Emergency Committee Member Complains About Lack Of Granular Covid-19 Data

Kulim Bandar Baharu MP Saifuddin Nasution Ismail also says Malaysia is not listed under the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) based in Johns Hopkins University, as Malaysia is not willing to share its Covid-19 data on a global platform.

KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 — Granular Covid-19 data from the Ministry of Health is not available even to the Special Independent Emergency Committee 2021 (SIEC), SIEC member Saifuddin Nasution Ismail told Parliament yesterday.

SIEC was appointed last February as an independent committee to advise the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on the Emergency Proclamation scheduled to end on August 1.

“It is extremely hard to get granular data from the ministry. We need data as the minister has mentioned that the government approaches are based on data and science,” Saifuddin Nasution, who is also Kulim Bandar Baharu MP, told a special Parliament meeting yesterday.

Saifuddin said that legislation like the Personal Data Protection Act has prevented researchers from obtaining diversified Covid-19 data from the government.

“The Opposition Leader’s office, through data scientists, would like to come up with a paper titled ‘The End Of Covid-19 Pandemic, What The Data Says’.

“It would be great if we can obtain the data from the ministry.”

The PKR lawmaker also said that Malaysia is not listed under the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) based at Johns Hopkins University in the US, as Malaysia is not willing to share its Covid-19 data on a global platform.

“Not only on a global level, even the local researchers are also not getting enough data. Only the Health director-general is able to access all the data. The rest can’t.”

Saifuddin Nasution also complained that too much bureaucracy is also hindering efforts to obtain more data from MOH. 

“Under the whole-of-society approach, even the prime minister, requested for inputs from all. When there is granular data on this matter, we can predict and give our inputs.”

SIEC, which was formed in February this year, consists of 19 members, including the former chief justice, former chief secretary to the government, former Inspector General of Police, former commander of the armed forces, former director-general of health, public health experts, academicians, a representative from the Chamber of Commerce, and Members of Parliament.

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