So if I get the Covid19 vaccine...

So there is a video by infowars that is still circulating around (either via Facebook or WhatsApp or the Dark Web somewhere) where a guys holds a smart phone to his ear and asks "so If I get the covid19 vaccine... Can I stop wearing masks?"

In response, a robotic voice (that isn't ALEXA or SIRI or CORTANA) replies "Nope"

He continues to ask a series of questions and in turn, the robotic voice would reply in a way to imply that there is no hope of anything returning to normal even after we get the vaccine. It even tries to imply that the vaccine doesn't really protect him from SARS-COV-2 or prevent the spread of infection. Of course, most of the claims are false, and the video doesn't even make the claim that they are experts in the field of science & medicine, and neither do they list citations nor evidence for the claims they make.

In response to someone sharing this same video I've decided to take it apart, but not by shouting down or ad hominem, but with science and reason.

So here we go...

Let's address his questions one by one. I have taken the extra effort to include citations to at least one other article that supports my claims in each one of these responses.

●"If I get vaccinated can I stop wearing a mask(s)?"

- For most vaccine approved for use at this moment (Pfizer-BioNtech, Moderna, Oxford-Astra Zeneca to name a few), they would require a second injection after 3 to 4 weeks, and if you continue to show no symptoms 14 days after the 2nd jab, you are very likely to be well protected against the disease (more than 90% effective) and theoretically could stop wearing masks if you wanted to. But most places have their rules and regulations. If the restaurant/shop says you need to wear a mask, you can't just barge in there and break their rules. It's like how even if you're a good driver and are unlikely to ever get into an accident, it doesn't mean you can ignore traffic rules, run the red light, start speeding, and not wear seatbelts. Most governments would probably continue to advise masking until evidence shows that the pandemic is coming under control. After which (and if enough people are vaccinated) maybe we might be able to say bye bye to facemask and start flaunting our beautiful makeup and lipstick.

Here is some evidence for consideration:

“The efficacy of the two mRNA vaccines is superb, offering 95% reduction in the rate of acquisition of symptomatic COVID-19 in randomized trials. That is a remarkable result. But the key statistic here is one step beyond the vaccine efficacy. If you get two doses of the vaccine, and if you remain asymptomatic 14 days after the second dose, what is the probability you will develop COVID-19? For Moderna, the answer is there is a 99.92% chance that you won't. Only 12 cases occurred after this time in 14,550 actively vaccinated people in the trial, while the control arm experienced nearly 3.5% cumulative incidence. For Pfizer, only eight cases occurred amongst people who had completed a second dose and went 7 days without symptoms, again a 99.95% chance of not getting COVID if one remained asymptomatic a week after the second dose. In other words, if you get 14 days past the second dose, and feel fine, the likelihood you will get COVID-19 in these studies is very low.”

- https://www.medpagetoday.com/blogs/vinay-prasad/90764

- https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMoa2035389

- https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMoa2034577?articleTools=true

●"If I get vaccinated will the restaurants, bars, schools, fitness clubs, hair salons, etc. reopen and will people be able to get back to work like normal?

- actually some of these places are already open. Most people have returned to work like normal. And those who choose to remain closed do so at their own choice. If anything, the economy is expected to recover and economies could reopen soon if enough people would get vaccinated. Choosing to not vaccinate would be counterproductive to the attempts to revive businesses and the economy. Unless of course, you are one with the upper class and can safely isolate yourself in your mansion for the rest of your life. Normal people like you and me (and Mak Cik Kiah) would need to get out and about to start earning money again.

No scientific evidence for this point but here's what economist say

- https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/research-insights/economy/global-economy-watch/predictions-2021.html

- https://ihsmarkit.com/research-analysis/top-10-economic-predictions-for-2021.html

●"If I get vaccinated will I be resistant to Covid?"

- actually yes. The vaccines were shown to be about 95% effective in preventing symptomatic disease. Of the few who still got the disease, they do not develop the severe form of the illness. In fact, to date, no one who has been vaccinated with the covid19 vaccine (about 275 million people have been vaccinated at this point) have died from covid19, and that's amazing news!

- of course the appearance of new mutant strains introduces some complications, bringing down the efficacy of some of the vaccines. But again, some protection is better than no protection. In fact while some vaccines show lower efficacy in preventing mild diseases (of these variant strains) there is good evidence that they are still effective in preventing severe illness and death.

