KLANG, Jan 16 — There has been no proven public health approach that one should be infected with the COVID-19 Omicron variant to help build herd immunity, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said.
He said such an approach has not even been proven valid.
“It doesn’t matter what sort of variant. Omicron, Delta, Alpha and Beta, don’t go voluntarily looking to get infected as firstly, we do not know what are its effects.
“Second, we do not know the effects of ‘Long COVID’. Today, we might say Omicron is milder than Delta and therefore why don’t we all get infected with Omicron to achieve herd immunity and so on. (But) this is not proven. We know Omicron is milder but that doesn’t mean you should (voluntarily) get it,” he said.
Khairy instead advised the people to ensure they get their COVID-19 booster shots.
He was commenting on recent reports, quoting South African virologists, that the Omicron variant can help build herd immunity in societies due to its high transmissibility.
