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Singhealth CEO announces availability and cost of H1N1 vaccine via blog – Start of the end of the press release?

Pardon the long title but it is interesting to find the Singhealth CEO making this announcement through the Ministry of Health’s blog rather than doing it via a press release.

Wrote Dr Tan Chee Beng, CEO, SingHealth Polyclinics,

We are already seeing increasing public interest in the vaccination. We have set up dedicated phone lines to handle queries and requests to be put on the waitlist. When our clinics finally receive the vaccines, we will set up appointments for those on the waitlist. At $29 nett at the polyclinics, the cost of the H1N1 vaccination is much lower than Tamiflu. It is a cost effective shield against H1N1.

It is also interesting to find that while Today newspaper quoted the source from this blog, The Straits Time, strangely enough, omitted any reference to the blog as the source of the information.

The announcement was made with a rather personal approach than the standard third party press release format.

Are blogs now the Web2.0 Press Release? Would we be seeing more announcements made via blogs instead of Press Releases?

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