“The Johnson & Johnson trial was conducted at a time the variants were circulating in both the U.S. and Latin America. We can also quantify that 95% of the virus in South Africa when the trials were going on was the B.1.351 variant and despite that, the Johnson & Johnson single dose still offered 100% protection against hospitalization and 85% protection against severe disease, which is where you're at home but not feeling well.”

- https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cumulative-covid-vaccinations?tab=table&stackMode=absolute&time=earliest..latest&region=World

- https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sfgate.com/news/editorspicks/amp/COVID-19-variants-vaccines-effective-San-Francisco-15961073.php

- https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/01/28/novavaxs-covid-19-vaccine-shown-nearly-90-effective-uk-clinical-trial-also-provided-immunity-against/4294584001/

●"If I get vaccinated, at least I won't be contagious to others - right?"

-Actually yes! This was not initially studied but in the Moderna trials, swabs taken from asymptomatic participants as they were receiving dose 2 showed a roughly 60% reduction in PCR positivity. In the Oxford - AstraZeneca trial, they swabbed participants every week and estimated 49.3% reduction in asymptomatic infections.

- in other words, they reduce the chance of spreading the disease by 50-60%.  

- https://www.nejm.org/doi/suppl/10.1056/NEJMoa2035389/suppl_file/nejmoa2035389_appendix.pdf

- https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4777

●"If I get vaccinated, how long will the vaccine last?"

- the earliest recipients of the vaccine since July/August of 2020 continue to show good protection from the covid19 illness, and studies show they maintain high levels of antibodies. So at the very least we know that it continues to offer protection for more than 8 months.

- evidence suggests that Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines could offer immunity against COVID-19 for up to two to three years. However, they will most likely have to be administered annually.

-https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6529/eabf4063

● "If I get vaccinated, can I stop social distancing?"

- this is akin to asking "If I'm a good driver, and have passed my driving exam, can I ignore traffic safety rules and stop wearing a seat belt?"

- however the theoretical answer is the same as to the first question. In fact, I believe with time, governments may regain the confidence to allow those who have been vaccinated and continued to show no sign of infection to resume all manner of activities, travel overseas without restriction, maybe even stop social distancing altogether. But those who refuse to vaccinate? Chances are you can live like a hermit alone in your hut forever.

No citation provided in place of common sense 😏

● "If my parents, grandparents and myself all get vaccinated can we hug each other again?"

- of course the official answer, is to play it safe... As safe as possible. But we're humans and we need our human touch. I can understand the concern. You really shouldn't hug your parents/grandparents if you risk infecting them with Covid-19. But if you should hug them at all (and you should, at some point in your life), it would be so much safer if you've all been vaccinated.

-  As for me, once I've completed my 2 dose vaccine and remain asymptomatic for 14 days, I'm going to travel to see my grandmother (who lives in another country) and give her a hug (once travel bans are lifted which mark my words, they will be, and soon).

-https://www.medpagetoday.com/blogs/vinay-prasad/90764

-https://zdoggmd.com/vinay-prasad-6/

● "So what's the benefit of getting vaccinated?"

-In 1 year since the pandemic began, Covid-19 has claimed the lives of about 2.5 million people worldwide. Get the vaccine and you won't add to that number. I think that's a very good benefit.

-https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

●"Are you sure the vaccine won't injure or  kill me?"

-statistically speaking... Yes. I'm pretty sure. In fact if I bet 1 dollar for every person who gets the vaccine but does not develop long term severe adverse reactions I would be a millionaire. As the number of cases increase, you're more likely to die from covid than get a serious adverse reaction from the vaccine.

●"If statistically the virus won't kill me (99.7% survival rate), why should I get vaccinated?"

- that's not entirely true. The infection fatality rate of Covid-19 is about 2-3% (2 to 3 in every 100 people infected with Covid-19 have a fatal outcome) but this varies from country to country (due to socio-economic factors) and individual to individual (people aged 65 and with multiple comorbids have a much higher risk, some even 10 times more likely to die than young healthy adults)

- and while 2% may seem small, it really comes down to the denominator. So if 100 people get infected, 2 persons might die. If 1000 people get infected, 20 might die. But we know that covid19 is very infectious. As it is, worldwide about 111 million cases have been infected, and about 2.5 million people have died. While in Malaysia 300k have been infected and more than 1000 people have died. Statistically speaking, covid19 can kill you. And statistics don't lie.

