Pakatan’s Selangor government hijacked the Covid-19 vaccines and created chaos

(FMT) – Third parties had made block bookings in large quantities for the AstraZeneca vaccine without the recipients even knowing about it, the Covid-19 immunisation task force (CITF) said.

These bookings, a portion of which CITF said had been made via Selangor’s SELangkah app, came to light after CITF received complaints from the public that they had been given AstraZeneca vaccination appointments, even though they had not opted in for the vaccine.

“After an initial investigation, we found out that AstraZeneca vaccine slots were booked by third parties in a large quantity even though the recipients did not consent to getting AstraZeneca,” the task force said in a statement today.

CITF added that they contacted the third parties who made the block bookings, such as SELangkah, where reservations for AstraZeneca had been made through the ImuniSel database without the recipients’ consent.

“SELangkah gave their assurance that those who were given AstraZeneca vaccine appointments will be reverted to the vaccine of their choice,” said CITF, adding that it would rectify the issue.

Yesterday, science, technology and innovation minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the federal government was looking into claims of mass registrations done by certain parties for AstraZeneca earlier this week.

He said “it should not have taken place, technically it cannot take place”, adding that such action may have been done without the recipients’ consent.

The AstraZeneca vaccine was earlier offered through online applications to those interested. Under the first exercise, it was offered only to Klang Valley residents, then it was offered to those aged above 60.

However, on Wednesday, when bookings opened up for those aged above 18 in certain states, the situation became chaotic when many were unable to access the system, and all the slots were taken up within an hour.

The AstraZeneca vaccine will now be re-incorporated into the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme, together with the Pfizer-BioNTech and Sinovac vaccines.

Khairy said public hesitancy towards the AstraZeneca jabs had diminished, based on the good response to the vaccine.