MANY parents are still sceptical about vaccinating their children against Covid-19 and have opted to postpone the vaccination dates even as the government started vaccinating children between the ages of five and 12 from yesterday.

These parents told The Malaysian Insight their decision does not mean they are against the Covid-19 vaccine, but are only concerned of its side effects on their children.

Private sector worker Nur Ashikin Mahmud, 43, said she has taken a wait-and-see approach before allowing her son to be vaccinated.

The mother of two said she is worried the Covid-19 vaccine would have side effects on her child’s health.

I think I will wait and see first because I want to know the effectiveness of this vaccine for children.

“I am worried because since childhood, his antibodies have been weak and he would often get fevers. So I really don’t want to take the risk,” she said.

Malaysia started administering Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 Comirnaty vaccine for children aged five to 12 from yesterday.

In launching the programme, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said vaccination for children is important to prevent deaths and from developing multisystem inflammation syndrome and long Covid, as 9,413 cases of Covid-19 involving unvaccinated children aged seven to 11 have been recorded since January 1.

He said the Health Ministry (MOH) did not rush into using the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children, as clinical and real-world data from other countries such as Singapore had been carefully studied prior to making the decision.

Khairy said a total of 517,107 children aged five to 11 in Malaysia have been registered for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme for Children (PICKids).

He said the number is a good start and hopes the target of almost half the children in Malaysia can receive the Covid-19 vaccine by the end of February.As of January 15, a total of 376,415 Covid-19 cases or 13.4% in Malaysia involved children under 12 years old.

Apart from Malaysia, at least 14 other countries have implemented Covid-19 vaccine injections for children, such as the United States, China, and Singapore.

Engineer A. Silas, 48, also said he is hesitant to allow his 10-year-old daughter to be given the vaccine because he is unsure of its efficacy.

“I don’t know if the Covid-19 vaccine is made for children,” he said.

“We don’t know if this vaccine really is effective, and not many studies have been done on the side effects.”

Silas added that he is not confident in the process of vaccinating children and believes the decision was made in a hurry without waiting for a study.

Rohana Halim, 37, also said she is not confident to allow her five year-old son to be immunised.

Furthermore, she said, the claims circulating on social media about the many side effects of the Covid-19 vaccine have caused her to become increasingly concerned.

I refuse to risk my son’s life with things we don’t know are effective. After all, my son is still too young as he is only five years old,” Rohana said.

And so far, the government has never given assurance that this vaccine does not harm children, so how can we be confident and allow our children to be vaccinated? My son is not a laboratory test subject.”

She added that the government should conduct a detailed study taking into account all findings before allowing the Covid-19 vaccine to be given to children.

Rohana also hopes the government will not make it mandatory or impose restrictions on children who are not vaccinated.

“I hope the government will not make a U-turn on the sanctions order. What worries me is that today they say it is not compulsory, but tomorrow it will change and they will make it compulsory for children to be vaccinated as a condition to go to kindergarten or school.

“If they really want to make it compulsory, conduct a study first, show the results of the study and convince the parents,” she said.

Last month, Khairy said the government would not impose restrictions on children aged five to 11 who do not get the Covid-19 vaccine, as PICKids is optional. – February 4, 2022.