- It's easy to feel compassion for one poor kid if they show you a poster of that kid suffering. Conversely you might not be able to feel compassion for 2.5 million people dying just because they can't show 2.5 million faces, and if they did, your mind would not be able to compute. But I beseech you, every one of those 2.5 million people who died had a face, had a mother or father, or spouse or children, had friends who loved them and miss them dearly now. Don't let numbers make you cold. As a doctor, I never allowed myself to become hardened against the death of a fellow human being, no matter how many deaths I've seen. I don't intend to lose my compassion, and in turn, my humanity. And neither should you.

“estimates of the time-delay adjusted case fatality rate (CFR) for men and women are 4.16% and 3.26% respectively, while the overall estimate is 3.72%. Seniors aged 80 years and over have an adjusted CFR of 56.82% for men and 41.10% for women.”

- definitely not the 99.7% survival rate as the video claims

-https://idpjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40249-020-00785-1#:~:text=We%20found%20that%20mortality%20per,individuals%20aged%200%E2%80%9319%20years.

●"So if I get vaccinated, I can protect 100% of people I come in contact with?"

- if you get vaccinated you can protect 50-60% of the people you come in contact with. Yes it's not 100%. But it's better than 0%. It's the same with seat belts or wearing helmets. They don't protect you 100%, but it's still better than no protection at all.

- https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMoa2035389

- https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMoa2034577?articleTools=true

● "If I experience a severe adverse reaction, long term effects (still unknown) or die from the vaccine will I (or my family) be compensated from the vaccine manufacture or the Government?"

- No. But neither will you get any compensation if you get covid19 and suffer a long haul syndrome or die from it.

- Edit : Malaysia is planning to set up a special Vaccine Injury scheme which will provide some kind of assistance or compensate for patients in the event of severe health effects from receiving the Covid-19 jab.

So to summarize, the Covid19 "vaccine"......

*provides a good amount of immunity against covid19

*greatly reduces risk of severe illness

*have prevented death by covid19

*reduces risk of transmission

*could potentially eliminate the need for lockdowns

*and could help the world get back on its feet

Scientists are working hard to cure this illness. Doctors are working without rest to treat the sick. We have a good chance to win this if we can stop the spread of misinformation.

Feel free to copy and paste and share to everyone you know without the need to credit me. I have no desire for fame.

Cheers and Love.

Evil Needle

I dunno. I’m not much of a blogger.

But if ever there was an issue that I can’t keep mum about, this would be it. If I were told to just forever hold my peace, I simply, will not be at peace. In fact, I would burn and blister from within with the fury of a thousand suns!

While I’m generally a non-confrontational person who would be more than happy to agree to disagree on most topics, this particular issue has been weighing heavily on my heart. It is a burden I simply have to bear. And believe me, I have done my fair share of bearing (through gritted teeth) but I simply cannot tolerate this no longer; I need to say my piece.

About what, you may ask?

Well, the Anti Vaxxer community of course!

Although it is my professional opinion that Anti-Vaxxers are the scourge of the Earth, I will now go out my way to try explain myself. Sure, I may not be the utmost authority on this issue, neither is it my responsibility to re-educate the masses. But we are coming close to a crisis point, and if we don’t do something about this epidermic (of a behavioural disease), we risk crossing the point-of-no-return. Besides, being a legit medical practitioner, I guess I do have a say on this issue, if not much at all.

*Before proceeding, I would advise that one, at the very least, is aware of who Andrew Wakefield is and what he stands for. If you have no idea who this guy is, a quick Google search should fix that. Do that before proceeding to read the rest of this piece. (If anyone besides my wife should read it at all)

I would also like to do anyone who reads this a favour, by not parroting the many things that have already been said by many published scholastic articles regarding this issue. Instead, I will like to offer a fresh perspective on this issue by meeting my would-be debaters at a halfway point; let’s just cut the crap about Andrew Wakefield and begin with the (hypothetical) assumption that…

YES! I BELIEVE THAT VACCINES CAN CAUSE AUTISM!!!

