This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on September 20, 2021 - September 26, 2021

Pfizer Inc said data out of the US and Israel suggest that the efficacy of its Covid-19 vaccine wanes over time, and that a booster dose was safe and effective in warding off the virus and new variants. The company detailed the data in a presentation it delivered to a meeting of outside advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration on Sept 17. The panel is expected to make recommendations on whether more Americans should receive booster shots.

Malaysia’s newly formed Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force-Adolescent (CITF-A) is targeting full vaccination for 80% of Malaysian teenagers aged 12 to 17 before school reopens in 2022. The task force, formed under the Ministry of Health and chaired by Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali, also aims for 60% of this group to receive at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine by November.

Malaysia does not plan to mix and match Covid-19 vaccines due to lack of data on the matter, Ministry of Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said. So far, the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency has not received any data, reports or evidence from vaccine companies on how vaccine mixtures can successfully control Covid-19 infection.

AstraZeneca sent a shipment of 555,100 doses of its Covid-19 vaccine to Malaysia last week, amounting to 3.9 million doses delivered to date. The doses comprise about 61% of the 6.4 million doses directly ordered by the Malaysian government, apart from millions more of the AstraZeneca-Oxford shot supplied via the UN-backed Covax global facility.

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