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The Health | April , 2021
| Covid-19 |
Is the mRNA Covid-19 vaccine safe ?
There is a need to address the rumours and fear created by some quarters on the safety of the Covid-19 vaccines .
The great breakthrough in vaccine history by using mRNA technology creates the enigma in vaccine safety . Many rumours about vaccines were since then spreading on social media . The situation makes the public disbelieve in this new Covid-19 vaccine and created chaos for the public ; thus , being a hindrance in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic . The main culprit was the media overtly publicising some non-validated information on the Covid-19 vaccines complications which created unnecessary fear amongst the public . Recently , JAMA published a very comprehensive report dated Feb 12 , 2021 with the title “ Reports of Anaphylaxis After Receipt of mRNA Covid-19 vaccine in the US – Dec 14 , 2020 – Jan 18 , 2021 ”. The article mainly addressed the safety of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines .
This report stated only 66 reports on side effects out of 17,524,676 doses of mRNA vaccine without a single death . It is the most delightful news to the world . Out of these 17.5 million doses , 9.94 million were from Pfizer-BioNTech and 7.6 million from Moderna .
Of the 66 cases , 47 were from Pfizer and 19 from Moderna . The majority are female ( 95 per cent ) with a mean age of 40 . Most of these patients ( 79 per cent ) have a history of allergy and previous severe anaphylaxis .
Thirty-one cases had severe anaphylaxis , followed by five cases with moderate and seven cases with mild side effects . The side effect ranges from a mild allergy , skin rashes , a heart attack and lung failure .
Low side effects risk
Many of these side effects occur within 30 mins after injection . Eighteen of them were admitted to the ICU and seven out of them required mechanical ventilation . All these patients received prompt treatment . All of them recovered fully and were discharged uneventfully . No deaths from anaphylaxis after the vaccination with either product
By Assoc Prof Dr Tan Toh Leong was reported .
With this latest scientific evidence , the risk of getting side effects from vaccines is 4.7 cases per million ( 0.0005 per cent risk ) for Pfizer and 2.5 cases per million ( 0.000025 per ent ) for Moderna , which are lower than the chance of car accidentrelated death .
This is also proof that vaccine safety is well established . Compared with the risk of Covid-19 related deaths ( Malaysia : 0.2-0.4 per cent ; Worldwide : 2-4 %), the vaccinerelated deaths are dismissible .
There are only a few ways to fight a pandemic . “ Prevention , Isolation , and
Since effective treatment for Covid-19 has yet to be discovered , vaccination will play an important part as a prevention strategy to terminate this pandemic . ”
Treatment ” are the key to terminate a pandemic . For your information , the movement control order ( MCO ) and quarantine are part of the isolation strategy . Since effective treatment for Covid-19 has yet to be discovered , vaccination will play an important part as a prevention strategy to terminate this pandemic .
Achieving herd immunity
Malaysians need 80 per cent herd immunity to terminate it and protect those who are unable to vaccinate . The Malaysian government has imported many vaccine doses from various vaccine companies which will cover more than 80 per cent of Malaysia ’ s population . The vaccination programme will be divided into three phases .
For Phase 1 , the target population are those medical and non-medical frontliners ( involving 500,000 individuals from Feb-April 2021 ); Phase 2 , target population involves remaining frontliners , elderly comprising 65-year-olds and above , and those who have chronic diseases ( involving 9.4 million individuals from April-August 2021 ); Phase 3 , for all 18-year-old and above Malaysians and non-Malaysians ( involving 13.7 million individuals from May 2021 to Feb 2022 ).
Phase 2 and 3 will also dedicate some doses of vaccine to fight local Covid-19 outbreak clusters from time to time . To achieve this 80 per cent , all Malaysians have the responsibility to make it happen by receiving the vaccine voluntarily .
While waiting for the vaccination program to be executed , we need to remember always to keep social distancing , wear a mask and wash hands frequently . Let us hand-in-hand make Malaysia safe again ! — The Health
Dr Tan Toh Leong is Senior Lecturer and Emergency Medical Consultant , UKM Medical Center , Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and President and Founder of Malaysian Sepsis Alliance .