Caught your attention now, haven’t I?

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way (and off my chest. Phew!), let’s begin.

You see, the problem I find with most arguments online between the Pro-Vaccines and the Anti-Vaxxers are that they are stuck in a limbo, arguing into eternity about whether vaccines can or cannot cause autism. In the wake of the Wakefield Controversy (see what I did there?), The Anti-Vaxxer would support their claims by sharing pro Andrew Wakefield articles… maybe they share a few scholastic articles (few are peer reviewed or have strong evidence score), some share videos on youtube and articles from naturopathic websites or tabloid opinion pieces, but most would share their personal anecdotal experiences or hearsays of what happened to their aunt’s thrice-removed cousin’s grandpa’s nephew (or something to that extend). The Pro-Vaccines drop scores and scores of links to published scientific papers (many are published after Wakefield’s) that show no link between the MMR vaccine and Autism, articles disproving Andrew Wakefield’s findings, evidence to suggest it (the Wakefield paper) was fraudulent, even to pages that announce that the controversial Lancet article has been retracted, to no avail.

I would like to attempt this argument in a different way. Let’s start by assuming that I believe everything the Anti-Vaxxers are saying about the Evil-Needle. Let’s just assume that VACCINES DO CAUSE AUTISM.

What now? Do we throw out all the vaccines into the fiery depths of hell? Admit defeat and go back to live on trees?

No, we move on to the next part of the argument; If vaccines do cause Autism, should we or should we not still vaccinate? The argument now moves to the pros and cons of the Evil-Needle (I imagine myself saying this in an evil scientist supervillain voice, what? You guys never heard of one?) i.e. risk vs benefit. Does the risk outweigh the benefit? Or is it the other way around?

At this point, I imagine closed minded Anti-Vaxxers would go “No way! There is absolutely no benefit at all. The Evil-Needle is all risk, and no benefit!!!”

This almost reminds me of a scene in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, where Batfleck goes…
“If there is even a one percent chance that he is our enemy, then we have to take it as an absolute certainty!”

Except I would like to think some Anti-Vaxxers are not beyond saving. Maybe if you would open you mind to what I have to say, to have a dialog instead… then I won’t have to resort to screaming the phrase “Please, save Martha!!!”

(OK, I promise, that would be the last of any Batman v Superman reference. Let’s get serious!)

Ahem! Ahem!

So, I recently had to argue with a fellow doctor on Facebook. He was a Consultant Nephrologist, and he was an Anti-Vaxxer. Can you believe that? Can you believe that I tried to argue with someone on Facebook? I mean, who has ever won an argument of Facebook anyway? What an utter waste of time, right? Except it wasn’t. Arguing with him gave me some insight into the mind of an anti-vaxxer. It helped me understand them a little more.

Basically, he was arguing with someone else in a closed Doctors-only Facebook thread/group, and what especially irked me was this phrase where he said:
“I rather my son contract measles or chickenpox and the small risk of complications than risk autism or other neuropsychiatric complications from vaccines…”

For which I had to snarkily respond by saying:
“… Yeah sure, small inconvenience for you, right? While your kid contracts the mild form of the illness, he also helps propagate a disease that should have already been eliminated, and some random 6-month-old infant somewhere gets to die and early death.”

For which he replies: “Well if I know there’s a risk of autism with the vaccine, I certainly am not going to allow my son to be exposed to that risk…”

Blah blah blah… If there is even 1 percent chance that Vaccines are Evil, then we have to take it as an ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY that the Needle is Evil!!!

(Oops! I did it again)

We went on for a while. This intellectual game of fencing. But because I took too long to respond at times (after all, I’m a busy GP who has to see, sometimes, up to 50 patients in a day) the thread got cold. And I’m not that rude to go reopen old threads like some people (Internet Ethics 101 anyone?) so... Yeah. We left it at that.

But that was when I realised that that was the Anti-Vaxxers main concern! They have felt that if there were any risk at all, then the vaccine was not worth it. And that is where they’re wrong!

Back to my argument. Assume that vaccines do cause autism. What would you attribute the risk to be? 1 in 10,000? 1 in 1000?  A 1 percent chance?

