KUCHING, Feb 12: Bintulu MP Dato Seri Tiong King Sing today has questioned the federal government for their reason to push for mixed vaccinations and not allowing the people to choose their preferred brand of Covid-19 vaccines.
He said the Institute of Clinical Research (ICR) under the Ministry of Health (MOH) has only been citing data gleaned from foreign countries, including the World Health Organisation (WHO), with regards to the booster jabs.
He mentioned that the latest statement by ICR has cited research from Hong Kong and Brazil, which show that mixed vaccinations can provide stronger protection.
“However, this was refuted by a British infectious disease expert who said that the efficacy of vaccinations for children under 12 is not significant.
“If the MOH takes the information by foreign experts or institutions seriously, will the British expert’s remarks make them halt the child vaccination programme that was just started?
“With the novel coronavirus present in this country for the past two years, has the ICR performed its clinical research on the pandemic?” he said in a statement today.
Tiong, who is also Dudong assemblyman, further said ICR’s recent statement rebutting a Pharmaniaga statement on the efficacy of the Sinovac-Sinovac-Pfizer mixed regimen against the Covid-19 Omicron variant had created more confusion rather than clarifying the issue.
“Many have questioned whether there is a special relationship between the Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin and Pfizer in constantly pushing the latter’s vaccine despite public pressure from all quarters to allow recipients to choose their brand of vaccine boosters.
“Instead, we are seeing them restricting school children to the Pfizer booster. This is a puzzling decision, and no satisfactory answer is in sight.
“Why doesn’t the government allow the people to choose their preferred brands of vaccines instead of allowing this controversy to build about mixing vaccines and trying to force the people into blindly using specific brands of vaccines?” he questioned.
He also said the health system was unclear about the causes of deaths of those vaccinated and dismissed them as being attributed to the victims’ prevailing conditions.
Thus, he urged the health authorities to investigate the links between the side effects and various vaccines being used.
“Khairy and Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah’s press conference should further explore the transmission paths of Covid-19 clusters, how to prevent and suppress the infections and properly advise the people on what actions need to be taken,” he emphasised. — DayakDaily
