Page 28 - The Covid-19 Chronicles of Malaysia: Navigating the Storm

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The Deputy Director-General of Health

We have focused the past year
traversing this journey into the
unknown as we battle a nascent virus
that took the world by storm.

Evidence-based medicine was put to
test, as researchers strive to make
discoveries in many aspects, be it
characteristics of the virus, possible
treatment as well as non-
pharmaceutical interventions to
contain the pandemic.

We could not have achieved
successful containment of the
second wave of COVID-19 without
the commitment of every sector in
the nation, including the community.

A public health threat of this massive
scale has never hit us this hard We are revisiting plans for a National
before but I believe we are trying Vaccine Centre...It will of course take big
our best to give our utmost capital expenditure and a long gestation
dedication in carrying out our
responsibilities as we come together period, but it’s worth investing in the long-
as one to combat this pandemic. term to develop domestic human vaccine
expertise...This would enable us to be
The battle continues for all of us as involved in early phases of trials,
we gear up and soldier on to face a technology transfer and priority access to
common enemy.
effective vaccines.

- Datuk Dr. Hishamshah bin Mohd Ibrahim §