KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 4 — Two years into the Covid-19 pandemic and with 78 per cent of the total population fully vaccinated, there was still hesitancy about booster jabs when it was first rolled out last October.Many were afraid of mixing vaccines even though medical experts say there is absolutely no reason for the mistrust, especially for those who have been administered Sinovac jabs.
Dr Helmy said there is a need to continue educating people to allay their fears as we could be on the brink of another outbreak. Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said he was aware of a foreign study that found two doses of Sinovac’s Covid-19 vaccine followed by a booster Pfizer-BioNTech shot producing a lower immune response against the Omicron variant compared with other variants.
The study, which has not been peer-reviewed yet, was conducted by researchers from Yale University, the Dominican Republic’s Ministry of Health and other institutions. Dr Nirmala Bhoo Pathy, a Public Health Medicine Specialist and Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya also agreed.
Over the weekend, long queues formed at several malls around Klang Valley where booster shots were being given.