Coordinating Minister for COVID-19 Immunisation Khairy Jamaluddin stressed that the personal data of recipients who register to receive the vaccine under the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme will not be revealed to the vaccine manufacturer concerned. He said that the data maybe shared with the pharmaceutical company involved in cases of AEFI (Adverse Event Following Immunisation).
To clarify, an AEFI is any “untoward medical occurrence which follows immunisation”. The adverse event in question could be something like an unintended sign, an abnormal laboratory finding, a symptom or a disease. But don’t worry, as health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said only four in a million may get side effects after getting vaccinated.
“For situation between Pfizer-BioTech and Israel, they have already agreed to share recipients’ details…besides Israel is more advance in receiving the vaccine,” said Khairy.
The Minister referred to Israel locking in an early deal with Pfizer-BionTech vaccines by trading them with their citizen’s data. The trade-off sparked controversy in Israel, weighing the benefits of mining the population for vaccine insights against the potential abuse of millions of personal medical records.
Meanwhile, Khairy said the COVID-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee Special Committee (JKJAV) is discussing with private hospitals and medical practitioners on their involvement in Phase 2 and 3 of the Immunisation Programme. He said the shots for both phases need help from more health personnel—including private hospitals and facilities—and the shots should still be dispensed for free.
Khairy also added that as of 11.59pm yesterday, 32,277 individuals had received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine since phase 1 of the programme was launched on 24 February.
The vaccines are provided for free to all citizens and non-citizens in Malaysia, as long as you register for the jab. You can register now via the MySejahtera app which is available on Google Play Store, Apple App Store and Huawei AppGallery. Registrations via the JKJAV website and hotline will be available from 5th March 2021. The vaccination registration count is 1,623,554 as at 8am today—which is much less than the current target.
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