Coronavirus
Khairy rebuts anti-vaccine groups on effectiveness of jab
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PETALING JAYA • Malaysian minister Khairy Jamaluddin has responded to anti-vaccine groups that have likened the Covid-19 vaccine to ineffectual injections with water, saying the vaccine is both safe and effective.
The Science, Technology and Innovation Minister, who is also in charge of the country's immunisation drive, posted his comment on Facebook on Sunday evening following social media buzz that some who had been vaccinated were infected with Covid-19.
The Health Ministry's director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah said last Saturday that nine healthcare workers were infected more than two weeks after the second dose, and another 31 were infected less than two weeks after receiving their second dose of the vaccine.
"Social media users who only read the headlines had shared it with their friends," Mr Khairy said, adding that a person's immune system will be most prepared against Covid-19 two weeks after the second dose of the vaccine is taken.
"That is considered fully vaccinated. Even then, it doesn't mean we cannot be infected," he added.
Mr Khairy said individuals can still be infected after being vaccinated, but that the chances of this are much lower.
He told a news conference yesterday that since only nine people out of 272,019 were infected, this proves that the vaccine does work.
"Nine cases of those people who have received two doses - two full doses - have tested positive for Covid-19. That works out to 0.003 per cent of medical front-liners who have been fully vaccinated with two doses and tested positive for Covid-19...
"Out of these nine cases, none of them have severe or even mild symptoms. They just tested positive for Covid-19," Mr Khairy said at a news conference yesterday with Health Minister Adham Baba.
Mr Khairy wrote on Facebook: "The vaccine protects us from horrible side effects such as admission into the intensive care unit, need for respiratory aid and death.
"The Covid-19 vaccine is safe and effective."
THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
