COMMENT | There are now Malaysians on hunger strike to demand better handling of the Covid-19 crisis. One thing they are calling for is for experts to become decision-makers.

Last Wednesday, one such highly respected public health policy expert Dr Amar Singh HSS published an article detailing his projections regarding the spread of Covid-19 outside the Klang Valley.

He listed five states as being the most vulnerable to Covid-19 - states which face the risk of becoming as bad or worse than the Klang Valley: Sabah, Kedah, Perak, Johor and Penang (he stated that things were less certain for Terengganu, Pahang and Kelantan - as their future will likely be determined by the future rate of vaccination).

The states currently listed as under Phase 2 and thus eligible for some reopening are Penang, Perak, Pahang, Terengganu, Kelantan and Sabah.

In Sabah, Perak and Penang especially (and very possibly in the remaining three states), we are looking at Klang Valley levels of disaster and deaths in a matter of weeks if the government stubbornly does the exact opposite of what experts are advising.

To summarise Singh’s points, he pointed out these five states as being particularly vulnerable because of their extremely low vaccination rates and...