Empty Syringes

A few days ago several people shared a video clip with me through WhatsApp, of a woman supposedly having her Covid-19 vaccine jab at a drive-through vaccination centre. The staff who gave her the jab could be seen inserting the needle into the recipient's arm and then withdrawing the needle without pressing the syringe, thus did not actually deliver the vaccine.

The video clip was followed by an audio recording of a man claiming that people are duped into believing that they're given the vaccines, when actually the shots are sold to others in the black market. He urged Malaysians not to buy the vaccines in the black market, so that there is no reason for medical staff at vaccination centres to withhold vaccines from the rightful recipients.

I think the claim of vaccines in the black market as suggested by the man in the audio recording is utter rubbish and ridiculous to the last degree. He talked without making any research whatsoever, but trying to appear as if he knew what he's talking about. The vaccines are given for FREE in Malaysia, and it's just a matter of waiting in the queue. Recently, the vaccination process has been expedited many folds, and I'd imagine that most people would rather wait for their turns, instead of buying from a black market source. Besides, the vaccines, say for example the one produced by Pfizer, are very unstable in the sense that they must be stored between -80C to -60C, and can be kept in the freezer prior to use at slightly higher temperatures for up to a month, but at any rate still below 0C. Once it is melted to room temperature, it can only last for up to 6 hours, and if still unused after that, will have to be discarded. To put the vaccine into a syringe and then save it to be sold in the black market is way too complicated and way too risky when taking the 6-hour window into account. 

The second possibility is not to melt the vaccine at all, but instead just use an empty syringe. In such a case, that could explain why the staff did not press the syringe even though she did insert the needle into the flesh. However, even this second idea makes little sense to me. It would be much easier to switch the vaccine with, say, plain water in the syringe, and then inject that into the recipient's arm, and then nobody has to know. Why would the evil staff have an empty syringe right in front of the husband who's filming the act, and risk getting caught (and she did get caught) when it's so much easier to put water in it? It makes no sense to me!

These are questions worth asking, but the problem is that most people, when receiving the audio recording would believe what the man said. Never mind if it defies logic and common sense. People are no longer keen on using their brains to think these days!

Although the police are investigating the matter as per this news article and no official explanation has been announced yet, I would venture to speculate that a much simpler explanation is that the staff on duty was just careless. That's just human nature. I think it's entirely possible that when one is doing a task repeatedly and continuously too many times, there will come a time when that task becomes too monotonous until the entire process becomes mechanical, that is to say, it is done without thinking; rather, almost entirely on muscle memory! And it was in such a way that the staff, without thinking, inserted the needle into the arm, and then withdrew it without even remembering if she had actually pressed the syringe to deliver the vaccine! I don't know this for a fact, of course, but I'm just speculating, mind. Now IF it happened like that, then the next thing to discover is if that staff worked too long beyond reasonable hours to result in such carelessness. Or the other way of putting it, did her superior insist that she continue working beyond the threshold of mental fatigue? Those are questions worth investigating if we are to get to the bottom of this whole thing.

I've said earlier that that's just human nature. We all make mistakes every now and then. But the standard of care expected of us is not the same in every case. Take an ordinary road user for example. We can probably accept that he is liable to make mistakes, such as driving too fast or using his cellphone while driving, eventually resulting in an accident. Road accidents happen almost on a daily basis, and although it's something we're concerned about, it has become something quite common and almost expected to happen. Now take the case of a commercial airplane pilot instead. We would expect a much, much higher standard of care from him because most people consider he has a much bigger responsibility than the ordinary road user. Even a small mistake by a pilot can lead to the loss of many human lives. If the public loses confidence in the pilot, that can have serious repercussion to the airline that he's working for.

It is the same with the careless medical staff. She is dealing with human lives on a daily basis, and it is imperative that the public has full confidence in her standard of care in performing her duties. The public, even knowing fully well that she's only human and can't escape from making mistakes, would expect her NOT to make this kind of mistake in the vaccination process. This is important, because we are trying to expedite the vaccination process in Malaysia in the hope of achieving the herd immunity, and this sort of mistake can potentially derail the plan if people lose confidence in the programme. 

Anti-Vax

I had a lady friend who had breast cancer. Generally, the prescribed treatment is to surgically remove the tumour and then followed by a course of chemotherapy. I've read from numerous medical literatures that survival rate is quite high if the cancer is detected early and medical intervention is quick enough. My friend opted to remove the tumour, but not the chemo. Apparently she had read somewhere that chemo has many side effects and may be detrimental to the body in the long run. I'm sure there must be some truth in that.

A few years later, the cancer came back, and this time it was much more aggressive. Her condition deteriorated quickly, and then in the end, she opted for the chemo anyway. She died a little over half a year ago. I felt that she could have lived at least a few years longer had she opted for the chemo sooner than she did.

Many people see the human body like machines, probably within the same category as motor vehicles. But actually they are not the same. When a vehicle goes dead, there is always something that the mechanic can do to bring it back to life. Perhaps change of parts and then tweaking here and there. If necessary, he can also make some modifications to the vehicle, and then in the vast majority of cases, it can be brought back to life. The only question is whether it is economically viable to do it. But the human body is different, when you are dead, that's the end of it.

It has been said that Sabah has the lowest number of registrations for the Covid-19 vaccines. I have spoken to a fair number of people who have not registered, and the most common reason was because the vaccines are all too new and may have some serious side effects in the long run. Apart from that, we also have many, many WhatsApp messages giving numerous possible serious repercussions from taking the vaccines. These range from blood clots, cardiac arrest and many others that will eventually lead to death.

Now I'd reckon that roughly about 80% to 90% of the population are gullible to WhatsApp pranks. They just never learn. Whenever they get such messages, they believe without checking. I'm not sure if this is because of laziness to check, or because it's much easier to simply believe; or maybe a bit of both. Never mind if they don't check, but they don't even think to reason out the messages in a logical or scientific way. So in the end, they chose not to register for the vaccines.

I'm thinking that even if it's true that there will be side effects in the long run from taking the vaccines, I'd take my chances and hope for the best. For my immediate concern is to stay alive, at least long enough to ride out the storm, and then later, I hope medical science will figure out something on how to deal with the side effects, whatever they may be. Ultimately, I want to try my best to remain alive to fight another day. If I'm dead from Covid-19 today, I have nothing left to fight for tomorrow.

However, I suspect that if those who did not register for the vaccines do get infected with the Covid-19 virus and become seriously ill and knocking at death's door in the ICU, they would readily submit to the vaccines. All those fears of side effects will be thrown out of the window. For in the end, the survival instinct will always prevail over others, because as I said earlier, when you're dead, that's the end of it, there is no coming back. I just wonder if it would be too late to ask for the vaccine then.

I'm glad to note that recently there's a surge in the number of people who've registered for the vaccines in Sabah and now stands at about 35.9%. That's a huge improvement from just a month or two ago which was just around 10%. Perhaps that's because many of the fence sitters have realised that none of the vaccine recipients have died so far or at least if there were deaths, they were not caused by the vaccines; and as far as I know, no blood clots incidence have been reported yet. I'm guessing that many people have now realised that the only hope of beating the virus is by achieving herd immunity through vaccinations.

But 35.9% is still not good enough. I'm hoping to see that figure rise to at least 80% as soon as possible. I'm not hoping for 100% because I'm a realistic person; I realise that there will always be people whom are the so-called anti-vax.