Penang’s Covid-19 booster roll-out similar to ‘tortoise’s pace’: Norlela

GEORGE TOWN – Penang health exco Dr Norlela Ariffin has questioned the alleged slow roll-out for Covid-19 booster shots in the state despite Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin’s announcement, yesterday, that eligible Malaysians who are above 40 years old will be among the first to be administered.

Stating that the booster shot roll-out in Penang is similar to a “tortoise’s pace”, Dr Norlela said the health deputy director-general (Medical) had assured her that an investigation will be conducted following queries into the matter.

She told The Vibes that Penang currently has enough vaccines to speed up booster shot administration.

“Khairy did tell me two days ago that he would expedite this issue and had invited me to the National Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force meeting yesterday, but I have not heard from him since.

“However, I have done data analysis on the number of booster shots available and the roll-out, and hence, I will be bringing up this issue during the state exco meeting today.

“We should be able to come up with a solution for this tomorrow after the state Covid-19 committee meeting,” she said.

Earlier this week, Dr Norlela had reportedly urged for the hastening of the booster dose administration, saying that compared to other states, the daily booster dose administration in Penang is the lowest.

As of November 8, Penang had 16,686 booster shots available, but only 1,419 were administered daily.

“All Penang elected representatives including myself do not want Covid-19 cases in Penang to increase again after what happened in August and September, as the effectiveness of the vaccine starts to decline six months after receiving the second dose.

“It is worrying because now that state borders are open, people will be travelling to Melaka for the elections. We need to speed up the booster dose to increase vaccine effectiveness,” she said.

According to the United States’ Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, mRNA and the spike protein in Covid-19 vaccines do not last long in the body as cells break down the mRNA and gets rid of it within a few days after vaccination.

The CDC also stated that spike proteins, like other proteins our bodies create, may only stay in the body for a few weeks. – The Vibes, November 11, 2021