COVID Vaccine Developer BioNTech To Build mRNA Manufacturing Plant In Singapore

German biotech company BioNTech announced that it will be building a fully integrated mRNA manufacturing facility in Singapore as well as planting its regional (Southeast Asian) headquarters there.

BioNTech is world-famous for partnering with Pfizer to develop a COVID-19 vaccine with a efficacy rate of 95% – according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). That vaccine uses mRNA to teach the body’s cells to make a protein that triggers an immune response that creates protective antibodies.

The Singapore mRNA manufacturing plant will apparently be capable of producing a range of novel mRNA vaccines and therapeutics for infectious diseases and cancer. With COVID vaccine shortages in many parts of the world right now, it goes without saying that the plant could be an incredibly important asset against future pandemic threats.

Explaining why the company picked Singapore, CEO and co-founder Ugur Sahin said, “Singapore provides an excellent business climate, growing biotechnology industry and rich talent base.” He thanked the Singapore Economic Development Board for supporting the firm’s expansion there.

The company plans to open its Singapore headquarters in 2021 and begin construction of the manufacturing plant the same year, subject to planning approval. It expects the site to be operational as early as 2023, creating up to 80 jobs in the country.

Malaysia less vaccine % than india and indon, GGWP

 

https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations

Government To Expand AstraZeneca Vaccine Distribution Nationwide

The government will be expanding the distribution of the AstraZeneca (AZ) COVID-19 vaccine to other states in Malaysia, according to the Chairman of the COVID-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF), Minister Khairy Jamaluddin. This decision was made after the first registration session for Selangor and Kuala Lumpur residents which took place yesterday.

Even though the initial experience was rather unpleasant due to technical difficulties and massive traffic, yesterday’s AZ vaccine registration day was fairly successful as all of the 268,000 available doses were reserved in a span of 3 hours and 12 minutes.

For the nationwide distribution, it will be taking into account individuals that don’t have access to the Internet, as opposed to yesterday’s session for Selangor and Kuala Lumpur which was done completely online through the official website for the Special Committee on the COVID-19 Vaccine Supply (JKJAV).

For this purpose, the authorities will be roping in the Ministry of Health’s Community Clinics to distribute the AZ vaccine which will continue to be offered on a voluntary basis according to Minister Khairy. As for the Sarawak state government who had rejected the offer for the vaccine, the minister hopes that the state will reconsider its decision.

On a related note, Minister Khairy revealed that MySejahtera experienced 8,000 cancellations for vaccine appointment when the government announced the inclusion of the AZ vaccine into PICK. After it found out that the number of cancellations was steadily rising, JKJAV then decided to establish a separate distribution channel for the vaccine.

The minister added that around 80% of those that cancelled their vaccine appointment came back and registered again after the AZ vaccine received its own distribution program. From there, it seems rather clear that vaccine hesitancy is a real issue when it comes to the particular vaccine.

JKJAV To Open Another Registration Session For AstraZeneca Vaccine Soon

The Special Committee on the COVID-19 Vaccine Supply (JKJAV) will be announcing another registration session for the AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine sometime next week. This was revealed by the coordinator of the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK), Minister Khairy Jamaluddin via Twitter earlier today.

Minister Khairy also said that the Vaccine Administration Centres (PPV) for the distribution of the AZ vaccine outside of Klang Valley will be announced at the same time as well. However, the exact day and time of the announcement were not revealed through the tweet.

The minister has previously shared that thousands of people have cancelled their vaccine registration in MySejahtera after the government announced that it is about to roll out the AZ vaccine through PICK. Hence, it was then decided that the AZ vaccine be given a separate distribution channel while still being deemed as part of the PICK.

A separate registration process was then opened last Sunday which saw all of the 268,000 available doses to be fully reserved within 3 hours 20 minutes even though there were some hiccups during the early portion of the registration session. The subsequent distribution of the AZ vaccine took place yesterday and will last until early June.

JKJAV’s AstraZeneca Vaccine Registration Day: What An Unpleasant Experience

It has been widely reported that AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine may cause blood clots and low level of blood platelets as side effects although the European Medicines Agency and World Health Organization have deemed that the number of such cases is still relatively. Hence, both health authorities have decided that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh its risks.

The Malaysian government is confident of its safety as well but nevertheless, has decided to distribute the AZ vaccine through a separate channel after members of the public have expressed their nervousness about its usage for the National COVID-19 Immunization Programme (NCIP). For that purpose, the Special Committee for Ensuring Access to COVID-19 Vaccine Supply (JKJAV) has opened up the registration earlier today at 12:00 PM for Selangor and Kuala Lumpur residents through its website.

