Sin Chew Daily

The rollout of the national immunization program on February 24 brought a new ray of hope in the country's fight against the coronavirus.

However, the number of people vaccinated so far has been unsatisfactory, and if this is not improved in the days to come, we may miss our goal of achieving herd immunity by the end of the year.

As of April 10, as many as 385,251 Malaysians have been given two doses of COVID-19 vaccines, and based on the figure on MySejahtera, 8,443,581 people have so far registered for vaccination at a rate of 34.80%.

Having fought the virus for more than a year now, we all know that movement control orders will not have much effect in containing the spread of the virus and could actually wreak tremendous damage to the country's economy. Vaccination is therefore our "ultimate weapon" to defeat the virus!

Last week, we reported a total of 9,507 new COVID-19 cases, 538 more than the previous week, for a second consecutive week of uptrend in new increases. This shows that we are nowhere near containing the virus.

Vaccination is our best bet to deliver us out of the gloom. Unfortunately Malaysians have not responded to the government's call for vaccination actively.

To increase the number of people registering for vaccination, some have earlier proposed to set a deadline to force the public to register as soon as possible. However, such a proposal has met with instant resistance because setting a deadline will not help the government achieve herd immunity. Is the government not going to vaccinate people who have not registered before the deadline?

Apparently this is not a good solution. Science, technology and innovation minister Khairy Jamaluddin said recently that if the number of people registering for vaccination remains unsatisfactory by September, the government may enact a new law to make it compulsory for all Malaysians to get vaccinated.

According to the minister, this is to ensure that 70% of the country's population is vaccinated against the coronavirus by December to achieve the herd immunity target.

Although vaccination is our "ultimate weapon" to defeat the virus, mandatory vaccination could spark controversies and a string of other problems.

First and foremost, this will deny the right of Malaysians to freely choose whether or not to get vaccinated.

Secondly, who should be held responsible if something untoward happens after a person is forced to get the vaccine, given the fact the safety aspects of some vaccines remain dubious? For instance, AstraZeneca is said to have possibly caused blood clots in some recipients, triggering widespread worries among the people. Many western and some Asian countries have already proposed varying age limits for the administration of Astrazeneca vaccine.

Many people are resistant to vaccination due to a number of reasons, including concerns for the safety of vaccines and possible side effects.

The government should understand the public's concerns and try to boost the public's confidence in the vaccines through various channels, including public education. Additionally, the government can consider providing incentives and rewards to encourage more people to register.

In short, the government must adopt a multi-pronged approach to remove the fears of the people and encourage them to register for vaccination in hope of achieving the target of herd immunity soonest.