One of our biggest challenges in the war against the Covid-19 pandemic is how to accelerate the National Immunisation Programme (NIP) and shorten its 22-month programme to achieve herd immunity against Covid-19 to seven or even four months.

For the past few days, both Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and the Minister co-ordinating the NIP, Khairy Jamaluddin, have been avoiding my question as to what is the latest timeline for Malaysia to achieve herd immunity against Covid-19 under the NIP.

I had referred to an international media report last week which said that based on the present vaccination rate, the estimated time needed to achieve herd immunity with 75 percent of the population vaccinated would be 22 months for Malaysia.

This would take us to March 2023 to achieve herd immunity against Covid-19, which was clearly away from the original target of the National Immunisation Programme (NIP), which was February 2022, or the later instruction of the prime minister to complete the national vaccination rollout by this year.

This is a classic example of why the Muhyiddin government has failed to restore public trust and confidence in its disastrous handling of the Covid-19 pandemic so far, for it does not seem to have a clue about important questions on the Covid-19 pandemic, such as its target on achieving herd immunity against Covuid-19 in Malaysia.

The MCO 3.0 total lockdown of Malaysia has entered into the second day, but what is the Muhyiddin government doing about addressing the yawning deficit of public trust and confidence in the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, with Malaysia not only beating Indonesia for the 21 consecutive day in daily increase of new Covid-19 cases (yesterday’s statistics: Malaysia 7,105 cases, Indonesia 4,824 cases) but Malaysia beat the United States for the daily increase of new Covid-19 cases on Monday, May 31, 2021.

On May 31, the daily increase of new Covid-19 cases were 6,824 cases in Malaysia and 5,235 cases in the United States.

As the peak of daily increase in new Covid-19 cases in the United States was 304,951 cases on Jan 8, 2021, the daily increase of new Covid-19 cases in the United States on May 31, 2021, represented a phenomenal drop of 98.3 percent of the cases from its peak.

The reverse, however, is taking place in Malaysia.

Our peak of daily increase of new Covid-19 cases was previously on Jan 30, 2021, when we recorded 5,728 new cases. But for the past six days consecutively, the daily increase of new Covid-19 cases have surged past this Jan 30 peak and the director-general of Health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah recently spoke of a possible daily increase of 13,000 cases sometime this month.

Global daily increases of Covid-19 cases have dropped 40 percent from the peak of 903,343 cases on April 20 to 360,232 cases on May 31 this year, but Malaysia is bucking the international trend and in search of a new peak.

Very soon, it will be routine for the United States to beat Malaysia in the daily increase of new Covid-19 cases.

I had argued that if the United States, Singapore, Germany and France could achieve herd immunity in another four months, China in another three months, and the United Kingdom in another two months, there is no reason why Malaysia should not accelerate its national vaccination rollout to achieve herd immunity by Malaysia Day on Sept 16, 2021, which will make Malaysia Day this year particularly significant.

But neither Muhyiddin nor Khairy could reveal what is the latest timeline for Malaysia to achieve herd immunity against Covid-19 – whether in 2021, 2022 or 2013.

This is a serious omission and I suspect that even Muhyiddin and Khairy do not know what is the target date for Malaysia to achieve herd immunity.

If Malaysia will only achieve herd immunity in the second half of 2022 or in 2023, then those who received vaccination this year may no more be included among those with Covid-19 immunity, unless they get a booster or another vaccination.

This is a serious omission, which needs immediate attention by Muhyiddin and Khairy as they should realise that the slow and tardy national vaccination rollout has become the nation’s Achilles’ heel in the war against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Although Covid-19 vaccines are not the silver bullet to end the pandemic, they are definitely a game-changer in the war against the Covid-19 pandemic.

The government now claims that it has adequate supplies of vaccines for the Malaysian population. In such a case, there can be no justification for the government to monopolise vaccine purchase and continue to deny the private sector requests to buy the Covid-19 vaccine on their own.

Source:Malaysiakini

‘Why make vaccination so difficult? Why make it so inaccessible?’

Former minister alarmed at more ‘mega’ vaccination centres

PurpleMoose5046: Speed is of the essence. The rakyat’s lives matter.

Please use all existing resources and infrastructure available – our 7,000 private practitioner clinics, 1,000 government health clinics, district hospitals, state hospitals, private hospitals, local council halls and schools throughout Malaysia.

Please don’t go and create or rent unnecessary mega-malls, the World Trade Centre KL (WTC), Sunway Convention Centre, KLCC Convention Centre, or mega stadiums. It is a waste of taxpayer’s money.

All money saved should be channelled to buy more vaccines. Don’t be stubborn, Science, Technology, and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, Health Minister Adham Baba, and Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

Malaysian1: Former minister Rafidah Aziz, thank you for stressing this point. Why the need for mega centres?