Since the COVID-19 vaccine’s supply for Malaysia is expected to pick up only in June, the AZ vaccine rollout is generally the only chance for the mass public to get vaccinated much sooner. So, it goes without saying that many Malaysians are still interested to obtain the vaccine.

With only 268,000 doses available up for grabs at the moment, things were expectedly to be frantic. Well, in many ways, that exactly what happened a few hours ago.

For starters, there were reports that some managed to secure their AZ vaccine appointments as early as 11 AM. However, it turned out the site was still on pre-live staging mode and the coordinator of the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme, Ministry Khairy Jamaluddin has to step in to make some clarification.

Despite the assurance above though, the actual site still went live a few minutes before 12:00 PM. Those who managed to catch the timing had a fairly smooth experience but for the rest of the crow who went in right at noon time as instructed by JKJAV, things went down the drain fairly quickly.

By 12:01 PM, all of the four designated Vaccine Administration Centres (VAC) alongside their appointment dates have disappeared from the site; as if all of the 268,000 vaccines have been fully reserved. Around 15 minutes (actual time varies) later, they reappeared again but another problem immediately sets in.

Despite finally being able to pick their venue and date, many found themselves not able to submit their selection. There was no sign or notification at all that indicates the site is actually processing users’ request and once again, it looked like a dead end.

Naturally, plenty of users then resorted to refresh the site over and over again in order to secure their appointment slot with many have to select random dates and venues just to see which one would eventually go through. The actual time varies from user to user but there are many out there who have to spend more than 20 minutes to register themselves for the vaccine.

Things appeared to be much smoother later on and eventually, all of the 268,000 slots were fully reserved after 3 hours 19 minutes since the registration officially started. Subsequently, the registration for the waiting list also closed a few hours later and Ministry Khairy has said that the next shipment of the AZ vaccine which is going to take place later this month will be prioritized for those who are on the list.

To its credit though, JKJAV’s website somehow managed to stay online despite the obvious surge of traffic. Additionally, the simplistic user interface and straightforward process helped as well.

So, it is rather unfortunate that the actual registration process turned out to be an unpleasant experience as you have to refresh the site so many times just to get your appointment to be accepted by the unresponsive backend system. This is while battling the panic that may have set in after realizing that the chance to get vaccinated within the next few weeks could be slipping away from your hands.

AstraZeneca Revises Its COVID-19 Vaccine Efficacy Rate To 76 Percent

British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca released data showing that its Covid-19 vaccine was 76% effective in preventing symptoms of the disease and 100% effective against severe disease and hospitalisation, CNN said. For volunteers aged 65 and older, the vaccine was 85% effective against developing symptoms, AstraZeneca claimed.

The company released those numbers after it was criticised earlier in the week by a US health agency for possibly including outdated information when it claimed 79% efficacy against symptomatic Covid. All the figures are based on a Phase 3 clinical trial done across the US, Chile, and Peru.

While generally held in high regard by health authorities across the world, the AstraZeneca vaccine has been dogged by controversy – including fears that it may cause blood clots.

Those (blood clot) concerns caused a whole bunch of European countries – including France, Germany, and Spain – to temporarily stop using the vaccine, CNN said. They ultimately resumed usage after the European Union’s drug regulatory agency declared the vaccine to be safe, saying its benefits outweigh the risk.

In Malaysia, the AstraZeneca vaccine has received conditional approval, with the government ordering 12.8 million doses, according to CodeBlue. Putrajaya is sticking with its purchase, convinced for now that the vaccine isn’t linked to blood clots, Bernama reported.

Science, Technology, and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin previously said that the AstraZeneca vaccine would likely be administered in rural areas – as opposed to the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine in urban centers.

You Can Also Now Register For COVID-19 Vaccine Through JKJAV’s Website and Hotline

The Special Committee for Ensuring Access To COVID-19 Vaccine Supply (JKJAV) yesterday has opened up the COVID-19 vaccine registration through its official website. Alternatively, the public can also register themselves by calling a dedicated hotline that has been set up by the committee.

The two new registration method were launched slightly around a week after JKJAV activated the registration page on the national COVID-19 app, MySejahtera. Up till 3:00 PM yesterday, more than 2 million people have registered for their COVID-19 vaccine through the app which has since been updated further to show a much clearer vaccination progress timeline to users.

