LETTERS: Experts for the anti-Covid vaccine lobby speak in broad generic terms and hollow rhetoric with no evidence-based science.
One said: "Everywhere we see people dying, most of them are suffering, they cannot work."
This fearmongering is devoid of facts or figures and creates panic among gullible people.
The Covid-19 vaccination campaign in 141 countries prevented 2.4 million excess deaths by August 2021.
If the vaccines had been equitably distributed, another 670,000 more lives could have been saved.
The deaths averted had an economic value of US$6.5 trillion, about nine per cent of the combined gross domestic product of the 141 countries.
A one-year study between Dec 8, 2020, and Dec 8, 2021, estimated that the vaccines prevented 14.4 million deaths in 185 countries.
If the World Health Organisation target of 40 per cent eligible population being fully dosed was met, another 599,300 deaths could have been averted.
In the Covax Advance Market Commitment countries, an estimated 7.4 million deaths were averted.
If the 20 per cent vaccination coverage target set by Covax, a worldwide initiative for equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines, had been met by low-income countries, another 81,750 deaths could have been prevented.
In the Malaysian context, former Institute for Clinical Research director Datuk Dr Kalaiarasu Peariasamy said Covid-19 vaccines prevented between 16,000 and 17,000 deaths.
The vaccine deaths alleged by some quarters and their self-proclaimed experts are more likely to be Covid deaths, highest among the unvaccinated, of which the world and Malaysia have recorded seven million and 37,000 deaths respectively.
More lives could have been saved if the vaccines had been distributed more rapidly and equitably.
"In terms of lives saved and economic value, the Covid-19 vaccination campaign is likely the most impactful public health response in recent memory," said the National Bureau of Economic Research report.
DR MUSA MOHD NORDIN
KPJ Damansara Specialist Hospital
Selangor
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times