Wan Khairulnizam, 51, said he was happy to know that all his 15 friends at the True Home Care Centre in Inderapura here, have agreed to get their jabs, after seeing that he did not suffer any side effects from taking his Pfizer vaccine jab on May 5.
“Some of them asked ‘sakit tak?’ (if it is painful) and I told them it was just like an ant bite. I only had a slight fever the night after the jab but other than that, everything was fine,” he said, grinning from ear to ear.
Wan Khairulnizam was met at the nursing home where he was patiently waiting for a mobile vaccination unit from the Pahang Health Department to arrive for him and Awang, 83, to complete their doses today.
The owner of the nursing home Noryana Samsudin, 35, admitted that it was difficult for her to get the consent of all the residents as some of them were worried about adverse side effects while some wanted to ask their children first.
“But a few days after pak cik Wan Khairulnizam and pak cik Awang received their shots, most of them told me that they wanted to be vaccinated. Some of the relatives also called to ask us to do the registration on behalf of their family members here,” she said.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Noryana said they have had to implement a “no visitor” policy as most of the residents have various ailments such as diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke and Parkinson’s disease.
“Before the pandemic, we used to welcome relatives of inmates to take them home for Hari Raya or the weekend but the practice has been stopped since last year. For now, we also have to stop religious teachers from coming for their usual Al-Quran classes.
“We now rely solely on phones as a medium of communication with the families. The staff will take turns to make video calls for them to chat every day and this is important for their mental health,” she said.
Meanwhile, one of the residents, Ghazali Salleh, 59, said he hoped to get his shot as soon as possible as he is a high-risk person suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure.
Asked why he did not join the first round of injection with his two friends, Ghazali shyly answered that he wanted to “wait and see”, stressing that it was not because he was afraid of the needle.
For Mohammad Muda, 64, his children were not too keen for him to get the vaccine as they feared the side effects but he managed to convince them to let him take the vaccine.
“I kept telling them that my friends (Wan Khairulnizam and Awang) were doing great after the shots and everyday the news stressed on the importance of the vaccine. Even people older than me took it.
“After a while, they said yes so I told them to register my name for MySejahtera since I have missed the opportunity here. I hope that I can get the vaccine soon,” he said.