By: Agung Hermawan
The government has increased the procurement of vaccines with high efficacy to anticipate the emergence of the Variant Mu Covid-19 Virus. The public is also asked not to worry because the government is optimal in tackling these threats.
One way to mitigate and reduce the transmission of the Mu variant of the Covid-19 Virus, what the government will do is immediately achieve herd immunity or group immunity and procure vaccines with high efficacy.
Deputy for Human Development, Society and Culture of Bappenas Subandi explained that the vaccines in Indonesia are diverse and have diverse efficacy. With the new variant of the corona virus or Covid-19, Subandi said, the average vaccine efficacy is reduced. However, in order to reduce the severity of transmission and to reduce hospital occupancy rates, current vaccines must be exhausted.
Subandi said that currently Indonesia is lucky because it has vaccines with the highest efficacy, such as Johnson & Johnson, Moderna. Of course, in the future, efforts will be made to obtain vaccines that have high efficacy. Vaccinations with high efficacy against delta and new variants referred to by the government include Moderna, Pfizer, Janssen, AstraZeneca and other vaccines.
Spokesman for the Covid-19 Task Force, Prof. Wiku Adisasmito, said that the emergence of various new variants of the corona virus has the potential to reduce vaccine efficacy. However, the public is asked not to panic. On the occasion of a press conference via the Presidential Secretariat’s YouTube, Prof. Wiku said, although the efficacy has decreased, the public does not need to worry about the ability of the vaccine, especially for the five types of vaccines that have been used.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), vaccines that have efficacy or effectiveness above 50% are the standard for building immunity. Therefore, Prof. Wiku ensures that the current vaccine is still effective in reducing morbidity due to exposure to the virus.
So far, there are six types of vaccines used in the country, namely Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Moderna, Sinopharm, Pfizer, and vaccines produced by Bio Farma using Sinovac as the raw material. Prof. Wiku also said that the Mu variant of covid-19 had been found in South America and Europe. WHO is currently conducting special monitoring of the MU variant to investigate whether this variant is more infectious than the original Covid-19 variant. Of course, we hope that there will not be a third wave, by promoting vaccination and still adhering to health protocols.
Meanwhile, Indonesia has imported as many as 224,422,500 doses of COVID-19 vaccine, with details of 153,900,280 bulk or raw vaccines from Sinovac. Then 28 million vaccines were made from Sinovac, 19,515,540 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, 8,250,000 Sinopharm vaccines, 8,000,160 doses of Moderna vaccine and 2,756,520 doses of Pfizer vaccine.
The arrival of vaccines in Indonesia turned out to cause various troubling issues. Information, which is sometimes gray, seems to make people hesitate to take vaccinations. One of the news that had circulated was that the circulating vaccine was used for clinical trials. In fact, the vaccine is not for clinical trials and has obtained a permit for use from BPOM.
Keep in mind that vaccines are a preventative measure, not a cure. So, even though we will receive the Covid-19 vaccine, we still have to implement health protocols, such as washing hands, wearing masks and implementing physical distancing.
On September 5, 2021, the Ministry of Health noted that as many as 66,789,673 people had received a dose of the corona virus vaccine. Meanwhile, only 38,223,153 people have finished getting two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine in Indonesia.
Thus, the government’s vaccination target of a total target of 208,265,720 people only touched 32.07 percent of the vaccination target who received the first dose of injection. Meanwhile, the second dose of injection was only 18.35 percent.
The government has implemented various policies to prevent the transmission of the corona virus in the community and prevent the importation of cases that could worsen the situation nationally. These policies include the implementation of PPKM, optimization of posts and travel arrangements.
Vaccine stock security is the key to accelerating the handling of the covid-19 pandemic, the public needs to be aware of the presence of a new variant of the corona virus, alert does not mean panic, but by complying with health protocols and participating in vaccination programs that are provided free of charge.
(The author is a contributor to the Press Circle and Cikini Students)