People will have to travel long distances to these centres to get vaccinated. These centres will be crowded with long wait, few places to park, and queues might be mixed up.

Don’t the organisers know we are facing a pandemic? Bring the centres closer to the people with smaller facilities so it will be less crowded and easier to control. It will involve less movement of people and easier parking. You don’t need a first-class degree or PhD to figure this out.

Wira: Private clinics can perhaps manage vaccines like Sinovac or AstraZeneca.

However, they should not be allowed to handle Pfizer as this vaccine requires low-temperature storage with strict rules of thawing those vaccines to room temperature with a short shelf life at room temperature, failing which they must be discarded.

Mano: “We don’t need apps that do not talk to one another. We need people to go to their doctors and have their jabs on the spot,” said Federation of Private Medical Practitioners’ Association Malaysia (FPMPAM) president Dr Steven Chow Kim Weng.

This cannot be more apt. Stop trying to use WTC, Sunway, etc. How much is the government paying these centres per day? Please tell us if any of the owners did national service and offered free usage of their venues.

We should use existing facilities. Every district has a government clinic. There are also many medical GPs around.

As for the Pfizer vaccine, before it is mixed, it can be kept in a normal fridge (2C to 8C) for up to 31 days. After mixing, it can be kept at room temperature for six hours. These statistics are from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Why so much red tape? Why make vaccination so difficult? Why make it so inaccessible?

WhiteCamel4278: Soon, there will be mega clusters due to the mega centres. All the local clinics can do a better job and at a faster rate than these mega centres, which take a lot of money and workforce to set up and manage.

All that money could have been diverted to help the B40 or M40 (bottom 40 percent and middle 40 percent of income earners).

MariKitaUbah: What’s the use of using mega halls when people are made to wait for hours and hours? Don’t forget, we have a hot climate.

Waiting for half an hour is long enough, imagine people waiting for two to five hours! Please plan properly instead of making people suffer. They have suffered enough!

Kawak: We should benchmark our vaccination programmes on those that run smoothly in other countries like the UK, China or US. Why can’t we do it right?

Mega vaccination centres allow the gathering of huge crowds while the Health Ministry and movement control order (MCO) standard operating procedures (SOPs) are strict on person-to-person contact.

This is absolutely absurd. This is akin to having a festival for vaccines!

ACR: Every other former and current MP wants to be in the limelight giving suggestions on effective vaccine rollout ostensibly to take advantage of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government’s lack of goodwill with the public.

If one bothers to review the US experience in late December 2020 and early January 2021, you would find they were in the exact circumstances as us now but more alarming given that they had vaccines, yet, the rollout was slow. Vaccines were sitting on hospital shelves. They enlisted GPs and pharmacies to administer vaccinations but each locality had its own logistical problems.

Mega vaccination centres allow for physical distancing and at the same time the logistics would be there to support the vaccination numbers planned.

The PN government was also criticised for not decentralising vaccine procurement. India did exactly this and a Lancet Commission had recommended centralising procurement.

Too many cooks spoil the broth. While bipartisanship should bring about better outcomes, not every donkey and its dog needs airtime.

Determined Sarawakian: It doesn’t matter whether it’s mega facilities, or private and public clinics. We need to send as many people as possible for vaccinations.

If not, we will never have herd immunity. For those mega facilities, make sure there’s order and control.

Selangor’s Covid-19 testing was done efficiently, orderly, and promptly. Pakatan Harapan did a very good job.

All in all, from lining up outside the compound to finishing the test, it took me about 50 minutes. By the time I reached home, the Selangkah phone app already displayed my test result. This should be the way.

Source:Malaysiakini

The Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (KLSCAH) Women Division deeply regrets that the government intends to arrest undocumented migrants during the nationwide full movement control order (MCO).

After all, the government has promised in the past that it will not arrest any undocumented migrants who are willing to undergo Covid-19 testing and vaccinations. Public health is a priority.

Enforcement authorities explained that the arrest of undocumented immigrants is to prevent the spread of the pandemic and prevent the formation of new clusters. However, KLSCAH Women Division believes that this will be counterproductive.

Large-scale arrests will only cause undocumented migrants to be reluctant to show up for testing or treatment, thus further increasing the risk of spreading Covid-19.

In addition, if large numbers of undocumented migrants are gathered in detention centres without maintaining social distancing, this will inevitably accelerate the spread of the pandemic and increase the risk of infection by law enforcement personnel. Therefore, this does not withhold the standards of pandemic prevention and control.

KLSCAH Women Division believes that the best way to flatten the curve is large-scale testing and vaccination.

The government should set aside legality issues during this dire state of lockdown, and work with employers and NGOs to encourage immigrants, especially undocumented migrants, to actively seek testing and vaccination.

Only in this way can we effectively curb the spread of the Covid-19 and achieve the goal of herd immunity as soon as possible.

Source:Malaysiakini