Labuan police monitoring anti-vaxxers movement

LABUAN: Labuan police would be monitoring closely the activities of a group on the island that is spreading propaganda against Covid-19 vaccines through various social media platforms.

Acting Labuan police chief DSP Mohd Ibrahim Mohd Ghani said this would include taking action against any individual or group who using social media to spread inaccurate information about the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.

“We will monitor the spread of inaccurate information with regard to this vaccination programme, and if there’s a police report lodged, we would take immediate action against those involved,” he told Bernama at the Labuan Ferry Terminal after the arrival of the first batch of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines from Kota Kinabalu yesterday.

He said although ‘fervent antivaxxers’ were a small minority, the monitoring was necessary as the vaccination programme was vital to establish a ‘herd immunity’ to beat Covid-19.

Mohd Ibrahim said anyone convicted of spreading anti-vaccine propaganda and misleading information could be jailed for up to two years or fined, or both, under Section 505 (b) of the Penal Code and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) 1998. On the safety of the 4,680 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine at the vaccine storage centre of Labuan Hospital, he said the centre would be well guarded by police personnel round the clock.

“It is our responsibility to ensure the vaccination programme runs smoothly throughout the phases,” he said.