KUALA LUMPUR: An image of a Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine being sold for over RM60 per vial on Shopee has been confirmed to be a fake listing using a doctored photo.
This was confirmed by the e-commerce management platform in a statement today.
"It has come to our attention that a post with a photo showing the sale of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine on Shopee is being circulated on Twitter and the same photo is also being circulated on WhatsApp.
"The Health Ministry and the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry as well as the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) are also aware of this fake news.
"We can confirm that we have not found any similar listings on Shopee.
"The author of the tweet has since confirmed that the image was doctored and indeed fake," said Shopee.
The e-commerce platform management again reminded Malaysians that Covid-19 immunisation is a national health matter, which should not be trivialised.
"We wish to remind everyone that any spread of false information on the vaccine is being monitored by the police and MCMC."
Yesterday, Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob debunked the existence of any cases whereby Covid-19 vaccines were sold online.
He reaffirmed that only the Health Ministry (MoH) and the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry (Mosti) were authorised to handle the National Covid-19 Immunisation Program.
"Again, Mosti or MoH are the only ministries authorised to handle the Covid-19 vaccine rollout in our country. As such, they know which companies carry which vaccine in our rollout programme, such as Pharmaniaga handling the Sinovac vaccine.
"Claims by some people that they can secure Covid-19 vaccines or that they are agents appointed by the ministries are untrue.
"I hope the public will not be easily deceived by these irresponsible people. Anyone who has been approached by these unscrupulous people can directly contact the ministries for confirmation," Ismail Sabri said yesterday.