Much has been said of Malaysia’s rate of inoculation, with a number of high-profile politicians criticising it as slow.
FMT takes a look at how Malaysia has fared and whether the critics have a point.
Are we on track?
How you feel about this question largely depends on how much you trust the government’s plans to ramp up the process.
According to its official rollout plans, the government aims to vaccinate 23.6 million people by the end of the programme.
The rollout is being carried out in three phases, with frontliners receiving top priority in the first stage, high-risk groups coming next and everyone else in the final phase.
How we fared in the first stage
Phase One (Feb 24-April 30)
Target: 500,000 fully vaccinated
Actual: 552,862
Average Daily Doses: 23,410
In this phase, Malaysia actually exceeded the target set by the government, with a further 895,204 people having received one of the two doses needed for the Pfizer/BioNTech and Sinovac vaccines.
Why are people saying it’s slow?
While the country did meet its Phase One target, this represents a small number of people overall.
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim criticised the government in April for the slow progress of the Covid-19 vaccination programme and called the inoculation rate “inexcusable”, comparing Malaysia with the US, whose president Joe Biden had “moved heaven and earth” to accelerate his nation’s efforts.
Similarly, former prime minister Najib Razak commented that the national vaccination rate paled in comparison with that of other countries.
“Countries that started vaccinations later, such as Australia, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Cambodia, now have higher (vaccination) rates and have overtaken Malaysia in terms of total doses given,” he said on Twitter.
Do they have a point?
Yes and no.
With the current average dose rate, it will take roughly 5.86 years to reach Malaysia’s herd immunity benchmark of 80%. This figure has understandably caused some concern, as early 2027 is a long time away.
With Phase Two having begun on April 19 and is expected to wrap up in August, and Phase Three scheduled to begin this month and will end in February next year, it does not look as though there is much time to fully vaccinate the remaining 23.1 million people.
Malaysia would need to vaccinate an average of just over 150,000 people a day to get there. That is six times the current rate which is a daunting task.
Can it be done?
With private hospitals set to take part in administering vaccines for Phases Two and Three and with the government providing them with vials from its supply, the Malaysian Medical Association thinks general practitioners (GPs) could add 150,000 daily injections on top of those administered at government centres.
MMA says it would take the participation of only 5,000 GPs nationwide. It believes each doctor can administer 30 jabs a day.
In addition, the coordinating minister for the vaccine programme, Khairy Jamaluddin, has said that private hospitals would soon be able to negotiate with vaccine manufacturers to procure their own supplies. However, he cautioned that such a parallel for-pay system might be ready only by the second half of the year.
Combining the government’s current rate with MMA’s projections, and factoring in the potential of private sector vaccinations, the 150,000 daily figure looks far more achievable. It may just be a matter of time before vaccination rates pick up.
The main question might not be whether it can be done but whether it will be done. Khairy has said supplies were already a problem. That issue, together with low registration, poor take-up from GPs and other issues could all be speed bumps on the road to achieving the target.
There is good potential for the rollout to ramp up, but Malaysians will have to wait and see if that potential is realised.
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