{"id":8279,"date":"2021-02-17T19:16:47","date_gmt":"2021-02-17T11:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=8279"},"modified":"2021-02-17T19:16:48","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T11:16:48","slug":"scientific-community-to-do-more-to-educate-public-on-covid-19-vaccine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=8279","title":{"rendered":"Scientific community to do more to educate public on COVID-19 vaccine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 17 — While Malaysia is set to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine this Sunday and the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme to kick off five days later, lack of proper understanding of the vaccine still persists in Malaysian society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Molecular virologist Dr Vinod Balasubramaniam said the testament to this were doubts on the vaccine going around on social media, including confusion over its efficacy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The doubts were also the result of the gap between the scientific community and the public, he\u00a0said, adding that\u00a0it was the responsibility of the scientific\u00a0community to relay proper information on the\u00a0COVID-19 vaccine in the simplest way to the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"scientific\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe must always remember that science is always guided by experimental evidences. We must also know that vaccines have been one of the biggest achievements of modern medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe survive to this day because of vaccination and it is one of the most effective measures in controlling and preventing infectious diseases worldwide in the history of medical science,\u201d he said on Bernama TV\u2019s Mid Day Update today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the programme hosted by Jessy Chahal, Dr Vinod said the most common misunderstanding among the public was over the 95 per cent efficacy of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in clinical trials, whereby many felt it meant that the remaining 5 per cent of the vaccinated people were infected with COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat is actually not true. The 95 per cent efficacy actually means among those vaccinated, there is a 95 per cent chance of not getting infected with COVID-19 compared to those not vaccinated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn other words, vaccinated people in the Pfizer-BioNTech clinical trials were 20 times less likely than in the controlled group to get infected with COVID-19\u2026that is the most effective vaccine we have currently,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

— BERNAMA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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