Foreign analysis on our vaccination programme used outdated data - minister

 

Some foreign analysts did not give an accurate picture of the Malaysian Covid-19 vaccination programme as they did not use the latest data in making their comparative analysis, said Communications and Multimedia Minister Saifuddin Abdullah.

He said information provided by a vaccine tracker in April projected that Malaysia would take 4.9 years to fully vaccinate 75 percent of its population.

“However, if we were to refer to the same tracker today, the 4.9-year period has changed to only five months. This new projection is based on the daily vaccination rate of 262,000 doses.

“So, if based on a daily vaccination rate of 375,000 doses, the target of vaccinating 75 percent of the population can be reached within three to four months,” he said in a statement today.

Saifuddin said when the tracker published its projection in April, the Malaysian government had already issued its vaccination rollout plan, but the information was not used in the analysis.

“This causes the not-so-good assessment of Malaysia’s position during the publication of the projection. Selective data analysis like this does not give a true picture of reality and can cause public distrust,” he said.

The Indera Mahkota MP said even though the parties involved had corrected the information, the spread of the inaccurate information had already been done.

While calling on all quarters to cooperate with the national Covid-19 vaccination programme by sharing only verified information, he said vaccination is the best way to protect lives and bring the country out of the pandemic.

He said the immunisation programme has shown encouraging results so far as 11 million shots of the Covid-19 vaccine have been administered and that the country is on track to achieve herd immunity by the year's end.

- Bernama