'Immunity only lasts 8 months after Covid-19 recovery, cannot replace vaccine'

 

Health Ministry Clinical Research Institute director Dr Kalaiarasu Peariasamy said it is not possible to gain long-term immunity against Covid-19 by getting infected with it.

This is because current data shows the antibodies only last for about eight months after recovery from the disease.

He advised against those who think they can avoid getting the vaccine and gain immunity using this method.

“Each and every one of us has different levels of immunities… so exposing a healthy person (to Covid-19) and assuming that all of us will recover automatically is incorrect.

“Even if they do feel that is going to work, the current data shows immunity only lasts eight months and not beyond that,” he said.

He while someone who recovered from Covid-19 may have immunity for about eight months, the immunity actually starts to decrease from the moment they recover.

“So we should get rid of this logic that if you are young, you can get infected, (gain immunity) and avoid the vaccine,” he said in a Health Ministry briefing with the media over video conference today.

While there is no conclusive long-term data yet on how long the vaccines will stay effective, he said current research shows the vaccines can provide immunity against Covid-19 for at least a year and perhaps up to two or three years.

The first Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine shipment is scheduled to arrive in Malaysia this Sunday (Feb 21) morning.

The vaccination program will be separated into three phases, with the first phase focusing on medical frontliners, defence frontliners, and frontliners working in “essential services”.

Dr Hanif Zailani, who is the sector chief for public health experts under the Disease Control Department of the Health Ministry, explained that the vaccination program has to be separated into phases.

This is because there is a limited supply of Covid-19 vaccines worldwide, which caused supplies to be delivered in phases, he said.

Hanif also noted that about 5,000 healthcare workers from the Health Ministry, Defence Ministry, as well as hospital universities, have been trained to administer the vaccines thus far.

These are the people who will administer the vaccines for the first phase, he said, and volunteers will be recruited for the second and third phases in order to deal with the increase in vaccinations. - Mkini