Are vaccines mandatory, asks think tank citing health DG’s criteria for travel ban

[superadmin]

PETALING JAYA: A think tank has called for the government to clarify whether Covid-19 vaccines are compulsory or otherwise, pointing to contradictory statements from government leaders.

The Center for Market Education (CME) noted that science, technology and innovation minister Khairy Jamaluddin had said the national Covid-19 immunisation programme would be a voluntary exercise.

But it said health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah’s statement that the ban on interstate and inter-district travel may only be lifted after 70% of the population had been vaccinated implied that the vaccines were mandatory.

“If Malaysians cannot even think about interdistrict travel without mass vaccination, this means that vaccination becomes hiddenly compulsory,” it said in a statement today.


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