The government’s 12MP simply focuses on awareness programmes and cancer screenings without mentioning increased treatment, even though patients with chronic diseases worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Under the 12th Malaysia Plan, a National Health Endowment Fund, derived particularly from waqf (donation of assets from Muslims), will be introduced to diversify health care financing.
Khairy Jamaluddin says the third shot is for people who don’t gain sufficient immune response from two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, whereas boosters are to curb waning immunity in other individuals who responded well to double vaccination.
Khairy Jamaluddin says Malaysia has agreed to defer Covid-19 vaccine deliveries if supply is not needed, so that manufacturers can send them to other countries first.
Selangor’s 7.3% share of double-jabbed people in 5,725 Covid-19 deaths from June 1-Sept 1 is seven times higher than 1.2% in England and less than 1% in the United States.
Highly transmissible Covid-19 variants like Delta may endanger children because fully vaccinated adults can transmit the virus to unvaccinated individuals.
The RECoVaM study on 14.5 million fully vaccinated individuals in Malaysia who received Pfizer, AstraZeneca, or Sinovac finds that complete vaccination reduces the risk of infection by 88% and symptomatic disease by 86%.
Khairy Jamaluddin says MOH is currently reviewing Pfizer’s clinical studies on its Covid-19 vaccine for children aged below 12; Pfizer-BioNTech said recently their vaccine is safe and effective in children aged 5 to 11.
Khairy Jamaluddin is developing a more consistent testing strategy where MOH can clearly identify whether an area is in late containment or mitigation stage.