No deaths caused by vaccines; few serious events - KJ
Newly minted Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has pledged greater transparency on Malaysia’s Covid-19 situation by publishing detailed data starting next week.
This will include "adverse events" reported by those who received the Covid-19 vaccine. He said the data shows only a small proportion of them experienced serious Adverse Events Following Immunisation (AEFI).
He said out of 34.46 million vaccine doses administered up to Aug 30...
Newly minted Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has pledged greater transparency on Malaysia’s Covid-19 situation by publishing detailed data starting next week.
This will include "adverse events" reported by those who received the Covid-19 vaccine. He said the data shows only a small proportion of them experienced serious Adverse Events Following Immunisation (AEFI).
He said out of 34.46 million vaccine doses administered up to Aug 30, the ministry received reports of 0.53 AEFIs for every 1,000 doses. Only 0.04 out of 1,000 doses were reported as serious AEFI.
Most of the serious cases only required a short stint in hospital for observation and treatment, and not a single death has been causally linked to the vaccinations.
“However, to ease our people’s anxiety, I have discussed this with (Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah).
“We will release a huge amount of data by next week so you can see exactly what kind of AEFI it is – whether it is headache, fever, and even thromboembolic events.
“We will release it as part of my commitment to provide more transparency to you by next week on the AEFI numbers,” Khairy said during his maiden press conference as health minister today.
He added that the Health Ministry received feedback on AEFI through the MySejahtera application at a rate of 20.7 responses for every 1,000 doses.
This reporting rate is considered high and gives some indication of the AEFI being experienced by vaccine recipients.
For the record, in medical terms, "adverse events" refer to undesired events following a medical procedure whether or not caused by the procedure itself.
This contrasts with the term "adverse reactions" where a causal link between the procedure and the undesired event is suspected or has been established.
Meanwhile, at the press conference in Putrajaya, Khairy said greater transparency was one of several matters discussed at a ministry meeting today, the others being expediting healthcare measures in five states and accepting that Covid-19 will become an endemic disease.
Although the ministry already provides much data through its repository on Github, Khairy said such transparency should be improved.
As such, the ministry will release "granular data" next week.
“I’d like to congratulate the previous Health Ministry administration and to the director-general because much data is already being listed on open-source data basis on Github.
“However, I have decided that the Health Ministry’s work culture moving forward will lean towards transparency, so that questions of trust towards the government and the ministry’s pandemic response will no longer be beset by accusations of secrecy or barriers to obtaining information from the government,” he said.
At the press conference, Khairy was also asked to disclose details regarding Covid-19 infections among fully vaccinated individuals, including their demographic profile, the vaccine brands involved, and the time from vaccination to infection.
To this, Khairy said the ministry will provide the details in writing.