Based on our experience though, we can confirm to you that the registration information submitted through JKJAV’s website is not being crosschecked with those that already existed within MySejahtera’s backend system. This is because we managed to submit our details through the website even though we have registered ourselves via MySejahtera last week:

Then again, the form did say that users would receive confirmation SMS within 24 hours after submission which can be taken as a sign that there is some manual work involved in the registration process. Hence, if you have been using the MySejahtera app, we do recommend you to just register for the vaccine through it.

Nevertheless, in case you need to register yourself or your loved ones via the website, just head on to vaksincovid.gov.my. You can also do it by calling the National COVID-19 Registration Vaccination Line at 1800-888-828.

Twitter Introduces Five-Strikes Bans For COVID Vaccine Misinformation

As countries around the world begin vaccinating their citizens, Twitter is stepping up its efforts against COVID-19 vaccine misinformation by introducing a ban policy based on the number and severity of violations. Five strikes gets you permanently banned from Twitter.

But as the BBC noted, Twitter isn’t definitive on how it will act against misinformation, leaving itself a lot of wiggle room. The general idea is, less serious forms of misinformation will be labelled while more serious ones are outright deleted.

Then it gets more complicated. You get one strike if your tweet is labelled, but two if your tweet is removed. That’s important to remember because two to three strikes will lock your account for 12 hours. Four strikes will lock it for a week, and then five or more will send you to live in perma-ban land with Donald Trump.

Among other things, Twitter said it’s targeting content that misrepresents the safety of the vaccines, or claims the vaccines are part of a deliberate conspiracy to harm or control people. But it’s okay to raise questions about the effectiveness of the various vaccines as long as you don’t misrepresent research findings.

Since issuing earlier COVID guidelines, Twitter claimed it had taken down over 8,400 tweets and “challenged” 11.5 million accounts globally. That figure for removed tweets may seem underwhelming given what the other tech platforms have accomplished – in January, YouTube announced it had removed over 500,000 videos containing COVID misinformation over a period lasting nearly a year.

Govt: Personal Data Of Vaccine Recipients Will Not Be Shared With Manufacturers

The government is assuring vaccine recipients that their personal data, which are registered under the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK), will not be shared with pharmaceutical companies. This was announced by Khairy Jamaluddin, the coordinating minister of PICK, last night during the “Sembang Vaksin” video programme organised by a group of doctors and health personnel under MedTweetMY via Zoom.

“The people need not worry, we (the government) will not reveal their personal data to the vaccine manufacturing company and will only be shared in cases of AEFI,” he said. For those unfamiliar,  adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) – as described by the World Health Organization (WHO) – is any unexpected medical occurrence which follows immunisation and which does not necessarily have a casual relationship with the usage of  the vaccine. These include unfavourable or unintended signs such as side-effects, and abnormal laboratory findings, symptoms or diseases.

Khairy also assured that the arrangement between Malaysia and Pfizer-BioNTech is unlike the situation between the company and Israel, where personal data of vaccine recipients in the country are shared. According to Reuters, Israel agreed to provide its citizens’ health data to Pfizer as part of the vaccination supply deal, but says that patient identity will be kept anonymous. The Washington Post, meanwhile, noted that the Israel-Pfizer contract was made public in early January, but specifics mentioning costs and data sharing were redacted.

The first phase of the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme was launched on 24 February 2021. A total of 15,923 individuals had already received the first dose of the vaccine as of 6:30pm on 28 February, the minister revealed.

If you die from the COVID-19 vaccine in Japan, the government will give your family over ¥44 mil

Japan began distributing the COVID-19 vaccine on Feb 17. While a little behind other developed countries, they seem to be trying to do it in as organized fashion as possible, staggering vaccinations to medical staff, the elderly, people with health conditions, and everyone else in that order.

It’s not without its challenges, however, and one of them remains the Japanese people’s general skittishness when it comes to vaccines. It might seem surprising in a country that’s all too ready to slip on a mask, but the fear of side effects and a general attitude of “It probably won’t happen to me” has kept flu shot rates lingering at a steady 50 percent year after year, despite the fact that in Japan the number of flu deaths in 2018 was about the same as COVID-19 deaths in 2020.

However, some who fear that the prevention might be worse than the disease may be swayed by a recent report that the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare will award a lump sum of 44,200,000 yen to the surviving family of any person who dies as a result of the COVID-19 vaccine and even cover funeral costs up to 209,000 yen.

It doesn’t even matter if there was negligence on the part of medical staff or the vaccine producer. In other words, there’s no strings attached.

This is actually a long standing policy of the ministry which covers any kind of vaccination, not just COVID-19. However, it recently made news when it was brought up by health minister Norihisa Tamura at a budget meeting.

Judging by the comments, a lot of people were unaware of this policy up until now.

“Now that’s some news! Let’s hurry up and die!”

