PETALING JAYA: Those involved in procuring, issuing and selling fake vaccination certification must be slapped with the maximum punishment for endangering the lives of people, say experts.
Federation of Private Medical Practitioners’ Associations Malaysia president Dr Steven KW Chow urged for strong and immediate action to be taken against all those involved.
“If a rural medical practitioner (RMP) is proven to be involved, the offending doctor should be struck off the register after due process and never allowed to practise as a doctor ever again.
“Since the outset of this matter last year, our advice to all RMPs participating in the national immunisation programme has been to steer clear from anyone asking for fake vaccination certificates.
“An additional proposal is to add details of the place of vaccination and identification of the person administering the vaccination into the certificate.
“This can be easily done for general practitioners’ facilities but for other PPV where injections are not necessarily administered by RMPs, the name of the person-in-charge should be included,” Dr Chow said.
He also said it was evident that the MySejahtera certification process was not tamper-proof as had been claimed previously.
“We hope the investigations will also be able to identify what segment of the population is going for these fake certifications and to take appropriate action to address the problem.
“The government cannot allow this trust deficit to affect bona fide givers and the millions of receivers of the vaccine,” Dr Chow added.
Malaysian Medical Association president Dr Koh Kar Chai urged authorities to weed out all those involved in issuing fake vaccination certificates.
“We want all those involved to be brought to book to face the full force of the law. The heaviest punishment should be meted out as it is a serious offence which could put countless lives in danger.
“It is shocking that more than 5,000 vaccination certificates were issued by the clinic located in Gombak to individuals without giving vaccination. We will not allow a few black sheep to tarnish the good name and reputation of the profession,” he added.
The Private Facility Enforcement Unit at the Health Ministry should also take other stern measures such as immediate closure of the premises and charge those found to be involved in court, said Dr Koh.
Medical Practitioners Coalition Association of Malaysia president Dr Raj Kumar Maharajah suggested that private practitioners should not be allowed to carry out vaccinations anymore.
“The core issue here is these people may not be anti-vaxxers alone, those procuring may come from various segments; we need to find out why they are doing so,” he said, adding that members of the public who seek out and pay these doctors for fake vaccination certificates should be charged with bribery.
Federation of Malaysian Consumer Associations deputy president Mohd Yusof Abdul Rahman said those with fake vaccination certificates could spread the deadly virus within the community.
As such, members of the public and doctors who were in this together should be punished severely, he said.