Khairy confirms purchasing Pfizer vaccine for children under 12

Malaysia – Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has announced that Malaysia will be procuring the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine to inoculate children aged five to 12 years old.

“With FDA panel recommending Pfizer jab for five to 12-year-olds, Malaysia will go forward with our procurement of Pfizer for kids. We will also look at other options like Sinovac,” he said on Twitter today, referring to the US Food and Drug Administration.

The Rembau MP added that as of yesterday, 82.4 per cent of adolescents aged 12 to 17 in Malaysia had received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.

Statistics from the Ministry of Health’s CovidNow website show that 62 per cent of the same age group has been fully vaccinated. On October 26, a panel of independent advisers recommended to the US FDA that the agency should issue emergency authorisation for the use of Pfizer-BioNtech vaccines in children aged five to 11 years old.

US-based news organisation National Public Radio (NPR) reported that 17 out of 18 panelists voted in favour of the move. While the FDA is yet to make a final decision on the matter, it is reportedly expected to do so in the next few days.

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On June 5, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah announced that MoH and ICR had commenced clinical trials to study the use and efficacy of Ivermectin for high-risk Covid-19 patients at 12 MoH hospitals.

He said the trial was approved by the ministry’s Medical Research and Ethics Committee on May 25, and the study would compare Ivermectin treatment (specific dose with specific duration) with the standard of care alone.

He said the study would enlist 500 subjects from high-risk groups aged 50 and above admitted to MoH hospitals with mild or moderate Covid-19 symptoms (stage two to three).

“The study aims to determine the efficacy of Ivermectin in preventing the progression of Covid-19 to severe disease (stage four and five) and in terms of mortality outcomes.