KUCHING: On the news of the government’s purchasing agreement of the Covid-19 vaccine, Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii said the plans must be clear or transparent.
Though the news of Malaysia signing a preliminary purchasing agreement with Pfizer to buy 12.8 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine is highly welcomed, there must be transparency to logistics, distribution infrastructure and equity.
Besides these, there must be proper public education to prevent misinformation, confusion, and hesitancy.
“First and foremost, we must not be overly carried away by the announcement and let our guard down as a vaccine isn’t a silver bullet to the pandemic, especially since the announcement also states that the doses will be spread out throughout next year, with Pfizer only delivering one million doses (for 500,000 people) to Malaysia by the first quarter of 2021,” he said in a Facebook post today.
He said in total, the 12.8 million doses of Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine, a two-dose regimen, would cover about 6.4 million Malaysians or about 20 percent of the population.
“On top of that, an additional ten percent of the population will be covered through the agreement Malaysia signed with the Covid-19 Vaccine Global Access (Covax) facility, although they have yet to indicate whose vaccines in the Covax portfolio they will be purchasing,” said Dr Yii.
He said this meant by the end of next year, just under a third of Malaysia’s population may be vaccinated against Covid-19, adding that this was still a long way from achieving herd immunity which would require about 70 percent of the population to acquire some form of antibodies.
“This raises the question on how the government intends to fill in the gap to reach that 70 percent target, namely pertaining to how many other companies are they negotiating with, how much is it expected to cost, and what is the timeline that we are looking at?” he asked.
He said this was so that the public would be aware and not develop a sense of false security when the vaccine is first distributed in the community.
Noting that Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin had said Pfizer would handle the shipment and delivery of their ultra-cold Covid-19 vaccine to Malaysia, Dr Yii said the ministry must clarify if this included delivery to targeted users and not just shipment to a central location in Malaysia or even just the main cities.
“This of course poses problems in our tropical weather especially target groups in the rural areas of Sabah and Sarawak and even in West Malaysia where there may not be proper infrastructures including ultra-cold freezers for such specialised distributions,” he said.
He cautioned that improper storage could render the mRNA vaccine unusable; with analysts projecting that about five to ten percent of the Pfizer vaccine could be made ineffective “due to inadequate storage conditions”.
“Some of this waste could go undetected too, leading to people getting ineffective shots and insufficient protection from the coronavirus. So, how does the government intend to make sure that no one is left behind when receiving such vaccines, regardless of their demographics?” he questioned.
Besides this, he said the two-dose Pfizer vaccine regimen needed to be taken two to three weeks apart, thus questioning how it could be ensured that the elderly and rural folk were compliant and returned for their second dosage.
Dr Yii explained that only receiving the first dosage may defeat the purpose of the vaccine as the user may not develop the required amount of antibodies.