“Wow! It also says you can get an annual five million yen if you’re severely disabled by the vaccine. I like those odds.”

“Maybe this will help more people get the shot.”

“Let the death game begin!”

“Seems simple, but isn’t it difficult to prove that it was in fact the vaccine that caused the death?”

That last comment is a valid concern, but it would seem that in practice the opposite is actually a bigger problem. According to a report by Diamond Online, the ambiguousness of vaccine side effects tends to work in favor of the victims in court. As a result, Japanese pharmaceutical companies have been reluctant to produce vaccines in recent years, because the financial risks outweighs the benefits.

This, combined with the fact that much of the public isn’t even aware of the policy, would suggest that it is probably more intended to coax Japanese companies to produce their own vaccines by reducing their liability. However, Diamond Online also points out that even after accepting the government’s money, victims still have the right to go after the companies in court.

This brings us right back to square one, as evidenced by the lack of any Japanese-made vaccines during this time of peak mass inoculation. Still, like one comment suggests, the new of this policy could at least help bring more people to the vaccination table by showing the the government believes in the safety of it enough to put their money on the line.

If it does, then it’ll ultimately be worth well over a few million yen.

First Batch of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine For Malaysia Is Here

Just slightly after 10:00 AM today, an Airbus A330-300 belonged to MASkargo has landed at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. On a normal day, there’s generally nothing extraordinary about the plane and would just be seen as one of the many cargo flights that are part of hustle and bustle of KLIA.

Not this time around though as this particular aircraft which was flown by Captain Hamdan Che Ismail carried two cargo special cargo boxes from Belgium. Prepped by DHL, the two boxes – labelled as AKE 10296 MH and AKE 10679 MH – contained the first batch of COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech for Malaysia.

Inside these cargo boxes, there are multiple cold storage boxes that altogether hold almost 313,000 doses. They will be distributed through Phase 1 of the National COVID-19 Immunization Program (NCIP) that involved 500,000 frontliners which was originally scheduled to start from 26 February 2021.

NCIP has since been brought forward to 24 February with PM Muhyiddin Yassin and Health DG Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah will be the first to receive the vaccine. The move is as an effort to instil confidence among the public to accept the COVID-19 vaccine.

From KLIA, the first group of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be making its way to 16 Vaccine Storage Centres (VSCs) throughout Peninsular Malaysia. Six of these centres are located in Selangor while four are in Johor as well as three in Kuala Lumpur, two in Penang, and one in Putrajaya.

In total, there will be 54 VSCs to serve 605 Vaccine Administration Centres (VACs) throughout the country. Members of the public can begin to register to get their vaccine sometime this March through five different methods including via MySejahtera app.

COVID-19 Vaccine: Government Is In Discussion With Private Health Care Providers

The government is currently in discussion with private health care providers in regards to the National COVID-19 Immunisation Program (NCIP), according to the Minister of Science, Innovation, and Technology, Khairy Jamaluddin during a public Clubhouse session today that revolves around the COVID-19 vaccine.

In his response to the questions from Boo Sy-Lyn who is the Editor-In-Chief of the local health news site CodeBlue, Ministry Khairy stated that the government is indeed looking at whether private health care providers can augment NCIP. He pointed out that the government really need to go into the details to see which of these facilities that it can use for the program.

Among such details is logistics as the COVID-19 vaccines generally have specific temperature requirements and thus requires proper planning in terms of transportation and storage. Additionally, there is also the issue of whether these facilities have enough capacity to disperse the vaccine.

The remarks by Minister Khairy are rather interesting as it was only yesterday that CodeBlue reported the government has yet to formally discuss NCIP with private hospitals and clinics, according to the Association of Private Hospitals of Malaysia as well as the Malaysian Medical Association. Nevertheless, representatives from both associations have said that the private health care providers are ready to provide their help to NCIP, according to the report.

Then again, it has been previously announced that one of the five methods to register for COVID-19 vaccines is to do it manually at private health care facilities. We expect more details to be revealed in due time as NCIP begins to administer the vaccine from 26 February onwards.

North Korea Reportedly Tried To Hack Pfizer To Steal Vaccine Technology

South Korea’s intelligence service (NIS) allegedly told the country’s lawmakers that North Korea has attempted to hack Pfizer servers to steal vaccine data. This was apparently revealed in a closed-door briefing for a South Korean parliamentary intelligence committee.

Committee member Ha Tae-keung told the press that Pfizer was the hacking’s target, only to be rebuked later by the NIS, which stated that it didn’t identify any pharmaceutical firm by name, calling his remarks “wrong.”

