In Malaysia, millions of childhood vaccines are at risk of ending up in the trash

2022-04-06T05:12:20.162Z

If 98.8% of adults in the country have received at least one dose, Malaysians are becoming suspicious when it comes to vaccinating their children: today, only 38% of them are vaccinated.

In Malaysia, millions of childhood vaccines are at risk of ending up in the trash

A schoolboy receives a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Shah Alam, Malaysia, September 20, 2021. AP - Vincent Thian

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

If 98.8% of adults in the country have received at least one dose, Malaysians are becoming suspicious when it comes to vaccinating their children: today, only 38% of them are vaccinated.

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With our correspondent in Kuala Lumpur,

Gabrielle Maréchaux

Malaysian officials have been trying to reassure themselves for months: Deputy Health Minister Noor Azmi Ghazali assures us that the Pfizer Bio and Tech vaccine is effective and safe for children.

His superior, Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, promises for his part that the vaccine will never be compulsory for minors.

But despite all these efforts, success is not at the rendezvous.

Malaysia may have to throw away up to 3 million doses, Alifah Zainuddin reveals in a report published by the Galen Centre, a

public health

think tank .

“

Malaysia has ordered 6.6 million doses of vaccine for children.
But the number of vaccines (administered) is already declining.
So if this trend doesn't change drastically, if nobody uses these specially designed doses for children, we can expect that millions of doses will be wasted, because they are to be used for children only and they have an expiration date

,” she explains.

Stocks that are difficult to dispose of

In the past, Malaysia had already sent some of its unused stocks to countries such as Bangladesh, Laos, and soon also Afghanistan.

But with these vaccines aimed at children, replicating these shipments could be more complicated.

Many other countries have the same problem as here: if there is an overall surplus of vaccines for children, it can be difficult to send our stock abroad

", continues Alifah Zainuddin.

However, the coronavirus is far from harmless for children, according to a meta-analysis of 80,000 cases, a quarter of them develop forms of long covid.

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To read also: In Malaysia, the Covid-19 dangerously drains retirement savings

In Malaysia, millions of childhood vaccines are at risk of ending up in the trash

In Malaysia, millions of childhood vaccines are at risk of ending up in the trash

Stocks that are difficult to dispose of

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