Overcoming Vaccine Hesitancy as Means to Stop Covid-19 Pandemic in Malaysia.

Introduction

Vaccine hesitancy was listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) back in 2019 in the ten threats to global health. WHO(2014) define the term ‘vaccine hesitancy’ as “delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite availability of vaccination services. Vaccine hesitancy is complex and context-specific, varying across time, place and vaccines. It is influenced by such complacency, convenience and confidence.” 

Savulescu(2021) mentioned that vaccination prevents millions of deaths every year from deadly diseases. However, despite all the evidence demonstrating the effectiveness and safety of the vaccination, vaccine hesitancy still occurs around the globe. Today, the threat caused by vaccine hesitancy becomes even more crucial and alarming as we are facing a deadly pandemic and highly contagious pandemic; the Covid-19 pandemic (Liao, 2021). Consequently, this essay discusses the vaccine hesitancy issue and propose a solution to overcome this issue through the Covid-19 Vaccine Mandate Law as means to stop the Covid-19 pandemic in Malaysia. 

Background Paragraph

The spread of false information is the main cause of vaccine hesitancy among Malaysians as it played a prominent part in casting doubt on citizens about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine in Malaysia(Giubilini, 2020).

Easy access to the internet especially social media causes misconception about the vaccine to spreads like wildfire.  The anti-vaccine movement also has mounted a concerted misinformation campaign, making many people afraid to receive the vaccine(Palansamy, 2021). The misconception has greatly affected the rate of vaccination registration in Malaysia. According to the COVID-19 Malaysia Updates by MOH(2021b), since registration opened in February, 8.8 million people have signed up for the vaccine, accounting for about 36% of the registered population of 24 million which is far from the government's goal of vaccinating 70% of the total population by the end of December to achieve herd immunity. (Kumar, 2021). 

When the vaccine for the Covid-19 is successfully produced, the government has attempted to solve vaccine hesitancy by promoting the vaccine through the media. For instance, the government launches the Covid-19 vaccination drive, Program Imunisasi COVID-19 Kebangsaan (PICK) to promote Covid-19 vaccination to the public. They publicly show the Prime Minister, YAB Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Director General of Health, YBhg Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah taking the first vaccine to ensure the citizen that the Covid-19 vaccine is safe (Anand, 2021). However, some citizen noted the different size of the vaccine needle used on the drive and conclude a conspiracy theory that the vaccine was switched (Palansamy, 2021). Nevertheless, simply providing people with vaccination knowledge does not always result in an increased desire to vaccinate but may potentially lower trust in vaccines. 

Body Paragraph

The government of Malaysia can overcome Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy among citizens through legislation of the Covid-19 Mandates Law. The legislation of the Covid-19 Mandates Law can help the government to stop the spreading of Covid-19 in Malaysia. First, after the new law approved, the government should proceed with distributing the vaccine gradually in Malaysia starting with the area with a high density of Coivd-19 cases and areas with high population densities.  As the law is in force, citizens who can take the vaccine; whose age is 18 years or older, need to take the vaccine except for those with special cases. As more people take the vaccine, the rate of Covid-19 infection will gradually decrease. However, flexibility should be given to those who have certain reasons such as illness and allergy that causes them unable to take the vaccine. This flexibility however requires those involved to provide clear evidence and document for them to be excluded from taking the vaccine as well as to avoid being objected to legal action. Stricter laws will eventually cause the people to abide by these new laws and in turn, increase the rate of people who have been vaccinated. After an individual vaccinated, proof that they have taken the vaccine should be issued in mySejahtera apps or in a form of a vaccine identification card. This will be the first step to ensure all citizens are secure and do not pose any risk of spreading Covid-19. 

The risk of getting the Covid-19 virus is still there, however as the percentage of vaccinated citizens increases, the risk of getting the virus significantly becomes smaller.  Kumar(2021) eloquently stated, that being vaccinated significantly decreases the risk of severely injuring or killing others. In reality, vaccination is the most reliable method of preventing infectious diseases as vaccines provide immunity without inflicting damage to the users. It also protects fragile members of our society that are unable to be immunised like those under 18. When a large number of people in a group are immunised, disease transmission slows or stops (Savulescu, 2021). Hence, vaccination mandates play an important part in solving vaccine hesitancy and stopping the spreading of Covid-19.The Covid-19 vaccine mandates is clearly a viable proposition to overcome vaccine hesitancy against the vaccine in Malaysia. However, it takes time to enact new law as its need a complicated procedure for the new law to be established as it must receive the support of at least 2 per 3 members of the parliament, the consent of the Majlis Raja-raja, and approval by the President of Sabah and Sarawak. (LawTeacher.  2013). Furthermore, not everyone agrees on the benefits of mandatory vaccination because of ethical issues involving the mandates(Salmon et al.2006b). Nevertheless, the ethical debates and objections to the mandates are unavoidable because some individuals and communities especially the anti-vaccine community disagree with the mandates or have religious or philosophical beliefs that oppose the vaccination. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Covid-19 pandemic has robustly affected our lives. Hence, effort should be taken to overcome vaccine hesitancy so that we can stop this pandemic. The government played the most important role in solving the vaccine hesitancy issues among the citizens as well as stopping the covid-19 pandemic through the enactment of the Covid-19 vaccine mandates law. In fact, one of the best ways to stop this pandemic while minimizing fatalities global immunization from Covid-19 is through vaccination. We can only overcome these issues if the Malaysian community and the government act in solidarity. 

Reference

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COVID-19 Malaysia Updates by MOH. (2021, February 24). COVID-19 Malaysia. http://covid-19.moh.gov.my/semasa-kkm/2021/feb/majlis-pelancaran-program-imunisasi-covid19-kebangsaan

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