KUALA LUMPUR, May 30 – Lawyers representing the Malaysian Muslim Consumers Association filed a class action suit at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on May 23 on behalf of eight individuals over the Covid-19 vaccines.
The plaintiffs claim that they or their next of kin suffered health damage or died after being forced to take the vaccine with unproven safety and efficacy records. Others claimed they faced discrimination at work for refusing to be vaccinated, theSun reported.
The lawsuit filed by Messrs Mohamad Zainuddin and Co named 25 defendants, including Malaysia’s two former and current prime ministers, the federal government, former and current health and education ministers, past and present inspector generals of police, and the director-general of the World Health Organisation as well as vaccine manufacturers Pfizer Inc, Pfizer Malaysia Sdn Bhd and Sinovac Biotech Ltd (Beijing).
The statement of claim said the first plaintiff from Muar in Johor is the eldest son of the late Saifulbahri Mohamad, who died after receiving two doses of the Sinovac vaccine and a booster shot of the Pfizer vaccine, “which are unsafe, ineffective and toxic”.
The second plaintiff is the husband of the late Andu Satu, who died after receiving two doses of the Pfizer vaccine, while the third plaintiff is a healthy grass keeping worker who was directed by his employer and the government to receive two doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
The third plaintiff suffered a stroke, resulting in speech impairment and the inability to walk normally, requiring the use of a cane due to adverse effects following vaccination.
The fourth plaintiff is a healthy masseuse who experienced chronic vomiting, severe headaches and body pain with tremors after receiving the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on Sept 1, 2021.
She is now confined to a wheelchair.
The fifth plaintiff is a healthy housewife who received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on Aug 13, 2021, after which she experienced persistent headaches and vomiting that continued for two weeks.
Upon being injected with the second dose of the same vaccine on Sept 3, she developed itching, body pain, sores and blisters.
She was later told the vaccine was unsuitable for her and she suffers ongoing body and chest pain, and vision impairment in her right eye.
The sixth plaintiff is an Amanah Saham Nasional Berhad (ASNB) employee.
She claims that former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin said on Oct 16, 2021 that a law would be mandated for the private sector, requiring companies to have regulations and/or policies that all employees must be fully vaccinated to work.
It is alleged in the statement of claim that Khairy had said he would “make things difficult” for those who refused the vaccine.
When the plaintiff refused to take the vaccine, which became the new policy, she was instructed by her employer and its subsidiary company to use up all her annual leave, and then take unpaid leave or resign voluntarily.
Hence, she claims discrimination.
The seventh plaintiff is a ladies’ department supervisor at Parkson Mahkota Parade in Malacca, who refused the (unnamed) vaccine and was barred from work for non-compliance with company policy requiring employees to take two doses before Aug 22, 2021.
She too was allegedly forced to take unpaid leave until vaccinated and claims discrimination.
The eighth plaintiff represented his mother, Ng Hoe Peng @ Ng Swee Chun, who complied with the government campaign and received the first dose of the Sinovac vaccine on June 14, 2022.
Ng developed severe health issues and tested positive for Covid-19, which worsened her condition.
She was hospitalised and experienced side effects, including hyper inflammation, fatal respiratory failure and hypo-immunity.
Ng was administered morphine and died on July 16 the same year.
Lawyer Mohamad Zainuddin Abu Bakar from the law firm told theSun that all the plaintiffs mentioned in the suit represent the public, who can be added to the suit instead of having hundreds of individual ones filed.
“They are the pioneering ones. More than 400 other plaintiffs from the association can be added to this class action suit under different categories as we have stated in the statement of claim,” he said.
