The Malaysian Insight

PUTRAJAYA was cautious but not slow when it came to ordering Covid-19 vaccines, Khairy Jamaluddin said today.

“The decision to buy the vaccines was already made in November. But at that time Pfizer, which is a mRNA vaccine, had only gotten interim results,” the science, technology and innovation minister told the Dewan Rakyat during the question-and-answer session.

“Malaysia only ordered after seeing the efficacy and safety of the vaccines,” said Khairy, after several opposition MPs asked why Malaysia’s vaccination programme was slower than other countries.

Back in November last year, the average number of active Covid-19 cases and deaths were 11,000 and 250 respectively. Since then, the number of active cases has soared to 170,000 while the total number of deaths yesterday was 8,408.

Khairy, however, defended the government, and said that Australia, South Korea and Japan also obtained their Pfizer vaccines around the same time.

“This means we made similar decisions,” said the Rembau MP.

He added that Malaysia should not be compared to Singapore as Temasek Holdings had invested US$250 million (RM1.06 billion) in BioNTech, which was a joint venture with Pfizer that developed the Comirnaty vaccine.

“This means Temasek or Singapore is one of the co-owners of the Pfizer vaccine so they got the vaccines early.”

He said Israel had paid a higher price to obtain the Pfizer vaccines and agreed to share its data with the company while Indonesia obtained its Sinovac vaccines early, as it was a clinical testing country.

Going forward, Khairy, who is the coordinating minister for the national vaccination programme, agreed that Malaysia must move faster to obtain additional vaccines.

“There are countries that have begun ordering vaccine stock, to be used as boosters, for 2022 and Malaysia had begun negotiations with Pfizer two weeks back.

“We hope to finalise the procurement to focus on booster shots and children,” said Khairy.

At the same time, Khairy said the government was studying the mix-and-match vaccine method to be used as boosters.

“Although it is being suggested by Germany, we are waiting for the recommendation from our own experts.”

Meanwhile, Khairy assured the Dewan Rakyat that all teachers and school support staff would be vaccinated before schools reopen on September 1.

Through the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme, 303,682 teachers or 73.4% have already received one dose of vaccine, said Khairy.

“For Forms 5 and 6 teachers, 80,717 or 90% have been vaccinated.”

He added that 45,197 school support workers who included security personnel, canteen operators and bus drivers have also been vaccinated.

“In private schools, 12,284 teachers have been vaccinated.”

Khairy, however, could not address the issue of mega vaccination centres as Dewan Rakyat Speaker Azhar Azizan Harun would not extend the question-and-answer session beyond 5.45pm despite several MPs asking for it.

Instead, the minister was told to respond in the form of written replies.

Malaysia has so far given 18.39 million Covid-19 vaccine doses nationwide since the country’s vaccination drive started on February 24.

A total of 12.49 million people or 38.2% of the nation’s population had received at least their first dose, including 5.91 million individuals or 18.1% who were fully inoculated.

Meanwhile, 6.58 million recipients had received only their first jab so far.

The government has been ramping up its vaccination rate sharply to meet its accelerated target of immunising the country’s entire population against Covid-19 by October. – July 28, 2021.