Children 12 years old and above should be included in the vaccination program.

According to the information released by the Special Committee on Ensuring Access to Covid-19 Vaccine Supply (JKJAV) on 18 February 2021, the approach by the government for our nation’s Covid-19 vaccination policy is “to ensure that at least 80% of Malaysia’s adult population receive vaccines by February 2022”. This policy was set at a time when the world do not have sufficient data on the safety of the different vaccines on children aged below 18. However, since then, more information is currently available and some countries are starting to immunise children aged between 12 to 17. Instead of simply appealing parents to be more responsible in protecting their children, we strongly urge the JKJAV to revisit their initial strategy and allow children aged between 12 to 17 to be included in the vaccination program for these three main reasons: Firstly, as of May 31, a total of 82,341 children aged below 18 were tested positive for Covid-19. Out of that number, 27,402 of them were children aged 13-17. Even though currently none of these children is in intensive care unit, we cannot predict how the virus will continue to mutate, and if or when the virus will become deadly for the nation’s youngest community. If it is already safe to vaccinate children, we must do so. Secondly, in a school environment, the bulk of the ‘population’ is the students. Even though we do not know when school will resume, but schools will have to reopen one day, and we have to make the schools as safe as we can. It is not realistic to depend solely on getting the teachers vaccinated to protect the children. If enough students are vaccinated, the school might even have their own ‘herd immunity’. Therefore, if it is already safe to vaccinate children, we must do so. Thirdly, to achieve herd immunity nationally, to put it very simply, we must vaccinate as many people as we can. If it is already safe to vaccinate children, we must do so. We do acknowledge that there is a vaccine supply shortage in many countries around the world and securing enough supply is the most immediate problem that the JKJAV need to solve. After all, it is obvious that the best vaccination program cannot be implemented if we simply do not have the vaccines in the first place. However, good governance requires policy makers to plan well ahead into the future, which the current administration seemingly cannot do particularly well at.