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PETALING JAYA: Malaysia should expand its options in the search for a Covid-19 vaccine. One way is to join Covax, the global initiative to provide access to Covid-19 vaccines, as soon as possible.
If not, Malaysia should look to other countries, including Singapore, that are developing their own vaccines, according to health experts.
Dr Sanjay Rampal, Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at the Universiti Malaya, said Malaysia should sign an agreement to join Covax and make the advance payment of RM 94.08 million as soon as possible to ensure that at least the 10% of the population is vaccinated.
“We should keep Covax as an option given its largest basket of candidate vaccines, even if the government has already signed an agreement with China to improve its access to the Chinese vaccine,” Sanjay said. Sun Yesterday.
He noted that Covax, an initiative of the World Health Organization, the Vaccine Alliance and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, already has a portfolio of 18 candidate vaccines.
“With Covax, there will be greater potential to find a successful vaccine that helps control the pandemic.”
Otherwise, he said, it would be difficult for Malaysia to gain access to the mRNA vaccine candidates being developed by Pfizer and Moderna.
“Due to the short follow-up of these studies, it is still possible that it is still too early to bet on a single vaccine candidate,” he added.
Sanjay also noted that it is difficult to assess the results, as the China National Pharmaceutical Group Corporation (Sinopharm) states that its vaccine has already been used by more than a million people.
He also emphasized that while the interim results have provided optimism, a cautious approach is necessary in the medium and long term in terms of efficacy and safety.
“We are still not sure if there will be rare side effects, and caution is essential if we are to vaccinate more than 30 million Malaysians.”
Sanjay speculated that Malaysia may have been delayed in joining Covax in order to have a wider range of possibilities.
Virologist Dr. Lam Sai Kit is of the opinion that Malaysia is unlikely to receive the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines anytime soon, even if the country joins the Covax initiative.
“Many rich countries have already pre-ordered vaccines from both companies, leaving countries like Malaysia on the sidelines,” he said in a press release last Friday.
Lam, who was recently appointed a member of the 12-member global task force of the Lancet Covid-19 Commission, said Malaysia should look to other countries like Singapore instead.
However, an immediate end to the Covid-19 crisis remains unlikely, even if a vaccine is now available.
According to Sanjay, the most optimistic scenario is that the pandemic persists as a threat to global public health until 2022.
“A big caveat is that the vaccine is unlikely, for now at least, to be the silver bullet for this pandemic. We will have to continue living with the virus but in a more sustainable and profitable way, “he added.
Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin told Dewan Rakyat last week that the government decided on November 13 that Malaysia would join Covax, but was still looking for a date to sign the deal.
Before that, Director General of Health Tan Sri Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah said the country was awaiting data from the third phase of clinical trials for all candidate vaccines to determine which one is safe and effective.
Currently, 12 vaccine manufacturing companies are conducting Phase Three clinical trials for their respective vaccines.
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