwhelm public hotlines, including those that help the public with COVI-19 issues. Th The anti-vaccination videos on a YouTube channel by Koh were removed by YouTube then, according to media reports.

On the channel, which had more than 2,700 subscribers as of November 7, Koh introduced herself as a musician, songwriter and music director from Singapore.

At that time, the MOH described the group as having adopted ''an anti-vaccination stance and claims to warn people about the dangers of vaccination''.

The MOH also responded to claims from Koh in September last year of having known people who died after they took the COVID-19 vaccine.

Koh also said ''someone from hardware zone'' had created a set of statistics showing the current death rates in Singapore, and called on authorities to ''explain'' the ''sudden spike in death numbers''.

The ministry had then said that it was not in the interest of MOH or HSA to hide adverse events arising from COVID-19 vaccinations.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)