Public health expert Lim Chee Han, for example, said vaccine mandates would make life difficult for those who cannot receive vaccinations for legitimate medical reasons. He said people would also baulk at placing such a mandate on adolescents and children.
The senior researcher at the Third World Network, an independent non-profit international research and advocacy organisation, urged the authorities to instead study why some still refuse the vaccinations and to address those issues.
Lim said considerations included whether people were showing vaccine hesitancy or had difficulty accessing the jabs. Examples he cited include the indigenous Orang Asli communities who live in remote areas and the fear among migrant and refugee communities of being detained if they showed up for inoculation.
News report link:
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3150666/will-asia-accept-vaccine-mandates-bidens-us
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interview note:
+ what is your opinion on a possible vaccine mandate? is it necessary?
The current adult population* fully vaccination coverage exceeds 80%, and at least one dose coverage is 93.3%. If the latter is expected on course to complete the vaccination, then we are left with probably 7-10**% unvaccinated adults due to many reasons.
First, vaccine mandate will make life difficult for those who could not go for vaccination for legitimate medical reasons. If the vaccine mandate would affect the adolescents and children, it would make things even complicated.***
Secondly, one has to study whether the remaining 10% , how many are actually showing vaccine hesitancy or simply lack of access due to inconvenience (eg. Orang Asli communities in remote areas) or fear (eg. migrants, refugees and undocumented migrants's fear of arrest).
Thirdly, even if there are still anti-vaxxers or vaccine hesitant people around (as in other parts of the world as well), there should be other alternative ways provided for the people to access the services and facilities, to be fair. For example, probably a proof of their most recent COVID-19 RTK self-test would be necessary as a condition.
*using the current DOSM population estimate - most likely an underestimate due to projection from the 2010 population census
** if adjusted for 5% underestimation
*** currently adolescents and children are the population majority still not yet covered by vaccine rollout, if the government would impose or extend vaccine mandates to these population, this would further restrict the movement and liberty of the affected population.
Complicated because these population would need consent from the parents for vaccination, some parents may not entirely convinced because there were incidents of severe side effect could bring to the children, and the approval clearance for the children usage is still relatively new. the vaccine mandate , if imposed by the MOE strictly, could prevent their children from attending school. Some parents worry.
+ the likelihood that a vaccine mandate will be imposed, and if so, when
If the government wants to do it, they would like to do it now, since they almost hit the saturation or the plateau of the vaccination campaign for the first 2 doses. If they want to push up the numbers further, they have to spend also effort to find out where is still the gap for particular communities.
+ what has fueled the vaccine hesitancy?
The breakthrough incidents of fully vaccinated persons can be infected substantially and some , though very much reduced numbers, could go on to become very sick. This could make certain vaccine hesitant people see no point of getting vaccinated, or resort to alternative unproven therapies or prophylaxis.
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