By: Oka Rizki )*
Indonesia itself is not a producer of COVID-19 vaccines, but in fact the handling and control of the pandemic implemented in the country is very satisfying, even the results are able to outperform other developed countries.
Data shows that of the 277 million people in Indonesia, it turns out that there are around 6 million people infected with COVID-19 until August 2022, with a total death of only 150 thousand cases. When compared with data from developed countries such as the United States, this number is very different because they have 322 million people with a total of 95 million people infected with COVID-19 and a fantastic death rate of 1 million.
Regarding this, the Indonesian delegation at the annual meeting of the International Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) gave a very big appreciation for the successful handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country because one of the strategies used so far is to approach it through digital and social communication. .
It is undeniable, with the proliferation of social media developments in today’s modern era, people are also very much accessing various kinds of information via the internet digitally. Of course this will be very profitable if it can be used properly, which includes providing a lot of understanding about the COVID-19 pandemic.
One of the delegates, Akhmad Firmannamal stated that indeed one of Indonesia’s successful achievements in controlling and handling the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be separated from the role of a number of government policies, as well as how to disseminate information through social media.
He continued that this achievement is the impact of the development of a literacy program policy entitled Makin Cakap Digital, which has held 17,414 activities throughout 2021, in order to provide digital literacy education so that people are not easily swayed by disinformation or misinformation, especially on social media which makes them unwilling to accept. do social distancing so they don’t want to be involved in vaccination programs, for example.
The reason is, in fact, with the ease with which people access various types of information on social media, it also poses a number of certain threats, namely when they will become very vulnerable to being consumed by hoax news that is completely untrue. Therefore, the government is here to be able to provide a lot of accurate information so that it becomes a guideline for the community, especially when facing the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the same occasion, another Indonesian delegation, Devie Rahmawati, also added that she greatly appreciated the success of controlling and handling the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. How not, according to him, even when Indonesia itself is not a country that produces COVID-19 vaccines, in fact controlling the rate of virus transmission can be very good and exceed other developed countries even though they are vaccine producers.
It means that the ranking of developed or developing countries is the same, including whether the country is a producer of virus vaccines does not guarantee that a country will have a better handling of the COVID-19 pandemic than other countries. Still, it takes government policies with the right approach to the community, including the compliance of the community itself to comply with health protocols and carry out full-dose vaccinations to create herd immunity.
Devie stated that in fact all successes in handling the COVID-19 pandemic were by no means immediately and instantaneously obtained. The reason is that when the initial period of the pandemic came, there were still a lot of news and hoax information circulating in the community so that they became less confident in the existence of COVID-19 and were not at all alert, including the vaccination program organized by the government was not welcomed. by the wider community even until finally the Delta variant attacked and peaked in Indonesia.
However, thanks to the government’s persistence in executing all of its policies on target and taking advantage of opportunities through news on social media, it has finally made the public slowly understand and raise their own awareness about how dangerous the COVID-19 pandemic is. Of course, the success of handling the pandemic is also the result of good collaboration with all relevant levels such as Ministries, Institutions, Civil Society Organizations, Communities, Campuses, Private, Media and grassroots communities.
It’s not just a good handling of the pandemic, but Indonesia is now also starting to move and show a very positive trend regarding economic recovery which can be proven from various economic indicators. In fact, not a few policies from the Indonesian government were finally implemented through the policies of other countries regarding the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular how to maintain the sustainability of life and also the livelihoods of the people. Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Airlangga Hartanto, emphasized that the government has indeed succeeded in handling COVID-19 and on the other hand continues to maintain the economic side of the community.
It is very important to continue to maintain coordination of all parties, from the government to the grassroots community. This is when it has been done and has found a common vision and mission, it is not impossible that the successful handling of the COVID-19 pandemic will occur very satisfactorily as in Indonesia, even though this nation is not a vaccine-producing country at all.
)* The author is a contributor to Persada Institute