By Nur Ashikin Louis
KUCHING, May 22: The Ministry of Health (MOH) has been urged to look into an allegation of improper Covid-19 vaccine administration after a video went viral showing a man believed to be receiving a lower dose of vaccine.
In stressing this, Bandar Kuching Member of Parliament Dr Kelvin Yii Lee Wuen said following the circulation of such a video, members of the public have been questioning the effectiveness of the whole inoculation process.
“The public are even raising doubts whether they themselves have gotten the right dosage and have been properly administered with the vaccine.
“Such doubts and possible mismanagement have to be properly handled and addressed and not censoring them in any way in the case of such an event,” he said in a statement today.
Dr Yii mentioned that he had received reports from members of the public that they were stopped from recording or even taking photos during the inoculation.
“This does not instill confidence in the programme itself and should not happen but instead their concerns be properly addressed,” he added.
While it could be a human error, Dr Yii pointed out that a proper monitoring and quality control system should be in placed especially in view of the expected increasing rate of vaccination once the State’s vaccine supply increases.
Therefore, he called on the MOH to come up with a comprehensive ‘Covid-19 Vaccine Administration Errors and Deviations Guidelines’ which will give clear guidelines and even resources to prevent a Covid-19 vaccine administration error, ways of proper reporting in the event of a vaccine administration error, as well as actions to take after an error has occurred.
“This includes ways to inform the recipient of the vaccine administration error, how to determine how the error occurred and implement strategies to prevent it from happening again. This should cover all types of vaccines and its possible difference in terms of response and administration.
“Such guidelines have been produced and implemented by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States including a comprehensive study of the more common administration errors reported, along with some of their potential causes and ways to avoid it.
“With these guidelines, it gives the frontliners clear guidelines to respond in such a situation and also the recipients a peace of mind and more confidence in the programme itself,” he emphasised. — DayakDaily
