Malaysia should adopt 'delayed second dose' vaccination strategy, says Pakatan Harapan

KUALA LUMPUR (May 22): The Pakatan Harapan presidential council has urged the government to consider undertaking the "delayed second dose' vaccination strategy to curb the sharp rise in Covid-19 cases amid a shortage in vaccine supply.

"Covid-19 cases in our country have reached catastrophic levels with almost 20,000 new cases being reported within the span of the last three days.

"Our utmost priority should be to protect the maximum number of people within the shortest possible timeframe. By delaying the administration of the second dose, more Malaysians will be given the first dose of the vaccines. This is particularly pressing, in view of the acute shortage of vaccines at the moment," the council said in a statement.

The statement, signed by PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and Parti Amanah Negara president Mohamad Sabu, noted that the strategy has been adopted by the UK since November 2020 and is increasingly being used by countries such as Singapore and India.

"Latest research by the University of Birmingham in collaboration with Public Health England has found that administering the Pfizer/BioNTech booster 12 weeks after the first dose rather than three weeks produced a much stronger antibody response. Researchers from Oxford University also showed in February that antibody responses were more than twice as strong when boosters of their vaccine were delayed for 12 weeks," the opposition coalition's presidential council said.

The council said that despite the repeated assurance from the government that Malaysia has adequate vaccines, the slow pace of the vaccine roll-out indicated otherwise.

"There is a palpable shortage of vaccines and its effects are being felt throughout this nation. There is a dire need for us to adopt this scientifically-proven approach.

"We deeply empathize with the majority of Malaysians who are frustrated by the long wait to get inoculated and the dangerously ascending risk of contracting Covid-19.

"The current government has shown itself to be ostensibly ignorant and incompetent in responding to the rapid changes in the situation of the pandemic," the council said.

Urging the public to pressure the government to adopt the delayed second dose strategy, it added: "This strategy has been proven to work and the government must therefore be proactive in ratifying these strategies and stop endangering the lives of our citizens."

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