Of course, real world scientists have proven no link between vaccines and autism. But let’s imagine a hypothetical situation here where vaccines did cause autism. In fact, let’s go further and assume that ALL AUTISM CASES IN THE WORLD WERE CAUSED BY VACCINE AND VACCINE ALONE. How’s about that, huh? Sounds absurd, but if we’re having a dialog with anti-vaxxers anyway, let’s dial up the crazy all the way there.

Okay. So, we take that one CRAZY assumption, what numbers would we arrive at?

Walk with me here, guys. Let’s ask Google…

What’s the current world population?
The current world population is estimated to be 7.6 billion people.

What’s the worldwide incidence rate of autism?
A 2012 review of global prevalence estimates of autism spectrum disorders found a median of 62 cases per 10,000 people

Ok, It’s 2018, but let’s just take that amount and dial it up a little to say, 65. 65 cases per 10,000 people. 65 per 10,000 in a world full of people (that’s 7.6 billion people like we counted earlier) should give us
0.0065 x 7,600,000,000 = 49,400,000 about 50 million people in the world now living with autism

What percentage of the world is vaccinated?
As of March 2018, it is said that about 85 percent of the world's children receive vaccines that protect them against tuberculosis, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and measles.

85% of 7.6 billion?
0.85 x 7,600,000,000 = 6,460,000,000
That’s about 6.5billion people in the world who has received the Evil-Needle

So, if we take all these crazy assumptions, and feed it into the MultiVac (old Asimov joke, I bet nobody is getting this but heck), what do we get?

Well, let’s see, if all 50 million cases of Austism in the world right now is caused by vaccination (and vaccination alone. No confounding factors whatsoever. I know! Crazy right?), then likelihood of getting autism from the Needle is 50 million in 6.5 billion. Okay, let’s work with that.

50,000,000 out of 6,500,000,000. That’s 0.76923077%

This means that there would be a 0.77% chance that he is our enemy vaccine can cause Autism. Or in other words 7.7 in every 1000 child receiving the vaccine would become autistic.

(Now don’t shit your pants, this is a crazy overestimation on top of a hypothetical assumption that all autism cases were caused by vaccine ok? So, chill out)

So, we’ve done the maths. What does this all means? Well, it means that, in the worst-case scenario, about 7 to 8 in every 1000 child who gets vaccinated might develop autism. The worst-case scenario.

Does that seem like a risk too much to bear? Well, to some, I’m sure it is. It’s not even 1 percent, but I’m sure that’s big enough a risk to scare some people. Should we then abandon the practise of vaccination altogether? Discard all the MMR vaccines into the Big Bin of Oblivion?

Maybe. Maybe not.

But we’re talking about risk versus benefit here, right?

What’s the benefit of vaccine?

The prevention of easily preventable diseases, right?

Let’s talk about Measles.

What is Measles?
Well, it’s viral infection, caused by the Measles Virus. Simple enough.
It usually presents with a bout of fever (high grade, usually greater than 40* Celsius), a sore throat, cough, runny nose, and inflamed eyes. Symptoms typically lasts only 7-10 days. Doesn’t sound too bad right? But here is where it gets interesting. It’s got a complication rate of 30%, which may include diarrhea, sepsis, pneumonia, blindness, meningitis or even encephalitis (inflammation in the brain, may even lead to permanent brain damage). Some of these complications, yes, you’ve guessed it, can lead to death. But so what, right? The death rates can’t be that high, right? Well, guess again!

“In populations with high levels of malnutrition and a lack of adequate healthcare, mortality can be as high as 10%. In cases with complications, the rate may rise to 20–30%”

10-30% death rate.

That’s 10 to 30 percent of everyone who gets infected.

So what, right? It’s not like everyone gets infected, right?

Let’s ask Google. What was the incidence rate of Measles before the invention of the vaccine?

“In the decade before 1963 when a vaccine became available, nearly all children got measles by the time they were 15 years of age. It is estimated 3 to 4 million people in the United States were infected each year. Also, each year, among reported cases, an estimated 400 to 500 people died, 48,000 were hospitalized, and 1,000 suffered encephalitis (swelling of the brain) from measles”
https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/history.html

What? Nearly all children? No way!

Alright, I tried searching and searching but I couldn’t get a number of what the incidence rates were like before the 1960’s. Not surprising, back then the reporting system may not be as efficient as it is now. 

