KJ: No proof linking blank shots to vaccine-selling syndicates for now
There has been no evidence to suggest a link between alleged blank vaccine shots and illegal vaccine sales, minister in charge of Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) Khairy Jamaluddin said today.
This comes after police investigations into 13 reports over the issue.
“Police have informed that as of now, there is no link at all between alleged empty shots and alleged vaccine sales.
“The first thing that I would like to categorically say today is that of those cases that have been reported, empty vaccinations...
There has been no evidence to suggest a link between alleged blank vaccine shots and illegal vaccine sales, minister in charge of Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) Khairy Jamaluddin said today.
This comes after police investigations into 13 reports over the issue.
“Police have informed that as of now, there is no link at all between alleged empty shots and alleged vaccine sales.
“The first thing that I would like to categorically say today is that of those cases that have been reported, empty vaccinations have nothing to do and are not linked to any vaccination-selling syndicate,” he said in an online press conference this afternoon.
“I think for many people who make the conclusion that our frontliners are somehow involved in a (vaccine-selling) syndicate is untrue,” he added.
Kedah case due to fatigue
Khairy shared that the blank shot case that happened on July 17 at the Lapangan Terbang Sungai Petani drive-through vaccine administration centre (PPV) in Kedah was not done on purpose.
“This is the one case where the nurse admitted that an accident had happened as the nurse was tired,” he said.
Of the 13 police reports filed about alleged blank shots, investigations found they were either untrue, inconclusive or pointed to “negligence”.
This included alleged cases at the Mitec, Hospital Banting, Stadium Nasional Bukit Jalil and UCSI PPVs.
“These are the cases of alleged empty vaccination that have shown to reflect some element of negligence, in particular the case in Sungai Petani,” he said.
Khairy apologised over any mistakes and assured that the CITF took each allegation seriously.
“I take every single complaint from the public seriously and I don't want to downplay this because even if there is one single error that is one error too many [...]
“For those cases in which there was human negligence, I want to apologise to them and of course we will do better,” he said.
To prevent mistakes, he has since instructed all PPVs to allow all recipients to record themselves getting jabbed as proof.
He also reminded all vaccinators to show recipients their syringes before and after jabs, as per standard operating procedure.
Few out of 16 million
The minister hoped the public would see these alleged blank shot cases in the context of the more 16 million doses already administered.
“I would like to urge the public to understand the context of these cases and to ensure that we preserve the integrity of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP), and also the integrity of thousands of nurses, doctors and frontliners who are risking their lives vaccinating at the rate of half a million a day.
“And if there is human error, human negligence in one or two cases, we do not paint the entire programme and do not blame all frontliners who are sacrificing themselves on a daily basis for us to control this pandemic,” he pleaded.
Khairy also thanked all NIP frontliners and assured them that he appreciated their contributions.
Are you sure you want to delete this comment?
This action cannot be undone.