PETALING JAYA: In the face of potential health threats or pandemics akin to Covid-19, it is important for academic institutions, regulatory bodies and industry leaders to provide space for open dialogue and communication.
This would enable effective collaboration and proactive measures to combat and mitigate the impact of such crises.
This view was shared by Professor Tess Lambe, the principal investigator overseeing the Oxford-Astrazeneca Covid-19 vaccine programme, during a special lecture at the TJ Danaraj Auditorium, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya here, today.
Sultan of Perak Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah officiated at the event.
Lambe, speaking to reporters after delivering her lecture entitled "Lessons learnt from Covid-19", said her team of experts were able to develop the vaccine in just over one year because of the great partnership she received both nationally and internationally.
"I think it's a fair question (asked by many), 'If you can do it so quickly, why are you not continuing to do it so quickly?' - and the reason that we could do it so quickly was that we worked in partnership with a lot of other people who enabled that.
"We had very open conversations with the government, regulatory bodies and WHO (World Health Organisation), and in that way we were able to push in the right direction.
"I think when the walls go back up in normal non-war times, it's harder to have those types of conversations and relationships," she said, adding that she was in partnership with scientists in Brazil, South Africa and other parts of Africa during the second to third phase of the vaccination clinical trials.
Lambe said in 2020 alone, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine saved more lives than any other vaccine in the world, at over six million.
"What we are very proud of is that we were supporting global equitable access. The AstraZeneca team did a fabulous job getting approvals and emergency authorisation in over 100 countries.
"More than three billion doses were released to supply and, most importantly for me and the team because we design vaccines of importance for all low- and middle-income countries, two thirds of the doses went to such countries."
Malaysia rolled out the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine on May 5, 2021.
Last year, more than 9.2 million doses of the vaccine were delivered in support of Malaysia's vaccination programme, through direct supply, the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax) and donations from other countries
Lambe said funding has always been a bone of contention and there is a need for sustainable investments within the country to build a strong science and medical research base that, hopefully, would generate impactful outcomes.
Moving forward, she said everyone should invest in the younger generation, from kindergarten level, so that the world would have better ways to confront the next pandemic through inquisitive minds.
Universiti Malaya Faculty of Medicine dean Professor Dr April Camilla Roslani concurred with Lambe and added open dialogue, however, could be difficult if the goals of any parties were not aligned.
"What helps to open hearts and minds is when there is a perceived threat to the whole country or world, which would get people talking and breaking all these man-made barriers.
"The institutional or administrative sort of roadblocks would melt away because we're chasing after time to actually save human lives. Unfortunately, as protesters allude to, once things settle down those barriers spring back into life," she said.