“Not all cases were reported to the public health system; from 1956 to 1960, an average of 542,000 cases were reported annually.” https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/189/Supplement_1/S1/820569  
This was in the US alone!

Before the 1960’s…
“seven to eight million children are thought to have died from measles each year before the vaccine was introduced. Before the vaccine, epidemic cycles occur every 2 to 3 years, and virtually everyone experienced measles illness during childhood. Lifelong immunity is provided by natural infection”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_measles

Alright, I looked everywhere. The consensus seems to be that “almost” everyone got Measles. Those that survived, well, they survived! Those that didn’t, it numbered to the millions. Imagine a time when children died in the millions every year!

I input that 30% death rate into our calculations so far. Remember, this is but a hypothetical exercise…

30% death rate on everyone?

30% x 7,600,000,000 = 2,280,000,000

What’s 2.2 billion deaths? That’s about slightly less than a third of the world’s population being wiped out.
You know what? If Thanos wanted to rid the Earth of a third of its population, all he’s got to do is destroy the vaccines! Simple enough huh? Hmmm…

That’s 2.2 billion deaths, worldwide, a year!

Alright, let’s put things into perspective here…

TAKE THE BLUE PILL

We vaccinate, 7 or 8 in every 1000 (hypothetical) child who gets vaccinated might develop autism.

TAKE THE RED PILL
We don’t vaccinate, 2.2 billion people gonna die every year.
And that’s just Measles. I haven’t it touched on Mumps, and Rubella, and practically every other preventable disease in the world!
AND SEE HOW FAR DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE GOES…

Which is worse? You do the math!

I’m done. Typing this made me feel sick to the stomach and pissed off beyond social media acceptable levels. I’m not sure how some people can look at this numbers and go,

“Oh, I don’t care. I don’t wanna subject my son/daughter to the Evil Needle. I don’t care if other children gonna die. I just wanna protect my precious little spawn. You can’t force me! I know my rights! As sure as the Earth is Flat… Never!”

Pfft.

Scourge of the Earth.

- Dr Jickson Ng

Your Friendly Neighbourhood GP

The Parable of the Impatient Patient

There was once a patient who came down with a common cold. He went to see a doctor, and was told that he was simply suffering from a common cold.

The Physician said unto him "Verily I tell you, the disease will run its own course, and surely you will recover in 5 days or so."

He paid RM15 for the consultation (and some medications, for symptomatic relief) and went home to rest.

The patient woke up the next day feeling the same as he felt the day before, so he thought to himself "Maybe I should go and see another healer. Surely the first one did not treat me adequately"

Thus, he set off to see another doctor to seek a second opinion. The second doctor concurred with the first, saying that the patient was only stricken by a common cold, but because the patient insisted, started him on a course of antibiotics. The patient paid RM30 for the consultation (and the antibiotics) and gladly went home to take a rest.

However, on third day, the patient felt that he was not well enough, and thus he went to another doctor for yet another opinion. The third doctor told him that he appeared to be improving, and that he should just continue (and finish) the medicines he was prescribed. But the patient insisted that he be given more potent antibiotics, and so this doctor also gave in. The patient then paid RM60 for the consultation and antibiotics, and went home to rest.

On the fourth day, the patient was still not satisfied with the condition of his health. So this time, he went to a pharmacist and demanded for the most potent and effective medicines. He had to pay RM100 for them, but he was glad as the pharmacist had given in to all his requests (with no questions asked)

On the fifth day, the patient woke up feeling much better. He thought to himself "I have recovered! Surely it was because of the expensive drugs I bought from the pharmacy yesterday. I shall seek out the first doctor and tell him of this." And saying so he went to look for the first doctor to share the news of his recovery.

The first Physician however, rebuked him, saying "You fool! Did I not tell you that the illness would run its own course, and that you would recover in exactly five days? You had spent a total of RM205 for nothing! I tell you the truth! Repent and turn from your evil ways"

Those who have ears, let them hear.

Shall I Compare Thee to Time-Dilatation?

Darling, do you remember our talk about Time Dilatation? I think we discussed it (in great lengths) shortly after watching the movie, Interstellar.

It's a theory in relativity which,  according to Wikipedia, is defined as "a difference of elapsed time between two events as measured by observers either moving relative to each other or differently situated from a gravitational mass or masses."

