KUALA LUMPUR – Attempts by Pakatan Harapan representatives in the Special Independent Emergency Committee to obtain critical Covid-19 data hit a wall when the Health Ministry refused to entertain their requests.
This was revealed in Parliament today by Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail (Kulim Bandar Baharu-PH), who bemoaned the opposition’s struggle to secure information on the pandemic, resulting in it having to rely on international and open sources.
The PKR secretary-general said such data is vital for the opposition to provide meaningful input and advice pertaining to the emergency declared over the pandemic.
“It is important to highlight our experience in the committee – which was formed on the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s decree – on how difficult it has been for us to get granular data from the Health Ministry.
“The opposition leader’s office also wanted to conduct studies based on what the data says. It would have been great if we could obtain it. We tried, but the ministry said the law doesn’t allow for it, citing personal data protection.”
He said the explanation provided is bewildering as the Centre for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University provides data that is sourced from various countries.
Unfortunately, Malaysia is not part of this. Even internally, obtaining data is very hard. Only one individual has control of this: the health director-general.
“When we wrote letters, we were still denied. That is why we have been forced to obtain data from open sources, but this does not explain the full picture in Malaysia. The granular data is what’s important.”
Fellow committee member and former health minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad (Kuala Selangor-PH) echoed Saifuddin Nasution’s sentiment, saying the opposition has not obtained any data from the ministry to date.
The same is faced by (the) Selangor (government). When there is no data-sharing, how do you want us to fight? You push us into the ring, but you blind us and tie our hands.
“The war against Covid-19 requires not only the commitment of the government, but strategic cooperation and policies, too.”
In a series of tweets later, Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the ministry has already introduced open sourcing for its data on the pandemic, which can be obtained via the GitHub platform.
“We hope that we can broaden our analysis and leverage intelligence from all corners of society & sites like @OurWorldInData.
“With our vaccination programme being one of the fastest in the world, we must look beyond cases. You will find anonymous granular data on hospital admissions, critical care (ICU), and even MoH’s cluster-based analysis of transmission.”
In addition, he said, the ministry is making public data on mobility and contact-tracing, powered by MySejahtera.
“The mobility data even provides insights into the time density of check-ins, something that most other mobility datasets do not contain.”
This data is based on the groundwork of health frontliners and the ministry’s Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre officers, shared by state and district officials every day, he said. – The Vibes, July 27, 2021
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