Vaccination is not an excuse for loosening social distancing

Throughout almost a year, the country has been battling with COVID-19 and we finally came to a phase where vaccines are already produced and tested. The vaccination step hopefully will minimize the increasing number of infected cases across the country. Corona vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech has received Halal certification from MUI and BPOM’s EUA, make it to be approved in Indonesia. The first stage of vaccination has been set from 13 January, where the President, Joko Widodo as the first person to be injected with Sinovac vaccine.

However, with the promising result coming from Sinovac vaccine, 78% efficacy tested in Brazil, 91% in Turkey, citizens shouldn’t neglect the urgency of applying health protocol as if the vaccine could be a defense of human body from the disease. Furthermore the Sinovac vaccine that Indonesia bought has 65% efficacy which means from 100 people vaccinated, there are still 35 people would likely to get infected. The government instead should be more cautious that even large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) has been applied for several times, the increasing numbers of cases still happen. When the vaccination program begins it is important to have an extra look at the society behaviors afterward.

Raffi Ahmad as one of the representations from millennial community and influencers to get the first jab of Sinovac vaccine along with Joko Widodo 2 days ago was caught for disregarding the health protocol few hours after vaccination. The behavior shows that even after getting a step of prevention from the virus, the self awareness toward the spread of the virus is still ruled out. As an influencer whose actions easily are followed by the society, furthermore within the low acknowledgment of each individual’s toward the still-haunting virus, this action should become a reflection that no matter how many people get vaccinated, their self acknowledgment is important too.

Vaccination is not merely about efficacy because it is influenced by the number of subjects studied and the subject profile there is a probability that it can drop into few percentages. So even in different countries, it is not an oddity if each of them has different level of efficacy. The fact that Indonesia has lower percentage than in Brazil and Turkey in phase three clinical trials, it is because the diversity of subjects studied. There are many differences between the three countries.

Indonesia has just begun its vaccination program to combat disease transmission caused by virus. However when it’s finally come to bigger circle or society, the further socialization needs to be done to prevent the loosened people’s awareness toward the disease because of the injected vaccine. In the end the main goal of the program that has been desired from everyone could be managed effectively.

Nisa Ulfatimah

B0318026