PETALING JAYA: Disciplinary action should be taken against doctors who publicly voice out their disagreement on the effectiveness of vaccines, says consultant paediatrician Dr Musa Mohd Nordin, who has long advocated the benefits of vaccines.
Speaking at a webinar titled Covid-19 Vaccines: Doubts, Myths and Facts, Musa urged the health ministry and the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) to clamp down on doctors who discredit vaccines in general.
Musa, who is with KPJ Damansara Specialist Centre, was asked to comment on the recent case of a doctor who was called in by the police after posting a video that questioned the function and effectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccine, and the risks associated with its use.
“It’s fine if they don’t want to take the vaccine, but when they go online and share fake news and misinformation, then I think they need to be hauled up by the MMC,” he said.
“We have to be very, very stern and firm because this is a national agenda and doctors are supposed to be the purveyors of truth and evidence-based medicine.
“So if you make it as a personal choice (not to take vaccines), I’m fine with that. But when you begin to be agent provocateurs, then we will have no mercy on you.”
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme will be implemented in three phases beginning tomorrow. The first phase, which ends in April, targets frontliners and is expected to cover 500,000 people.
The first batch of Covid-19 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines arrived in Malaysia on Sunday, with prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin set to be the first to receive the vaccine tomorrow afternoon, after the weekly Cabinet meeting.
Science, technology and innovation minister Khairy Jamaluddin said that by March 29, Malaysia is expected to get 1.35 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Malaysia currently has agreements to purchase the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine in addition to those from AstraZeneca, Sinovac and CanSinoBIO from China, as well as the Sputnik V vaccine from Russia.
This news article was published in FreeMalaysiaToday: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2021/02/24/throw-the-book-at-docs-who-discredit-vaccines-says-specialist/