When he was reached by the AP, Ha didn’t budge from his earlier statement, explaining that he was shown NIS documents about the hacking. The wording about Pfizer “was so clear that I didn’t even ask about that verbally” during the briefing, he said. Ha suggested that the intelligence service was probably trying not to provoke North Korea.

This isn’t the first time that North Korean hackers have gone after vaccine data. In November last year, Microsoft revealed that hackers from North Korea, as well as Russia, went after top pharmaceutical companies and vaccine researchers in Canada, France, India, South Korea and the United States.

In those instances, North Korean hackers primarily employed spear-phishing tactics which involve masquerading as job recruiters or World Health Organisation (WHO) representatives. Phishing is an attempt to get sensitive information like usernames and passwords by pretending to be a trustworthy entity.

Ruled by reclusive leader Kim Jong Un, North Korea has reported exactly zero cases of COVID-19 so far. Last December, according to Nikkei Asia, the regime lambasted a South Korean minister who publicly doubted that figure.

Registration For COVID-19 Vaccine In Malaysia To Begin This March

The Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Khairy Jamaluddin who is also the coordinator of the National COVID-19 Immunisation Program has said that the government is planning to open up the registration for the vaccine sometime in March. The confirmation took place during an interview with Bernama TV last night.

The minister pointed out that this starting date is meant for low-risk individuals. Based on this, we believe that he is referring to those that will be vaccinated under Phase 3 of the National COVID-19 Immunisation Program which will start in May 2021 as per what Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has announced before.

Minister Khairy didn’t provide specific information regarding the registration timeline for high-risk individuals and the elderly that will be vaccinated in Phase 2 of the program. However, it seemed rather possible that the registration could be opened within the same period since this particular phase will begin in April.

In the same interview, Minister Khairy has once again insisted that the best registration method is through the MySejahtera app. However, other registration methods will also be made available to those who are not using the national contact tracing app.

One of them is through the official website of the Special Committee on COVID-19 Vaccine Supply (JKJAV) which will be launched by PM Muhyiddin next week. Members of the public can also register themselves through a dedicated hotline that will be opened soon.

Other than that, manual registration will also be provided at public and private clinics as well as hospitals. The minister also stated that federal, state, and local government agencies will also launch on-ground operations to register those who reside in rural areas.

MOH In Talks With Pfizer To Obtain Additional 30-Percent Of Vaccine Supply

The Ministry of Health (MOH) is in talks with Pfizer in hopes to secure another 30% of its Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine supply, according to Bernama. This isn’t the first time the government has approached the pharmaceutical company for this purpose, as it has previously done so back in November last year and recently in January 2021.

Initially, the government had originally purchased a total of 12.8 million vaccine doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in November and would later add another 12.2 million in January – bringing the total number of dosages to 25 million, allowing for the vaccination of 39% of the Malaysian population. According to Bernama, MOH minister Datuk Seri Dr. Adham Baba says the additional amount would cover 50% of the Malaysian population, should the new deal pull through.

As previously reported, the first phase of the National COVID-19 Immunisation Plan Programme aims to vaccinate 500,000 frontliners and is scheduled to last until April. Phase two will take place from April to August 2021, and is expected to cover 9.4 million people in high-risk groups such as the elderly who are aged 60 years old above, as well as those with chronic diseases and the disabled community. The third phase will then focus on the rest of the Malaysian population, which will commence from May to February 2022.

On a related note, those interested to sign up for the vaccination programme are able to do so via MySejahtera. In addition, the mobile application is also planned to receive an update in the near future to include a function that will remind users to get their second dose of the vaccine.

Los Angeles COVID-19 Vaccine Recipients Can Have Their Digital Record On Apple Wallet

The Apple Wallet allows for the storage of various types of e-cards. These range from tickets to credit and debit cards. And now, it looks like it can be used to hold a card that proves that you’ve taken your COVID-19 vaccine shot. At least in Los Angeles.

Bloomberg reports that the digital token is provided by a software company called Healthvana. And it serves two purposes. For those who have only had their first dose of the COIVD-19 vaccine, it serves as a reminder for when it’s time for the second one.

Once someone has had both, then it serves as a vaccination record. It can then be shown as proof that you’ve been immunised. This can then be shown “to prove to airlines, to prove to schools, to prove to whoever needs it”. In addition to the Apple Wallet, Healthvana CEO Ramin Bastani also said that it can be used on the “competing Google platform”.

The idea is a good one. Especially once you’ve had both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, being able to show proof of the fact that using the phone sounds are very convenient indeed. But for that to happen, we’ll need a similar initiative locally.