Harapan urges govt to conduct 'vaccine confidence' campaign to clear doubts

 

The Pakatan Harapan Immunisation Taskforce has urged the government to roll out a vaccine confidence campaign to remove the public's doubts about the country's Covid-19 immunisation programme.

In a statement today, the task force said it strongly believes that a vigorous publicity campaign featuring scientists, medical professionals, respected celebrities and other trusted personalities needs to be conducted.

It said while Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had announced that the first batch of Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer BioNTech would arrive in Malaysia at the end of February 2021, there was no mention of a nationwide confidence and information campaign.

"What he did not say is whether there would be a nationwide 'vaccine confidence' campaign to convince the Malaysian public that the vaccines distributed will be safe to take and effective in significantly lowering the risk of getting the Covid-19 virus.

"We cannot assume that the Malaysian public, or even the frontliners, are already convinced that they should take whatever vaccine made available to them," it said.

The task force noted the existence of "anti-vaxxer" groups in the country and other individuals with legitimate concerns over one or more of the vaccines that will be made available in Malaysia this year.

"The anti-vaxxer groups may convince their friends not to take the vaccine. In this age of fake news, the voices of anti-vaxxers can easily be amplified online," said former health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad, who leads the task force.

Dzulkefly Ahmad

The task force said the vast majority of Malaysians might not be aware of the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency's (NPRA) process before a vaccine is approved.

It said that there are indications that one or more of the vaccines may be given 'conditional approvals'.

"Hence, it is crucial that the scientific basis and the efficacy rate of each of the vaccines which will be used in Malaysia be clearly shown."

It also emphasised the importance of implementing "track and trace" of every dose of each vaccine from storage to a recipient to determine the vaccine's efficacy.

"In addition, this will also prevent the use of fake vaccines and fake vaccine certificates, some of which have already been reported in certain countries," said the task force, adding that the government needs a comprehensive Adverse Event Following Immunisation (AEFI) tracking mechanism and communications strategy.

"Like any vaccine, there will be individuals who will have adverse reactions after taking it. If this is not properly addressed, the negative news arising from AEFI cases following the first batch of vaccines given to frontliners will definitely give cause for others in subsequent batches to not take any Covid-19 vaccines.

"We, as part of the Pakatan Harapan Immunisation Taskforce, call on the newly-appointed Coordinating Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin, to announce a comprehensive 'vaccine confidence' campaign as soon as possible."

Muhyiddin said yesterday that Malaysia expects to complete its Covid-19 immunisation programme by February next year, covering 80 percent of its population of about 32 million people. - Mkini