Noor Hisham tells why ‘death’ not listed as vaccine side effect in MySejahtera

June 7, 2023

Noor Hisham tells why ‘death’ not listed as vaccine side effect in MySejahtera

Former health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah was called as a witness in the trial of a clinic owner who posted a video about the Covid-19 vaccine.SEPANG: Former health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah told the sessions court here that “death” was not listed as one of the side effects of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine as a post-mortem is required to determine one’s cause of death.

Noor Hisham was called as a witness in the trial of Sky Clinic owner Dr Roland Victor, who was charged under the Communications and Multimedia Act over a video posted on Facebook regarding the Covid-19 vaccine rollout in 2021.

“We have to conduct a post-mortem to ascertain the cause of death, whether the death is caused by the vaccine or coincidentally (after the deceased was given the Covid-19 vaccine).

“There is a possibility that the deceased had other illnesses, we have to confirm that,” Noor Hisham said in reply to deputy public prosecutor Nazneen Zulkifli.

Nazneen had asked him during re-examination why “death” was not included as a side effect of the Pfizer jab on the MySejahtera application.

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`Noor Hisham also said the ministry did not list all the possible adverse reactions to the vaccine as the application “was limited”.

“We couldn’t include all (side effects), so we listed the common ones. For rare side effects, (the public) can refer to the document provided by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) on its website,” he said.

During cross-examination earlier, Victor’s lawyer, Ahmad Zaidi Zainal, said death was one of the possible side effects of the Pfizer vaccine, according to a document produced by the NPRA.

Zaidi: In the document, is “death” mentioned as one of the side effects?

Noor Hisham: It does not say death (explicitly), but complications from myocarditis.

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Zaidi: That means death is one of the Pfizer vaccine’s side effects?

Noor Hisham: Yes, it is possible.

Victor was charged in July 2021 over remarks made in a video posting through the Facebook page “The KL Sky Clinic” on Feb 2, 2021.

In the video, he claimed that frontliners were being put through an “acid test” by being the first to be given the Covid-19 vaccines in February 2021.

Noor Hisham strongly disagreed with the doctor’s remarks and told the court he was “livid and hurt” after watching the video. He said Victor had also made an offensive remark towards frontliners and challenged the health ministry’s credibility.

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“His ‘acid test’ remark was unnecessary as the vaccine had undergone a technical test. As a certified doctor, he should have calmed the people, not confused them,” he said, pointing out that the vaccines had been administered in the UK and Europe six months before Malaysia’s vaccination drive.

Earlier this year, Noor Hisham said there were 20,131 reports of side effects in Malaysia for over 44.8 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine given, of which 94.2% were not serious cases.

The trial before judge Fuad Othman will continue on June 16 with an investigating officer to testify as a witness.