ABC News, on December 8 last year, reported that Indonesia has received 1.2 million doses of trial coronavirus drugs, calling this China’s “vaccine diplomacy”.
We all know that this was the result of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s brief visit to Malaysia and Indonesia last October, offering Malaysia the Covid-19 vaccine for less than US$20 (RM80) per dose.
To date, neither Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba, nor Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has mentioned the trial vaccines.
If Indonesia, being the most populous Muslim nation, was willing to accept the free vaccine from China, why did Malaysia not accept it, too? After all, hasn’t the Special Muzakarah Committee of the National Council for Islamic Religious Affairs not given its verdict that the use of the Covid-19 vaccine is “wajib” (compulsory) for groups that have been identified by the government, and “harus” permissible for others?
Perlis Mufti Datuk Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin, in a Facebook post, said “even if there is an ingredient that is not permissible, the chemical transformation process will make it clean and halal”. This decision was made in early December, during the special muzakarah meeting.
Malaysia’s reluctance to accept the free vaccine raises a lot of questions. Instead, there was a lot of haste in signing the agreement with Pfizer, when we all know that its vaccine requires refrigeration at -70°C.
To date, neither the Federal Drug Administration nor National Institutes of Health has given its approval to any of the vaccines. Under normal circumstances, these vaccines would still have to go through at least three stages of clinical trials, and for a vaccine to be discovered within one year, it is hard to believe that these pharmaceutical companies do not provide trial vaccines.
According to the ABC report, similar final-stage trial vaccines have been distributed by Sinovac to Third World countries such as Brazil, Chile, Turkey and the Philippines, apart from Indonesia. In fact, Brazil is among the nations that got their first 120,000 doses in October.
Under normal circumstances, it is understood that vaccines provided on a trial basis will not incur any cost to the recipients, and that pharmaceutical companies will not compensate anyone suffering any side effects.
It is unlikely that China did not make a similar offer to Malaysia, as it did to two other Asean states.
It is time for Muhyiddin, Dr Adham and Khairy to be upfront and give an answer to the Malaysian public – is it true that Malaysia was offered a trial vaccine by China, and if so, why did Malaysia not accept the free vaccine?
I would also like to know whether any of the other pharmaceutical firms are offering trial vaccines, and if so, how many million doses are provided? – The Vibes, January 6, 2021
Ronnie Liu is Sg Pelek assemblyman, and DAP central executive committee member and Selangor chapter secretary