Simply put (kindly bear with my own somewhat noobish understanding, mostly based on having read science fiction growing up) it's a cosmic event that causes two individuals to perceive (or rather, experience) time differently, usually due to the difference in their locality (where they are in the galaxy),  the speed in which one is travelling through space (especially where FTL speed is involved), or in the case of what happened in Interstellar; the difference in gravity (i.e. time moves slower where gravity is greater so that if a person is near a black hole, where gravity is so massive that nothing can escape, not even light, time gets slowed to a halt)

In the movie, Cooper, the protagonist, fears that he might never see his daughter Murph again because as he travels near a giant black hole, time is slower for him than it is for Murph. Thus while Cooper only ages a few hours, Murph, on Earth, is aging eight decades!

In the same way, whenever I'm with you, time seems to behave differently as well. It really shouldn't. I mean, after all, apart from the strong "gravitational pull" of the physical attraction we have for each other (which really doesn't apply to the science of relativity or time dilatation), we're both experiencing the same gravitational force on Earth as everybody else, so really, time shouldn't move any different for us than it does for everyone else in this world.

Yet, whenever we're together, time seems to slow down around us, but moves at the normal speed for the rest of the world. Once we're apart and time gets adjusted, it seems like more time has passed than we've actually experienced. You know what I mean, right? You used to say that it feels as though time moves a lot faster whenever we're together i.e. like when we were still dating, an entire day would go by and yet feel as if we've only spent an hour or two together. But in actuality our time is moving slower than everyone else!

Basically,when we're together, it's like we're on Gargantua (and experiencing time as Cooper did) while everyone else on Earth was experiencing normal time (like Murph did).

But. What causes it???

I've given this much thought and then, one day, it hit me like an epiphany! Remember what happened in the movie when it was revealed that the only force greater than gravity (and time itself) was... You guessed it! Love?

And that explains everything! It's the great love I have for you (which is even greater than the Earth's gravity!) that causes time to slow down whenever we're together!

And that's why even though it feels like it was only yesterday that we had that first date at that fancy Italian restaurant near your old work place in KL and I asked you if you believed in "love at first sight" and you said no, and I said "neither do i" and wham! 6 years have gone by (was it 6 years? All this time dilatation is confusing me) and woah! DARLING! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? WE'VE BEEN MARRIED FOR ONE YEAR!

It's amazing how you still make time stand still for me whenever we're together. Especially when we're having so much fun together. You're the only person I can talk to about anything (also about the only person in the world who would layan my Sci-fi theories) and I love that about you. Let's keep the Force (Love) strong in us and continue to bend Time and Space Continuum (Oh but that's another theory for another day) whenever we're together! I love you darling, and now that you're my wife, I shall love you forever more! Happy 1st year anniversary my love.

DISCLAIMER: I just realised that this post may have contained spoilers for those who have yet to watch Interstellar, the movie. So if I did spoil the movie for you I'll just have to say... Too bad! You weren't the target recipient of this letter/post anyway. This was originally intended for my wife's eyes only, and she's already watched the movie anyway. No hard feelings.

Incision & Drainage

There is a disease
That corrupts the core
Swelling pustules
Filled with hate
A putrid scent
Overwhelms the senses
Clouds judgement
Gnaws the conscience.
A disgusting shadow
Vile immorality
A nagging pain
So deep within
Ugly, irregular
Undying, malignant
Angry, Infected
Selfish and proud

This part of me
It needs incision
My bleeding thoughts
Must be cauterized.
Drain out the scum
This foul perception
The burning desire
The spreading cancer
The old is gone,
the new has come
Burnt flesh, remnants
Left on the ground.
I bite my tongue
Block out the pain
A sharp tipped scalpel
Cut myself free

When at last I
Awake to smell of petrichor
Cleansed of filth
Cured of disease
I walk away
And leave behind
A rotten carcass
My former self

A Scientific Creationist's Love Letter

Random ramblings of a bored clinician in the wee hours of a new year... 

Remember how I said 2014, for the most parts, was going to be remembered as the year we planned our wedding? Well, I guess I was right... For the most parts. 

