PUTRAJAYA, Feb 17 — The government will take action against those who campaign against Covid-19 vaccination, Dr Adham Baba said.
“You don’t want the vaccine, never mind, but you don’t campaign to people not to take the vaccine,” the health minister told CodeBlue last week during an exclusive interview.
“If you don’t want (the vaccine), it’s okay, but don’t let other people get influenced by you. I will use Act 342 on those who campaign (against vaccination),” he added, referring to the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act.
“I will catch them.”
The health minister stressed that the government wanted to achieve herd immunity against transmission of the dangerous coronavirus, saying: “We want to vaccinate people, protect them.”
Covid-19 vaccination is voluntary. People can sign up for vaccination appointments from March 1 through the MySejahtera app or on https://www.vaksincovid.gov.my/.
The government had previously said that with the cooperation of the Communications and Multimedia Ministry, they are closely monitoring activities of particular groups that spread negative propaganda on Covid-19 vaccines.
Malaysia is scheduled to kick off the national Covid-19 vaccination programme, the largest mass inoculation campaign in history, on February 26 after delivery of 312,390 Pfizer-BioNTech doses on February 21.
Some Malaysians, including medical practitioners, have publicly expressed skepticism against Covid-19 vaccines, including mRNA vaccines by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. Such vaccine-hesitant people have written articles or spread messages on social media casting doubt on coronavirus vaccines.
Malaysia’s National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency, besides UK, US, and European regulators, has approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that is considered safe and effective based on clinical trial data.
