march , 2021 | The Health

BY KHIRTINI K KUMARAN

Immunisation Programme ( NIP ) well underway , some Malaysians are still wondering if they should take the vaccine .

The hesitance to receive the vaccine is mostly due to the doubts and fear of the vaccine ’ s safety , efficacy and other issues .

To address this hesitance , the Medical Fellowship SIBKL organised a ‘ To Jab or Not to Jab ’ medical forum on Feb 27 , 2021 , with speaker Dr Benedict Sim , Consultant of Infectious Diseases at Sungai Buloh Hospital .

Dr Sim explained that those who received this vaccine were very well-protected .

“ In fact , it is important for people with comorbidities to receive the vaccines as they are at risk of severe Covid-19 along with its complications if contracted with the virus .”

He noted , however , that there were two situations where the vaccine can either be ineffective or dangerous .

“ For patients with active cancer , who had an organ transplant , or are on some particular medications that modulate or suppress one ’ s immune system , they need to discuss with their doctors individually whether they will benefit from the vaccine . “ It ’ s not that the vaccine is dangerous for them . It is just that they cannot mount any antibodies after receiving the vaccine , which is wasteful . Instead , they should take the vaccine after they have recovered from the illness .”

Factors to consider

Meanwhile , there are two groups of people for whom the vaccine is potentially dangerous .

“ The vaccine might be dangerous to those who can get severe allergic reactions or anaphylaxis from it , which is a small group of people .

“ For those who had anaphylaxis reaction to the vaccine , one-third of them had anaphylaxis to other substances before , whether it ’ s foods , insect bites , injections or medications ,” he said , referring to the Pfizer clinical trial data ,

“ Another group is the extremely frail elderly whose health is not good and is not capable of handling the side effects of the vaccine .

“ Apart from these situations and these groups of people , the rest will benefit from getting this vaccine . And based on all the understanding of how this vaccine works , we find that the benefits of getting the vaccine far outweigh the risk of getting the vaccine because the risk is thought to be extremely small .

“ Every once in a while , there is a novel germ that our immune system has not encountered before it emerges . The immune system then goes haywire , and most visibly damaging the body systems , especially the lungs .

“ And so , vaccines are meant to introduce a weaker form or part of the germ to the body and let the immune system recognise it . This allows the body to have a head start to effectively kill off the actual germ once infected .

“ There are many different types of vaccines , and I think there are over 100

candidates of vaccines for Covid-19 . The ones that we tend to take seriously are those that have completed a certain phase of their clinical trials ,” added Dr Sim .

Understanding the efficacy rate

In Malaysia , the vaccine that has received approval is the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 ( Pfizer ) vaccine . Several other more vaccines are in the line to get permission from the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency ( NPRA ).

Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are mRNA vaccine , and according to Dr Sim , it is a relatively new technology .

“ Before the pandemic , none had heard of it . Contrary to popular belief , mRNA technology has been around . In fact , you can find scientific papers that talk about RNA technology in vaccines .

“ It has been used to make successful vaccines for Ebola . It is also used to deliver medications for some cancer .

“ Thankfully , Ebola didn ’ t spread around the world . And so , the mRNA technology never reached a point where it was made for fast public usage and was not widely marketed .”

He explained that the mRNA vaccine introduced the germ ’ s precursors into the human body and instructs the cells into making a bacterial or viral protein . The immune system then responds to these proteins and develops the tools to react to future infections .

Sim noted that Pfizer and BioNTech had announced their vaccine had a 95 per cent efficacy rate . But it did not mean if 100 people get vaccinated , 95 won ’ t get the virus , and five people will .

“ It means that you are 20 times less likely to get the disease if you are vaccinated .

“ The clinical trial data also showed those who have received the vaccine were actually less likely to contract coronavirus . And thus , less likely to either get the symptoms , hospitalised or die from Covid- 19 . This is how effective the vaccine is ,” he continued .

The forum , which was held via Zoom and YouTube live , was co-moderated by Dr Khay Wee Toh , Consultant Anaesthesiologist from Subang Jaya Medical Centre and Dr Ong Chin Tuan , Consultant Ophthalmologist at Beacon Hospital . — The Health