iris Koh

First Published on 21ST October 2021
Updated 28 Jan 2024. 

Can We POFMA Science? 

Healing the Divide is proud to be POFMA free for more than 2.5 years. Please support our work to create a trusted platform for the sharing of alternative information from Scientists, Doctors and other whistleblowers around the world. As this issue concerns Public Health and millions of life, we at Healing The Divide are against censorship of life-saving information. As such, our volunteers and us risk our names and spend valuable time to share and manage information to the public from The Other Side of the Vaccine Story since July 2021. We remain POFMA free till now. May God continue to protect and keep watch over us.
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In Response to Strait's Times Article: The Pandemic of Online Misinformation. 

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/pandemic-of-online-misinformation-on-covid-19-takes-its-toll

Hello everyone, I present this video in response to the recent Straits Times article on “The Pandemic of Online Misinformation”

“Healing the Divide” focuses on the divide caused especially now by the vaccine differentiated measures. We never presented ourselves as the confirmer of what is a fact or not a fact. “Healing the Divide” stresses on the core values of unity and empathy and it goes beyond just what is a fact or non-fact.

That said, to heal the divide, sometimes we need to look at the the science and examine the facts.  We cannot deny that COVID-19 is a developing field and therefore our stance is not to rule anything out from our discussion groups until science confirms it.

Before the science is confirmed, it is unavoidable that there are things shared in our group that are not yet confirmed — and it is understood in the group that we do not purport anything to be true unless confirmed by science.

However, in the interest of science, views that even if they may be found wrong in the future cannot be silenced now. Silencing such views and research is not in the interest of public health. 

Afterall, our own experts have admitted that they have been wrong and may again be wrong.  Does that mean that they also have to be silenced?

Science is a very unique discipline. It is complex and needs years of research and evidence to verify. No one is absolutely, necessarily 100% scientifically correct all the time. Let’s use the analogy of the Blind men touching the elephant. In this case, Science is like a big elephant. The scientists are like blind men trying to grapple and make sense of the data...someone who touches the elephant skin will say it's tough and wrinkled, but the one who touches the elephant tail will say it's hairy and soft....you get the point?

So who has the “truth” about the elephant?

Just because the government makes a statement, it doesn’t mean that it is scientifically correct. Even if it may be the Ministry of Health.

Just because the National Press publishes a statement, it doesn’t mean that it is scientifically correct. According to ethically established scientific protocols, doctors, scientists and experts who comment have to declare their conflicts of interests upfront.

Did Singapore practise this by demanding that our experts who give their opinions in public declare their conflicts of interests upfront?  

Science is a complex, ever evolving subject with multiple layers of research conducted by different disciplines. Science relies on peer review.

It  does not care about your title or authority; science does not care about your past records. Science just cares whether your hypothesis is validly supported by the data that you have collected.

Not only that, science must possess 3 parameters:

1) That the results and tests are repeatable by other scientists.

2) That the results and tests are verifiable by other scientists.

3) That the scientific statements are falsifiable (refer to Karl Popper). 

The purpose: To get more accurate hypothetical statements thus reaching a more accurate description of nature — which is the science that we are concerned with.

In this regard, I would like to quote a philosopher and also a past UK parliamentarian, John Stuart Mill, 

Since “Healing the Divide” is meant to be a place where the divide is healed, we would not stand behind any specific fact until science confirms it. However, being the national press that you are, with millions of readers, you have that mantle of confirming the purported facts that you publish especially put forth by our medical experts and ministers. 

Our Experts in Singapore, Ministers who make and change the regulations, they are the ones who are responsible for millions of lives.As our National News Media, the onus to verify is on SPH to check that MOH is giving out the true science, not us, who are the consumers, if SPH is to be a trusted media of communication to the layman.

Would SPH as the National Media be willing to publish all the journals and research articles concerning this COVID-19 to convince the readers that whatever that has been published is indeed the truth and not misinformation? I want to stress that Science needs years / decades of research to confirm. Even the scientific facts about a disease require years / decades to confirm. Vaccines require years if not decades to confirm. At most, you only have months. And months of data are insufficient to confirm any science — and speaking months-old scientific guesses via government ministries would not make it truer — only hardcore experiments done by scientists all over the world would.

In summary,

TRUTH is not a popularity Contest.

It is also not an Authority Contest.

Scientific Truth needs years of data, evidence and verification by other scientists all over the world. So my question is: Can We POFMA Science?

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