Social Media Trolls Causing People To Shun Covid 19 Booster Shots

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The scene at a public vaccination centre in Selangor. A Perak official says ‘trolls’ have caused people to avoid taking booster vaccinations.PETALING JAYA: The trend of ridiculing or trolling Covid-19 vaccine booster shots on social media is believed to be the cause of people not being too keen on getting them, according to a Perak executive councillor.
Mohd Akmal Kamarudin, who is responsible for health matters, said social media users had been “trolling” the booster dose, claiming that it was harmful to the body, despite it being administered based on several studies done by the health ministry.
“We hope those individuals will stop doing this so that we can help the government’s efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19,” he told reporters today, Bernama reported.
Akmal said only 42% or 711,000 adults in Perak have received their Covid-19 booster dose as at Jan 26.
Earlier today, the health ministry announced that everyone aged 18 and above could obtain walk-in Covid-19 booster shots at all public vaccination centres from tomorrow. Previously, walk-in booster shots were only available to those aged 60 and above.
Last October, the health ministry was instructed to lodge a report with the police and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission regarding the dissemination of fake news regarding Covid-19 and vaccination on Twitter.
Health minister Khairy Jamaluddin said he had instructed the ministry to take action against social media users who allegedly spread fake news.
In the same month, the police opened two investigation papers against individuals believed to be linked to anti-vaccine groups which shared false information regarding Covid-19 vaccination on social media.
One investigation involved a video where a woman linked the death of two students in Ipoh, Perak to their vaccination shots. - FMT

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