ALTHOUGH the Perikatan Nasional government and Khairy Jamaludin, the minister in charge of the National COVID-19 Immunisation Program (PICK) are really trying, it’s hard to deny that the vaccine rollout is slow.
Imagine the dead bodies that are being kept in containers at the Sungai Buloh Hospitals.
And stop a moment to take stock of the rising infections in the country, hitting almost 5,000 on Tuesday.
Or the number of people stuck in intensive care units and in need of ventilators. Or the fact that more young people are succumbing to the virus.
Public health management is a responsibility of all stakeholders, especially at the time of a pandemic.
The federal government should not consider the national immunisation program as Perikatan Nasional’s monopoly.
Instead, it needs to urgently mobilise the 2,500 clinics across the country that have registered to help facilitate the vaccination process.
In fact, 5,000 general-practitioners and their staff have been trained in the last two months and are awaiting the go-ahead from the Ministry of Health.
For now, only 37 clinics have been authorised to vaccinate as part of the vaccine roll-out.
In engaging all the participating clinics in the fight against COVID-19, the Government will be able to decentralise the vaccination process and reach-out to as many more people as possible.
A second consideration is for the Government to encourage private foundations, philanthropists, private and professional groups and non-governmental organisations to partner national efforts in combatting the virus.
The availability of more resources means that more people can be vaccinated at a shorter time.
A third strategy as part of a fast-track approach should be to allow state governments to procure vaccinees and undertake vaccination instead of blocking these initiatives using PICK as an excuse.
In fact, this demonstrates abuse of power as in the case of Penang and is no different from big pharma opposing the vaccine waiver, which is aimed at saving lives.
The continuing spike in numbers is creating doubt about the Government’s ability to manage the spread of the virus successfully despite the federal emergency in place.
Slow or delayed vaccination allows the virus to keep spreading, including the risk of mutation that could result in more deaths.
It would also continue to devastate further our economies and livelihood.
The Government has declared an Emergency to fight COVID-19 but clearly the approach to solving the problem is anything but urgent.
And gives rise to the suspicion that maybe some Napoleons are profiting from people’s misery. May 19, 2021
Charles Santiago is the MP for Klang.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
