Government mulls legal action against anti-vaxxers - PM Muhyiddin

By Nur Ashikin Abdul Aziz

KUALA LUMPUR, June 4 -- The government is mulling the idea of taking legal action against the anti-vaccine group in the country if they were found to have incited public opinion against the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme.

Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the government had, in fact, asked the COVID-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee Special Committee (JKJAV) to study the possibility to make the vaccination compulsory for all if the number of those registered in the programme still far from achieving herd immunity.

“I hope we can speed up the vaccination process. What’s important now is to have no one saying no to vaccination.

“We don’t want only half (of Malaysian population) get vaccinated, and the other half not because it will have consequences.”

He said this after visiting the vaccination centre (PPV) at the Malaysian International Trade and Exhibition Centre (MITEC) here today.

Also present were Coordination Minister for the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme Khairy Jamaluddin and Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba.

Muhyiddin said almost 13 million people in Malaysia have registered for vaccination so far, but the number was only 50 per cent of the total number expected to register and ensure the success of the national immunisation programme.

He said the government will strive to expedite the vaccination process in a mission to achieve herd immunity faster, including through efforts to increase the number of PPV both in urban and rural areas.

“We also call on private clinics to help the government. There are approximately 8,000 private clinics in the country and if they are included in our programme, more people can get vaccinated,” he said.

He also said that there was no vaccine-out-of-stock issue in the country as more than 100 per cent of the stocks secured last year have arrived and the number continues to increase to accelerate the vaccination programme.

Earlier, the Prime Minister was taken to check on the operations at the MITEC PPV, which began on May 31 and will embark on mega-scale operations with an increased capacity of 8,000 recipients per day from June 7.

-- BERNAMA