LETTERS: Despite the population's full vaccination rate reaching more than 80 per cent, our Covid-19 situation has not improved. Why?
With the opening of most sectors with interstate travel allowed, this has increased the mobility of people.
If mobility is increased and there is poor compliance of standard operating procedures among the people, this will spike transmissions among the unvaccinated, as well as the vaccinated.
We are well aware that vaccination is not 100 per cent effective in preventing transmission. It is only effective in addressing severe Covid-19 symptoms, hospitalisation and death.
The latest data from the Real World Evaluation of Covid-19 Vaccines under the Malaysia Covid-19 National Immunisation Programme showed that the effectiveness of vaccines in the prevention of Covid-19 infections is reduced by 68 per cent (for Pfizer) and 28 per cent (for Sinovac) in three to five months after full vaccination.
The prevention of Intensive Care Unit admission among those vaccinated with Pfizer and Sinovac at three to five months was at 79 and 28 per cent, respectively while the prevention of death for both vaccines was at 91 and 76 per cent.
These showed that the effectiveness of vaccines wanes over time.
Concurrently, the analysis on deaths among patients taking different vaccines showed that there were six deaths per one million population for AstraZeneca, 9.8 deaths per one million for Pfizer and 34 deaths per one million for Sinovac.
That showed that the waning effect of vaccines caused higher deaths. Of course, the findings may be influenced by the age of these patients, who are mostly from the senior citizen group.
That is why the Health Ministry is aggressively pushing for booster doses for senior citizens and high-risk groups with comorbidities who took Sinovac.
However, the response for booster dose is poor due to the reason that only the Pfizer vaccine vaccine is being offered currently.
There are concerns about the adverse side effects of taking the booster dose that is different from the first two doses. But mix-and-match vaccination for booster dose has been practised in many countries.
Indonesia, Singapore and Chile mixed Sinovac with Pfizer, while Thailand and Cambodia mixed Sinovac with AstraZeneca.
Western countries have also been mixing vaccines (Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna). There have been no known severe side effects reported.
The main reason for mixing Sinovac with other vaccines is because mixing it with Pfizer or AstraZeneca will produce up to 94 to 95 per cent of vaccine effectiveness, while using Sinovac as the booster will only provide 75 per cent effectiveness.
It is unfortunate that there is a lot of unverified information on the mixing of Sinovac with Pfizer being circulated on social media. We are aware that many are influenced and have declined the Pfizer vaccine as a booster.
This has jeopardised the ministry's efforts to provide better protection. Our country cannot afford to have another lockdown when our healthcare system is overburdened with severe Covid-19 infections that require ICU usage. We should take note of new waves happening in European countries such as Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. Their people have been complaining that their governments did not take early measures to prevent the spike in Covid-19 infections that caused lockdowns to be implemented.
Therefore, our people should go for the booster dose when called. Do not wait. Go for the first one being offered to get yourself and your loved ones protected.
At the same time, we hope that the ministry can expedite the inclusion of Sinovac vaccine in the National Immunisation Programme.
DR MOY FOONG MING
Professor of Epidemiology, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times