#kerajaangagal82 – Why Muhyiddin is not practising in Malaysia what he is preaching to the world?
Why is the Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, not practising in Malaysia what he is preaching to the world?
In his address during the closing session of the 74th World Health Assembly held virtually in Geneva, Switzerland, last night, Muhyiddin said the only hope for the world to end the Covid-19 pandemic is to ensure as many people are inoculated as rapidly as possible.
This is a truism that must be applied both locally and internationally.
Two days ago, I 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 per cent of the population vaccinated would be 22 months for Malaysia.
This would take us to March 2023 to achieve herd immunity again Covid 19, which was clearly against 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.
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.
As time is an imperative in the deadly war against the Covid-19 pandemic, I asked the Minister co-ordinating vaccines, Khairy Jamaluddin, to reveal the latest time-line for Malaysia to achieve herd immunity against Covid-19 whether in 2011 itself, 2012 or 2013.
But there was thunderous silence, as I suspect that Khairy is unable to talk about the latest time-line for Malaysia to achieve herd immunity against Covid-19, as there is none.
This is an serious omission which must be immediately rectified, which the Prime Minister should look into and to draw up the government’s latest time line for Malaysia to achieve herd immunity – whether in 2021, 2022 or 2023.
And make the government’s latest time-line for achieving herd immunity in Malaysia public.
Would Muhyiddin support my proposal for the national vaccination rollout to be completed by Malaysia Day on Sept. 16?
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.
Let Muhyiddin share with Malaysians these aspects of the NIP.
Muhyiddin 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 and that 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.
As the government claims that it has adequate supplies of vaccines for the Malaysian population, there can be no justification for the government to monopolise vaccine purchase and continue to deny the private sector requests to buy the vaccine on their own.
Let me remind Muhyiddin what he told the World Health Assemby two nights ago – that the world cannot win this war against the virus unless everyone has equal and rapid access to vaccines.
It has taken four months for Muhyiddin’s target of achieving a vaccination rate of 75,000 doses of vaccine a day.
Khairy is now claiming that he expects to reach a target of 150,00 doses of vaccine a day in June itself, causing the DAP MP for Bakri, Yeo Bee Yin, to ask whether this would be at the beginning, the middle or the end of June and whether it is the maximum or average daily vaccination rate.
There is an urgent need for less rigid and more flexible approach in NIP and Khairy should act on the complaint of the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) President, Dr. M. Subramaniam that there had been no engagement between him and private general practitioners (GPs) on their involvement in the immunisation programme’s Phase and 3, although the MMA officially wrote to the Minister on March 2, 2021. But the MMA received no reply.
I do not blame the MMA president for his angry response as to why there were only 2,500 GPs registered with NIP.
Subramaniam said: "The minister should have come down from his high horse to meet with us months ago when we wrote to him.
"Perhaps that would have encouraged more GPs to get on board. What a difference it would have made if he showed some interest."
Over to Khairy!