Dear Maria Chin

God’s peace be with you.

Sorry, no more YB prefixes for elected reps.

And I dont mean Yang Berhormat, which we abandoned a long time ago.

I mean Yang Berkhidmat.

Post Sheraton, we are just not too sure, with few exceptions, who our elected reps actually serve.

I caught Ong Kian Ming’s and Kelvin Yii’s “10 questions for Khairy on Covid-19 vaccinations” which was reported on Malaysiakini on 16th April, 2021 and this got me thinking.

What with the suspension of Dewan Rakyat sittings following the declaration of emergency and the consequent absence of question time for ministers, I thought this might be a useful way to get around the lack of opportunity to put pertinent questions to ministers.

Back to the 10 questions to KJ.

They mainly relate to the logistics of getting vaccines into arms of citizens and foreigners domiciled here.

Question 9, though, was different. I reproduce that question below :

“Can vaccination be made compulsory? Is this constitutional? What other methods can be used, for example, vaccine passport and allowance for activities?”

I leave this legal question for consideration to another day.

For now, in my view, any move to make it mandatory to submit to vaccination would be downright immoral.

For 2 reasons.

A day after the 10 questions were posed to KJ, Malaysiakini reported that 40 frontline health workers, despite being fully vaccinated after receiving 2 doses of the vaccine, test positive for Covid-19. Of these, there were 9 “who tested positive more than two weeks after their second dose, and were considered fully vaccinated”.

Health DG Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah is quoted as say, “It is clear that we still can be infected after completion of vaccination but perhaps less in severity”.

The report goes on to confirm that another 142 health workers who had received a single dose of the vaccine went on to test positive.

Finally, the report also disclosed, most alarmingly, that fully vaccinated travellers from China also tested positive whilst under quarantine.

On 19th April, again reported by Malaysiakini, KJ is reported to have said that “Covid-19 vaccines do not necessarily make a person completely immune to the virus”.

“But if we are fully vaccinated and get infected with Covid-19, we will not experience severe symptoms. This vaccine protects us from severe symptoms such as admission to the intensive care unit and needing breathing assistance as well as death”, KJ is reported to have said.

In summary, the vaccines, at best, protect against one developing severe illnesses, but not infection from the virus.

This would be consistent with reports coming from around the world.

In fact, it would seem that in the pursuit of achieving herd immunity through vaccination of 70-80% of the population, what might actually be attained is a herd of asymptomatics who may pose a risk to those who await their vaccination in phase 3 of the vaccine rollout.

For me, this is of real concern.

I would come within phase 2 of the vaccine rollout.

Based on news reports, that could be anytime now.

My son would come within phase 3.

He and I now live in separate apartments but, owing to the state of the economy, might have to seriously consider staying together with a view to cutting costs.

Should this happen, and I get fully vaccinated, but, like the health workers mentioned above, become infected but am asymptomatic, do I expose him to the risk of infection and full-blown illness?

Against this backdrop, comes information from all over the world, of the successful use of an inexpensive and humble drug, ivermectin, around for about 35 years and hence relatively safe and long used in the treatment of, amongst others, scabies, but now, in the context of the Covid-19, advocated for use in preventing infection or for therapeutic purposes.

PREVENTING!

I have, to-date, hosted 2 webinars on the subject of the Covid-19 vaccines and protocols that may be adopted to strengthen the immune system pending receiving the vaccine. In the course of these discussions, use of ivermectin was touched upon.

In the second webinar, one of the doctors confirmed that clinical trials of the drug, ivermectin, were being conducted at the Sg Buloh Hospital, but he was not aware of the stage at which these trials had reached.

Upon inquiry from sources, I was told that the clinical trials by MOH were awaiting ethics approval.

As such, given that the vaccines do not protect against infection, as candidly acknowledged by both KJ and the health DG, plus the possibility that ivermectin may be an effective preventive and therapeutic drug and is said to be undergoing trials by MOH, it would,, in my view, be both wrong and immoral to make the vaccine mandatory.

Maria Chin, I am a registered voter in PJ.

Yes, one of your constituents.

I have 2 things to ask of you as my elected parliamentarian.

First, to put the following questions to the minister of health :

“Is the health ministry conducting clinical trials of ivermectin? If so, what stage are the trials at and when can a report on safety and efficacy of the same be made public? If no trials have commenced, why not?

Second, when will you hold an online town hall meeting with the voters of PJ?

Posted in: Covid-19, Right to know