SIBU, May 23: It is not advisable to give option for the people to choose which vaccine they should be vaccinated against Covid-19 as doing so will only slow down the vaccination programme.
Sibu Divisional Disaster Management Committee coordinator Dr Annuar Rapaee in his live Facebook streaming yesterday said during a pandemic like Covid-19 pandemic, it would be difficult to achieve a herd immunity against the disease if leeway is given to everybody to choose the vaccine they preferred.
He said this in response to a call by Bukit Assemblyman Irene Chang to the government to give the people the option to choose their choice of vaccine.
Chang in a statement yesterday said if the people are given the option to choose the vaccine, the number of people register for the vaccine will shoot up.
She pointed out that there are still about one million of the targeted 2.08 million people in Sarawak who have not registered and in Sibu alone, more than 90,000 persons have yet to register themselves to be vaccinated.
“This suggestion (by Chang) can only be applied if we have enough vaccines and also if we are not in a pandemic situation. During pandemic, we may not have the option to allow people to choose their vaccine because if we do, it will slow down the vaccination process. For example if there are 100 people who want Sinovac, 100 for Pfizer, 100 for Astrazeneca, and another 100 who request for Modenna.
“This will delay the vaccination process as they will have to wait for the vaccine of their choice,” he explained.
The Nangka assemblyman further added that during this pandemic most countries are also not giving the freedom for their citizens to choose the vaccine.
“Britain for example is only using two vaccines of Biotech and AstraZeneca. What I am saying here is not to rebut the suggestion by Irene but I want to say that the best vaccine is the one that is first available to you and readily injected into your arm,” he said.
For Sibu, he said the target to achieve a herd immunity is to have 70 per cent of its population or 190,000 of people vaccinated.
He said Sibu Indoor Stadium, can accommodate up to 3,000 shots of vaccine per day but due to limited supply, it can only administer 1,500 per day at present.
Jalan Lanang Polyclinc and SibuJaya Multi-purpose Hall can each do 200 shots two days a week.
“All these vaccination centres can contribute a combine total of 190,000 for first dose in 10 weeks but we only have 110,000 people who have registered for the vaccine,” he said.
He urged those who have not register to do so as soon as possible.
Registration is now also opened to those aged 60 and above for AstraZeneca vaccine at http://vaksincovid.gov.my. — DayakDaily
