PUTRAJAYA: The Health Ministry has reminded people to not get carried away once they are inoculated with the Covid-19 vaccine as they still have to monitor its response.
During the Covid-19 cases briefing session here, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah stressed that the vaccine is not an 'immunity passport.'
"It does not mean that once vaccinated, they can travel anywhere. No.
"We still need to look into the safety efficacy of the vaccine and time will tell, probably in four to six months, to see the outcome," he said today.
At the moment, only one company has submitted the dossier for its vaccine and the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) is studying it.
The earliest the vaccine can be approved is by the end of February while the vaccination exercise may begin the following month, he said.
"It depends on how fast the company can respond to issues and questions raised by the committee and we will proceed from there," he added.
https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2021/01/654482/covid-19-vaccine-not-immunity-passport
pBlue
The vaccines aren't immunity passports. The efficacy of Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines have been rated by their ability to keep a person from developing symptomatic covi19. Not the prevention of infection.
Pfizer and Moderna did not check their volunteers for asymptomatic infection. The exception was AstzaZenneca, that did do a small trial, where they tested all the volunteer for Covid infection. They found 22 asymptomatic cases in the vaccinated group and 23 in the unvaccinated group.
So just because you are vaccinated for Covid19 using these new vaccines, you would still get infected, and pay still be able to spread the virus, even though you may not be sick yourself. Vaccinated people still need to wear a mask and practice social distancing.
They may still be able to spread the virus to people who have not been vaccinated yet.
2021-01-04 22:31