PSB’s Lau calls for AstraZeneca to be vaccine option for Sarawakians

People living in Sarawak need to have an option to use other vaccines besides Pfizer-BioNTech or Sinovac, said Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) Kota Sentosa representative Datuk Dr Lau Pang Heng.

In a statement yesterday, he said AstraZeneca could be an option for Sarawakians as medical reports showed that the chances of getting blood clots is 0.0004 per cent.

“Nothing in medicine is completely safe. Many drugs have side effects. The real decision is always whether the benefits outweigh the risks. It is particularly challenging in a pandemic.

“Medicine would rely on the precautionary principle to prove adequate safety before giving a new medicine to large number of people. In a pandemic like Covid-19, any delay in vaccinating the people will cost lives,” he said.

Lau pointed out that there must be a very good reason that in less than three hours, all the 268,000 AstraZeneca vaccines were voluntarily taken by people living in the Klang Valley.

“They must have done sufficient research before accepting AstraZeneca vaccines as an option. Therefore, we urge the Sarawak government to give AstraZeneca as an option to Sarawakians based on a voluntary basis,” he said.

He said that news have reported that the European Union (EU) is monitoring Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna for rare cases of blood clotting.

“The statement said there was no indication so far. European Medicines Agency (EMA) has also conducted similar studies on AstraZeneca and confirmed that the benefits in fighting the coronavirus pandemic outweighed the risks,” he added.

Lau said that he has been talking to people within the Kota Sentosa area. Seven out of 10 persons he spoke to are questioning the Sarawak government as to why AstraZeneca is not allowed as an option to Sarawakians on a voluntary basis.

He also called on the Sarawak government to speedily vaccinate those who have registered.

“At this moment, there 1,096.792 (52.93 per cent) registered for vaccination.

So far 92,439 have been vaccinated. There are still 1,004,353 waiting for their vaccination.

“What is the government plan to vaccinate those who have already registered? What is the government doing to register more persons for vaccination? “he asked.

Lau said he has led members of PSB Kota Sentosa team to help members of the public to register for the vaccination programme.

He urged the authorities to make the decisions that are what the people really want, and not to do things that those in authority want.

“The people are very eager to get vaccinated,” he added.