KUALA LUMPUR – Former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin said that the government was forced to excessively order Covid-19 vaccines due to the unprecedented nature of the pandemic and uncertainties surrounding its duration.
His response comes after a report from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) revealing that the government lost 8.5 million doses of vaccines worth RM505 million due to expiry.
Khairy said while he takes full responsibility for the cost of wasted Covid-19 vaccines, other government figures also played a part in the decision to purchase the vaccine.
“I take full responsibility for what I did even though the government at the time was also involved with the decision.
“As far as I know, we did not purchase expired doses of vaccines. At the time when we bought it, the vaccines were already usable, it’s just that we did not achieve what we wanted.
“A majority of the vaccines that we purchased were booster shots as we didn’t know when the pandemic would end and how long was it going to affect our public health. There were many variants of the virus at that time.
“Even the prime minister at that time, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, told me that we need to purchase more Sinovac vaccines. I humbly told the prime minister that we should not purchase more vaccines as we already have more than we have based on the procurements given.
“I believe that this wastage would not have happened if half of our Malaysian population did not neglect the vaccine boosters,” he said in an episode of the Keluar Sekejap podcast with ex-Umno information chief Shahril Sufian Hamdan yesterday.
Khairy also said that vaccine wastage is not exclusive to Malaysia, as it is also a common occurrence in several countries around the world.
“If you look at the reports, the wastage was 10%. In the Philippines, more than 50 million doses were wasted, whereas in Indonesia more than 40 million doses were destroyed as of October last year.
“In the United States of America, 82 million doses were destroyed and 13 million doses were destroyed in South Korea”.
“Meanwhile, since we love to compare ourselves with Singapore, the island country also destroyed a higher percentage (15%) of vaccine doses which is worth SG$140 million, which is equal to RM500 million.
“Obviously losing RM505 million is a big loss for our economy but we have to look at this matter in a bigger context.
“I think that it’s better that we over-purchase compared to us not having enough, especially in a life and death situation. This decision was made so that we can buffer the situation at that time.
“I know what I was doing at that time so this is my explanation for those who have been criticising me,” Khairy added.
The PAC report noted that the Health Ministry had initially acquired over 83.3 million vaccine doses, of which 88% (72.8 mil) had been administered.
The ministry had justified the amount purchased based on its projection of the number of Covid-19 vaccines required at the time.
However, there were 8.5 million doses left with a June 15, 2023 expiration date. On June 1, the ministry extended the expiration date of the doses by another 18 months. – November 2, 2023