KUALA LUMPUR: Despite the excitement generated by the possibility of a new Covid-19 vaccine, experts have cautioned that the pandemic, as well as the 'new norms', will still be around for more than a year.
Epidemiologist Datuk Dr Awang Bulgiba said the vaccine's efficacy and safety is still not a certainty.
"I don't think the pandemic will end within the year (2020). It will likely last until the end of next year as we are still trying to solve the problem.
"We cannot just provide an unverified vaccine to patients as it would then cause other problems," he said during a Bicara BH Facebook live session on Covid-19 yesterday.
The Universiti Malaya professor also expressed concern over the possibility of a spike in cases over the next few weeks despite the mitigation and containment efforts taken.
He said the next few weeks would likely see consistent triple digit new cases and as such, is hoping that the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) currently enforced in several states would arrest the surge.
Dr Awang suggested that the government improve its implementation of the CMCMO by conducting a behavioural study on the adherence to standard operating procedures.
He said there is a real danger of 'SOP fatigue' as the rules have been imposed for sometime now.
"If this happens, SOP compliance will become lower. This is after all human nature."
He noted that such a study would boost the authorities' understanding of the issue as well as help the government tweak its strategies to enable the SOPs to become the 'new norm'.
On the Health Ministry's discovery of the D614G mutation, Dr Awang said that the mutation, which health authorities believe could have come from the Philippines or Indonesia, could reproduce easily.
'This is worrying as many new clusters now are from Sabah now, especially since Sept 23.
"This is also why the new norm is important. In fact, this is actually our 'vaccine'."