By: Ade Firmansyah)*
Many experts state that it is undeniable that booster vaccines will be very effective in preventing fatal impacts if someone is infected with Covid-19. Of course, this is very important to do because recently the cases of Covid-19 have also increased again.
The Covid-19 pandemic is indeed still not over completely, this is evident from until now the status of the pandemic has not been officially revoked by the World Health Organization (WHO), besides that it can still be found even in other countries even though cases of Covid-19 have turned out to be spread again to make them immediately take action whether it’s a lockdown or other activity restrictions.
This incident also happened in Indonesia. Even though it was very sloping, recently it turned out that Covid-19 cases had shown an increase, especially when new subvariants from Omicron were discovered, namely BA.4 and BA.5, although they were not as severe as in the case of the previous Delta variant when viewed from the symptoms and also the impact of the risk. however it is by no means to be taken lightly.
Especially if it turns out that the people who are affected are those who have a high risk such as children, the elderly or people who have previous comorbidities so that the symptoms can become more severe. In this regard, the government continues to intensify socialization regarding health protocols and the most important thing is to continue to prioritize the provision of vaccinations evenly throughout the country.
This is because if a person has been fully vaccinated, let alone has done a booster, then after all if he turns out to be infected with Covid-19, then the symptoms will not become severe and the impact will not be fatal so that the rate of hospitalizations can be greatly suppressed, especially The possibility of people dying from Covid-19 can also be reduced.
Besides it has been medically proven that by carrying out a booster vaccine, it will be able to prevent various fatal impacts from the outbreak of Covid-19, in fact if viewed from another perspective, even by doing a booster as soon as possible, community activities will be much easier because of the regulations that have been set. by the Government, especially from the Instruction of the Minister of Home Affairs (Mendagri) regarding the mandatory requirement for a booster if you want to visit certain places.
A simple example is when they want to enter a mall or other shopping center, then of course all visitors are asked to do a scan or screening through the Peduli Protect application and show or ensure that they have had a booster vaccine or not. If they haven’t, automatically the information contained is yellow, red or even black if they haven’t had the Covid-19 vaccine at all and it won’t be possible to be allowed to enter the mall.
Of course, if this happens, it will be very difficult for people’s daily activities and productivity if they still do not immediately carry out booster vaccines. Therefore, Budi Gunadi Sadikin as the Minister of Health (Menkes) of the Republic of Indonesia again reminded all people who might not have done the booster vaccine to immediately visit the vaccine outlet or the nearest health facility.
Even Minister of Health Budi also emphasized that if there are still people who have not received a booster vaccine, then the possibility of them being admitted to the hospital if infected with COVID-19 is 30 times compared to those who have been vaccinated. Therefore, he continues to appeal to the entire community not to hesitate and worry anymore and immediately carry out a booster vaccine, especially since this has become a priority program from the Government in the context of immediately eradicating the COVID-19 pandemic in the country so that vaccines are provided everywhere for free, aka absolutely free of charge.
On the other hand, Dicky Budiman as an Epidemiologist also gave a similar statement that indeed the third dose or booster vaccine is a very important thing to do because the potential for decreasing antibodies against BA.5, BA.4 to BA.2.75 will again protected with much more maximum if someone does a booster vaccine, moreover, its effectiveness in preventing severity to death is also very high.
It should be noted that the data shows that as of July 26, 2022, the total number of Indonesians who had received the Covid-19 vaccine doses 1 and 2 reached 169.8 million people or about 81.5 percent of the Government’s total target, which is 208 million people. . Meanwhile, only 54 million people have received booster vaccines, or only about 26.8 percent of the total target. So to really