YOURSAY | ‘Empty syringe’ fiasco: Giving new shots not the answer

YOURSAY | ‘Adham, life is precious, and you are not taking this issue seriously.’

'Empty syringe' vaccine recipients will get new shots – Adham

Apa Nama: Health Minister Dr Adham Baba, you cannot be reactive and firefighting this 'repeatedly occurring' issue. It had happened before, still happening and going to happen in the near future.

Yesterday, I commented as follows: "I suggest one thing here. At the end of each day, you need to undertake reconciliation of each batch of the vaccine used.

“Also undertake line clearance on how many syringes used and disposed of. All these should tally with the number of vaccine recipients who attended on that particular day at each vaccination centre or PPV.

“(Coordinating Minister for National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme) Khairy Jamaluddin, you need to carry this out immediately in every vaccination centre. Otherwise, this incident will keep repeating and it does not bode well for you and the overall programme."

Months back, I used to comment that our vaccination programme was in disarray. I have been proven right, time and again. I am really disappointed.

Adham, life is precious, and you are not taking this issue seriously. So far, I have never come across such issues in other countries. Only in Malaysia. It is a black mark on our ongoing vaccination programme and history will not be fair to you.

How are you going to stop this from happening?

Ceylon Spice Tea: How many vaccine recipients are aware that they have been injected with an allegedly "empty syringe" of Covid-19 vaccine?

Are there any proof, such as CCTV recordings, to identify these incidents? Are there any medical methods available to identify whether vaccine has been administered to a person? In addition, how to determine whether the liquid drawn from the vial is the actual vaccine?

These alleged heinous acts by certain personnel administering the Covid-19 vaccine have reduced the confidence level of the people on vaccination.

As an immediate measure, vaccine recipients should be allowed to videotape their vaccination and CCTV cameras should be installed at strategic locations of the vaccination centre

Those irresponsible personnel, if found guilty, should face legal action and not just disciplinary action. They have betrayed the nation.

GanMu: "All personnel administering the Covid-19 vaccine must show the filled syringe to recipients before they are injected," said Adham.

In case the recipients forget to check, the doctors who screen them before they go for vaccination could probably remind them to check before receiving the vaccine.

There is no apology whatsoever from Adham nor from the prime minister for this alleged blatant cheating. Neither is there any comfort that they are viewing this breach seriously and are taking immediate appropriate steps to get to the bottom of it.

In view of the aggressive vaccination exercise involving millions of people, going after the alleged syndicates behind this is critical and urgent.

The Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) should explore urgently what could be done to overcome the lapses here.

OCT: How can such a callous act be allowed in the first place? How many such incidents happened without being discovered?

They are playing with human lives. It is giving false hope that the rakyat are protected when no vaccine is allegedly injected.

This can be a criminal offence. What are the actions taken against the culprits? There should be a proper stock check to ensure accountability.

This doesn't look like an isolated incident judging from the many cases. Indeed, more important is how the Health Ministry is going to prevent such incidents from happening again.

Headhunter: The question one would like to ask the minister is, how does one know if he or she has been given an empty shot?

The simplest thing to minimise such incidence is to have a more transparent protocol or SOP (standard operating procedure) to stop this alleged scam.

A change in procedure is all that is needed and will not cost any extra ringgit. Vaccine recipients should also be allowed to videotape themselves being injected.

Honest: Health minister, the problem is we are not allowed to take video at many vaccination centres. It is even announced that taking photos or videos are prohibited. So how do you prove this?

This is ridiculous that people are not allowed to videotape their vaccination, yet this minister suggests that you need to show proof.

The question I have for Khairy and Adham is, how to show proof and why prohibit us from videotaping ourselves being vaccinated?

BlueMarlin0910: The culprit’s service should not just be terminated but charged with premeditated manslaughter because the victim will only get one vaccination, not two, thereby opening the possibility that should the victim contract Covid-19, he or she is at a medical disadvantage and could possibly die.

In this case, the discovery was made, but what if it wasn’t? Is this the only case?

It is easy to say that if we can prove that we were not vaccinated, we will get vaccinated again. Again? The person did not get one, so there is no ‘again’.

And how can we provide proof when we were not allowed to record a video of the process at most places? How much more has to happen to the rakyat to have faith in our own people and the government? Have we become such disgraceful people?

Myviews: Indeed, this is not a question of calling the people back to get re-injected, nor is it just to sack the wrongdoer. These people are playing with people's lives.

How do we know the thousands who have been "injected" have really been given the vaccine, especially when most people prefer not to look at the needle?

The situation is very serious because those who were deprived of their vaccine would happily be going around thinking it was safe for them to do so. They can then be easily infected and may even die. Can the perpetrators, if caught, be charged with murder?

The government should now quickly carry out a huge campaign to advise people not to pay for any vaccines offered in the black market. That's because the vaccines can only maintain a certain length of time to be effective after being taken out of refrigeration.

Moreover, would those vaccines offered be the real stuff and not just water? Create doubts so that the public will not fall prey to these bloodsuckers.

Daniel: Of course, disciplinary action must be taken against those black sheep whose irresponsible action will endanger vaccine recipients.

However, the ministry is missing the point. Why did they do it? The obvious suspicion is monetary profit. However, this is not a commodity you can just sell to the man on the street. It is likely organised or worse, involves syndicates.

The relevant authorities must be summoned to get to the root of this alleged crime and expose the culprits and bring ringleaders to face the full brunt of the law.

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