ABSTRACT
Objectives: The disruptions wrought by COVID-19 have spurred the development of vaccines at a pace unprecedented in global history. We have witnessed vaccine development from in vivo testing to population-wide implementation in just under 1 year. Singapore's vaccination rate of 80%, attained at the start of September 2021, marks a milestone. It signals that plans to shift from a "zero transmission” approach to an endemic "living with COVID-19” approach is headed in the right direction, albeit cautiously and with some uncertainty. Although we ask ourselves at what rate our society should be reopened, we acknowledge that such questions are not easily answered because newer variants are proving more transmissible and, possibly, vaccine resistant compared to earlier variants. Methods: COVID-19 vaccination milestones were plotted. A timeline was used to map key events of Singapore's vaccination strategy in terms of legislation, logistics and operations, vaccination eligibility, vaccination sites, and measures implemented to encourage vaccine uptake. These factors were compared with Singapore's vaccination rate from December 2020 to early September 2021. Results: The successful vaccination strategy in Singapore has been explored in 4 main areas: good leadership and evidence-based decision making, use of communications, utilizing existing logistics, and an ever-ready primary care. Conclusions: As we transition to our second year of combating COVID-19, emerging variants, spread despite vaccination, and the contesting voices of antivaxxers pose new challenges. Vaccine-generated immunity is only one, albeit an important, element of a comprehensive COVID-19 strategy. The strategy must also entail surveillance, self-testing, contact tracing, quarantine, legislation, financial support, and strengthened social responsibility. As providers of vaccination and translators of upstream evidence and policy decisions in the community, primary care providers should be involved early in decision making regarding interventions in the community because they can foresee challenges on the ground. Let us put our continued trust in primary care providers to contribute to making Singapore a COVID-19–resilient nation.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Social media platforms have numerous potential benefits and drawbacks on public health, which have been described in the literature. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed our limited knowledge regarding the potential health impact of these platforms, which have been detrimental to public health responses in many regions. OBJECTIVE: This review aims to highlight a brief history of social media in health care and report its potential negative and positive public health impacts, which have been characterized in the literature. METHODS: We searched electronic bibliographic databases including PubMed, including Medline and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Xplore, from December 10, 2015, to December 10, 2020. We screened the title and abstracts and selected relevant reports for review of full text and reference lists. These were analyzed thematically and consolidated into applications of social media platforms for public health. RESULTS: The positive and negative impact of social media platforms on public health are catalogued on the basis of recent research in this report. These findings are discussed in the context of improving future public health responses and incorporating other emerging digital technology domains such as artificial intelligence. However, there is a need for more research with pragmatic methodology that evaluates the impact of specific digital interventions to inform future health policy. CONCLUSIONS: Recent research has highlighted the potential negative impact of social media platforms on population health, as well as potentially useful applications for public health communication, monitoring, and predictions. More research is needed to objectively investigate measures to mitigate against its negative impact while harnessing effective applications for the benefit of public health.