PETALING JAYA: The falsification of Covid-19 vaccination certificates will not compromise the integrity of the country’s immunisation programme, say medical groups.
Malaysian Medical Association president Dr Koh Kar Chai said the incident would not shake the integrity of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) as it was a one-off case.
“But this serves as a reminder that all systems are not infallible and we should have proper safeguards in place.
“We won’t be able to know this but insisting on the digital certificate will help somewhat as the vaccine card can be easily reproduced,” he said when contacted.
While current safeguards put in place were good enough, he said irresponsible individuals would still be able to overcome them.
Medical Practitioners Coalition Association of Malaysia president Dr Raj Kumar Maharajah concurred.
“We just have to be more alert as now we know that things like these are happening on the ground.
“We have to take steps to overcome them,” he said.
Dr Raj Kumar said it was easy to know who was holding a fake vaccination certificate as all the certificates were printed from the national public health laboratory information system website.
“All the certificates have a unique QR code, so we know whether it is authentic or not.
“This is already a good security measure,” he said.
Dr Raj Kumar added that severe punishment must be meted out to prevent a similar incident, noting that for professionals such as doctors, this is a breach of the code of professional conduct, as well as medical ethics.
“For example, strict action should be taken against those who went for umrah and forged their vaccination certificates, to show the authorities are serious,” he said.
He also said punishment should be more severe than for the case of the nasi kandar restaurant owner who was jailed five months and fined RM12,000 after he pleaded guilty to defying a quarantine order under the recovery movement control order.
His action had resulted in one of the largest Covid-19 clusters to hit the country back in August 2020.
Public health medicine specialist and epidemiologist Datuk Dr Zainal Ariffin Omar said the discovery of the fake vaccination certificates had compromised the integrity of the country’s immunisation programme.
“It may also raise doubts among the public, causing them to doubt their own vaccination certificates,” he said, adding that the act of handing out falsified vaccination certificates was “despicable, shameful and endangered the public”.
Dr Zainal said that while he did not think the incident would have a big impact on vaccination coverage, it might pose a public health threat, especially to unvaccinated individuals.
“I urge the authorities to take prompt and definitive action, and work towards improvements for the current checking mechanism,” he said.
Zainal added that the public should continue to remain vigilant and abide by the set standard operating procedure.
Malaysia is not the only country dealing with fake Covid-19 vaccination certificates as other countries have also come up with fines and digital solutions.
In the Philippines, fines from PHP20,000 to PHP50,000 (RM1,638 to RM4,095) are meted out to those found falsifying, tampering or in possession of fake vaccination certificates, alongside the possibility of imprisonment between one to six months, or both.
In Singapore, the Health Ministry and the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office have developed various digital solutions to assist businesses in checking for valid vaccination certificates and detect fake displays.
In Australia, the authorities have started to reboot vaccine passports with flickering digital holograms and QR codes, along with other anti-counterfeit measures.