But 2014 will also be remembered as the year I finally got married to the Girl of My Dreams (GOMD). Yes. I just said it. I know it sounds a bit cheesy, but when I was younger I once wrote a list of 27 things I'd expect to find in the GOMD. The list included shallow things like how she'd be pretty and kind and God-loving etc, to specific (and somewhat peculiar) stuff like how she can speak really good english, how she'd totally get my brand of humour, how I'd expect her to be able to speak in a thick British accent and how she's exactly 32% sarcastic, 25% a hipster etc etc. 

The thing is (and little did I know) I've gone ahead and set the bar pretty high for myself. In fact it may seem a little out of my reach even at that time. So I set myself out on an adventure (or a vendetta, I would sometimes convince myself) in search for the GOMD. At first, the search was filled with much enthusiasm and spirit, but hope of such a discovery began to wane with time. I would equate my predicament to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (otherwise known as the SETI project), which was a really big thing back in its time. The SETI project, in which scientists would send out radio signals to space and then wait and listen with a vast radio telescopic network for signals that resembled coded intelligence, launched in the 1960s. Back then, they were really certain they'd pick something up but as the years went by, the deafening silence from the rest of the universe simply meant that they (or rather, we) are really alone in this universe (u know what, writing about SETI actually got me curious so I went and googled about it. Turns out Congress defunded SETI IN 1993 but the search continues on private funds, probably by groups of atheists and fans of IFLS website) and that they should really give up (and they eventually did, sort of).

Ok maybe I digress a bit. 

The point is if the odds of me finding the GOMD was, at that time, say, a septillion to one i.e. 1 followed by 24 zeros, then as the years went by, the odds will also increase with time (since I was giving out signals to the rest of the known universe and not getting any back)  and therefore at that very moment before we met... The odds of me finding the GOMD was like an octillion to one, which is
1 followed by 27 zeros! 

OK so that's not the point I'm trying to get to  but I'm almost there. Bear with me, just a little longer.

The thing is I found out later that those 27 qualities weren't enough to make the GOMD. You see in order to make the GOMD, the conditions had to be perfect and specific... And that was when I found out that it's not just 27 specific qualities but 57820! All of which had to be met exactly or the GOMD would never came to be! So taking all of that into account, the odds of me finding the GOMD who would be perfect for me was close to a terrazillion to one, and that's like... I dunno how many zeroes!!!

OK more metaphors... But I'm getting there! You'll see! 

It's like the Big Bang/Evolution vs Creation theory you see... For our world to be formed, it had to meet all 2037489 known parameters necessary for a planet to support life (Intelligent design, anyone?). Miss any one of those, even by a nano fraction, and the whole thing falls apart! In fact the odds against life in the universe is so astonishing that to claim all this came to be by accident, like a freak of nature, entirely left to chance, would seem absurd, don't u think? It would be easier to believe that an intelligence created these perfect conditions than to believe that the life-sustaining Earth and the universe just happened to beat all that inconceivable odds, right? 

Well, that's just what it is. Because against all odds, I found you. And you've met all the other criteria (yes, the other 57793 my 15 year old self didn't even think to conceive). I didn't even know what were all the specific conditions in order for the GOMD to exist. I had no idea what would make her perfect for me... Until I met you, and you are perfect for me. 

How then can anyone say that you and me "just happened" by chance? The notion that we just happened to meet and fall in love with each other and then find out we are everything (and more) we ever wanted in another is like random numbers/forces/atoms hitting/colliding at each other seems to defy common sense itself, and I refuse to believe that. 

And if the planet we live in, and the universe that contains it must be created by a Supreme Intelligence, then surely our chance (which is no chance at all, but rather, fate) meeting must be pre-arranged by that very same Being, and that being (no pun intended) God, then surely 2014; the year we finally got married, is by no mistake what God has intended for us, right? 

Going by that theory, we have no reason to fear what comes tomorrow (which happens to be the year 2015) because we know who holds our futures in His hands. I believe God brought you into my life. That He created the heavens and the Earth (and the rest of the universe) and then created you for me, and me for you. It's weird (by the world's standard) to be as happy as we are together. And its only normal to fear that this happiness cannot last forever (going by, once again, the worldly standards). But because He lives, I know we can make it through anything. 

I think I finally made my point (you got it, right? Didn't you?). So yeah... I love you darling. And I'm so glad you're in my life. Even more so that you're my wife. 

Happy New Year my love. Let's face 2015 together and be awesome!