April , 2021 | The Health

BY CAMILIA REZALI

Normally , the development of a vaccine would take years . But surprisingly , the range of Covid-19 vaccines we have now were made available in just after seven months . Therefore many , Muslims especially , have questioned if the vaccines were safe ?

Also , one of the biggest concerns raised by Muslims regarding the vaccines is , does the vaccination contradict the teachings of Islam ?

The International Islamic University Malaysia ( IIUM ) brought together a few expert philosophers and a scientist to discuss the matter and provide a clearer understanding of the vaccines . The discussion entitled “ Covid-19 Vaccination : Issues and Responses ” was held online recently .

No contradiction with Islam

One panellist said the vaccine does not contradict the teachings of Islam although some Muslims have debated on a fact that if God ( Allah ) is the healer , then why should we consider getting vaccinated ? Well , this would be a fallacious thought .

During the discussions , the Scientist and an Author in Islamic Philosophy of Science , Dr Ahmad Mabrouk quoted Fatwas made by The Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America .

The first Fatwa said , “ There is no blame on physicians or researchers when they base a judgement on a greater likelihood ”.

And similarly , another Fatwa stated , “ When we do accept the judgement made by physicians , it is based on a greater likelihood .”

So , what do these Fatwas mean ? Ahmad Mabrouk said : “ It means ; we must believe no vaccines are 100 per cent effective . If a vaccine proves to have a 90 per cent level of efficacy , we must expect a remaining of 10 per cent side effect .

“ The Fatwa also mentioned it is obligatory to take the vaccine because its ( Covid-19 vaccination ) impact is not limited to the taker only . It also affects everyone around us .”

These facts are drawn out in the Fatwas released by the Muslim Jurists of America . Hence , vaccination does not contradict the teachings of Islam .

Usefulness of the vaccine

The core principle of managing any outbreak is similar . In epidemiology , an outbreak control relies on the interaction between three principles : Agent ( the transmission rates ), the Host ( susceptibility and co-morbidity ), and the Environment ( rules and regulations ).

Since the outbreak started , establishing public health became a challenge because most Covid-19 cases were presented as asymptomatic , said the Professor of the Department of Community Medicine , Kulliyah of Medicine , IIUM Kuantan Campus , Prof Jamaluddin Ab Rahman .

“ Asymptomatic cases are a category that really brings a huge challenge to public health because we do not know our enemy ,”

Prof Dr Jamalludin he said .

Sharing on the role of vaccination , Jamaluddin said vaccines are generally used to trigger human antibodies and improve immunity . Studies have shown that people who took vaccines would only have an infection rate of 0.1 per cent .

On the flip side , he said if a community decided to not get vaccinated , the infection rate would be between one and 1.5 per cent .

Covid-19 vaccines are thoroughly developed

Jamaluddin noted : “ The Covid-19 vaccines we have are all developed through a valid scientific research . Every single data about the clinical trials is available in great detail on the website .

“ And to say that there could be a manipulation of findings would be difficult because the data is very transparent .”

He said looking into the history of the development of Covid-19 vaccines , we are not starting from scratch ; we already have references available from previous studies of SARS-CoV-1 in 2002 , MERS-CoV in 2012 and references from the SARS-CoV-2 .

“ Basic research on the transport and the lipid profile of mRNA vaccine was done 10 to 15 years back , where the main aim of the research on lipid Nano particles is for the development of cancer vaccines .”

An ongoing effort

As we are aware , we have not yet reached a full-scale of acceptance towards the Covid-19 vaccines .

Last year , the Ministry of Health ( MoH ) Malaysia did a survey on the acceptance of Covid-19 vaccination taking in 212,006 respondents . The findings of the survey were shared by the Assistant Professor of Emergency and Trauma Department , Kulliyah of Medicine , IIUM Kuantan Campus , Asst Prof Dr Mohd Syafwan Adnan during the online discussion .

Syafwan said 67 per cent of the respondents agreed to take the vaccine while 16 per cent did not agree . The remaining 17 per cent said they were unsure of the safety and efficacy of the vaccines available .

“ I think we should not blame the ones who are sceptical towards vaccination . We can still educate them because we are in a confusing period as the vaccines are still new .

“ For now , our aim would be to achieve a point of herd immunity by getting 78-80 per cent of Malaysian population vaccinated .

When China first managed to crack the genome code and later share the results of the virus genome , it quickly allowed vaccine makers globally to start working on the vaccine development . This is considered an important event in the history of Covid-19 ,” said Syafwan . — The Health