On July 18, a post on Facebook where a Malaysian man in Kuala Lumpur claimed to have been given an empty vaccination jab went viral.

The man, Tan Wing Sam, was scheduled to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on July 17.

Jabbed with an empty syringe

He initially asked the nurse if he was allowed to record the vaccination process, and was declined.

Before his jab, Tan noticed that there was an empty syringe on a tray, where the plunger had been "pushed to the end".

As such, he expected the nurse to withdraw the vaccine from a vial. The nurse then proceeded to apply alcohol at the intended point of injection on his arm.

However, as Tan watched on, the nurse supposedly did not fill the syringe with the vaccine, and instead used the "empty syringe" to jab his arm.

After two seconds, allegedly without any motion of pushing the plunger, the nurse simply pulled out the syringe and told him to proceed to the next section, telling him his procedure was done.

Nurse offered to give him a 2nd shot

Tan then confronted the nurse on whether the jab was "done properly", to which the nurse replied that "Should be ada lah, if you nak I bagi satu lagi?" This meant, "It should be done, if you want, I can give you another jab".

Tan was taken aback by how the nurse could just offer him another jab, if in her words, the first jab was injected properly.

Thereafter, the nurse took a new syringe, filled it with the vaccine from the vial, and gave Tan the jab. Tan then asked the nurse again if the first jab was in fact done properly.

To quote Tan's post, the nurse replied, "should have lah, but you say no so I gave you second one". 

Concern over vaccination process

After the two jabs, Tan asked the personnel at the next section if there have been any cases where a person was "jabbed twice in one go". The personnel was shocked by Tan's statement and alerted the supervisor about the situation.

The supervisor then took Tan back to the booth to confront the nurse in question, in which she supposedly "admitted what she did and apologised".

Tan also uploaded a voice recording of the supervisor reassuring him that he was indeed given the vaccine "the second time".

However, Tan said he was concerned about what could have happened, had he not been watching the process.

He further urged people to be more observant of the vaccination process, and voice out any wrongdoings.

In an update on 19 July, Tan uploaded a copy of the police report he lodged. You can see his post below.

Another incident

In a separate incident, a Klang resident named Simon Ng was also given an "empty shot", on July 6.

Ng claimed that the medical personnel told him not to look at his arm during the vaccination process, although he managed to record the process on his phone.

He confronted the medical personnel and was offered a "second jab" on the condition that he delete the video and not take any recordings of the second jab.

Ng subsequently made a police report with the original video on his mobile phone.

Health Minister says will offer new appointments

As per Berita Harian, the individuals involved in the "empty syringe" cases will receive new appointments to be administered their Covid-19 vaccine, Health Minister Adham Baba pledged.

Meanwhile, the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) stated that they are working with the police and the military in investigating allegations of wrongdoings during the vaccination process.

The CITF also stated that they will not hesitate to take action against individuals who are found guilty in the investigations.

Disciplinary actions have since been taken against a healthcare worker in a drive through vaccination in Kedah, with "issues related to how she had administered the jab", according to Free Malaysia Today.

Top image via Sam Moqadam/Unsplash & Tan Wing Sam/Facebook