KUCHING, June 12 ― The confirmation of Works Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof’s Covid-19 infection affirms that two doses of Covid-19 vaccine is not a total protection against the virus, said Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian.
“It is a misconception that two doses of vaccines (vaccines passport) equates to immunity passport,” said Dr Sim who is also Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) adviser said in his Facebook posting last night.
Vaccination is aimed at protecting individuals by decreasing the chance of them getting infected.
And even if they were infected later on, the illness would be less severe and hence chance of death is minimal when they are already got vaccinated, he said.
“Even the best vaccines with 95 per cent efficacy at the moment, for every 100 people vaccinated, may see only 95 per cent of them having antibodies,” he said.
Those who are vaccine-hesitant would not be getting the needed protection as they do not have immunity, he explained.
Many failed to realise that vaccination is also to prevent the virus from mutating into new variants which could then caused some of the vaccines to become less effective, he said.
“That is why we need to vaccinate people fast to prevent mutated variants.”
He pointed out that anyone who had received two doses of vaccine is still subjected to the 14 days’ quarantine upon entering Sarawak.
The 14 days is the incubation period of Covid-19 virus, he explained.
Dr Sim said that he was swamped by public queries on the efficacy of two doses of vaccine after Fadillah was confirmed positive as like all frontliners, the minister would have already received two doses of the vaccine.
Dr Sim also expressed concern that recently the Delta variant (or Indian variant) of the virus had shown incubation of up to 21 days compounding the situation.
He stressed that vaccination is to protect the community via herd immunity and that is when almost everyone in any community has got antibodies.
Only herd immunity could stop the transmission of Covid-19 in the community effectively, he added.
A community needs at least 70 to 80 per cent of its people vaccinated to achieve herd immunity, he said. ― Borneo Post
