PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Employer Federation (MEF) has asked the government to look to local experts and resources to deal with issues of long-term vaccine supply and efficacy through the setting up of a national vaccine research centre.
It is necessary to set up a national vaccine research centre based on local expertise and resources, its president Datuk Dr Syed Hussain Syed Husman said today
“The government should explore all avenues to overcome the virus and its variants including in depth research and study by our local experts and professionals on the real origins of the virus and independent expert assessment of the prescribed interventions, and take necessary action based on this,” he said in a statement.
“We should be setting up our own specialised vaccine research centre to look at the long-term prospects of producing our own vaccines.”
He pointed out that Malaysia has excellent scientific academia and research facilities and our local experts are globally recognised having produced vaccines for Nipah virus, and dealt with SARS, H1N1 and others in the past.
“We are proud to have world class medical research in our local universities. Malaysia’s five apex universities – Universiti Malaya, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Putra Malaysia and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia – have the talent and facilities to conduct proper research and study.
“The proposed research centre could also be in the form of a public-private partnership if the cost of setting is too prohibitive,” he added.
Syed Hussain said a major factor for the slow rate of inoculation is due to delays in getting the vaccines from the suppliers.
“Besides having to cope with intense global demand, the discovery of new variants had also caused demand to increase with additional requests to resupply for third boosters – which would only add to the delays.
“With the kinds of mutations and variants of Covid emerging, we must accept that the issue is here to stay, and unless we have control of our own vaccines, we will continue to depend on others,” he said.
Syed Hussain also said the government has done well to set up various centres for vaccination, be it the mega centres, the mobile units as well as the private clinics and hospitals that have been roped in to support efforts, and not to mention the deployment of the armed forces’ medical corps.
“But while we plan the infrastructure of vaccine logistics and centres, there should also be a comprehensive strategy for the supply of vaccines.
“Of Malaysia’s total population of 32.75 million, about one million had received two doses and three million received their first dose, and it appears highly improbable that we would be able to achieve herd immunity by year end,” he added.
