By: Deka Prawira)*
Fake news about the Covid-19 vaccine creates public fear of being vaccinated, thus preventing the realization of collective immunity. The public is asked to be aware of the spread of Corona vaccine hoaxes and always seek information from trusted sources.
National vaccination has started in Indonesia since March 2021. The government continues to encourage this program so that all people have been injected with vaccines, so that Indonesia is free from pandemic status because group immunity has been formed. But unfortunately vaccination is hindered by misleading hoaxes.
The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology reports the findings of hoaxes about the Corona vaccine. The most widely found hoaxes were on Facebook, which was more than 2,000 pieces. It’s a shame that not only on Facebook, but also on Twitter, Youtube, and Tiktok, there are also hoaxes about the Corona vaccine. In fact, these social media are often accessed by the people of Indonesia, especially the younger generation.
The craze for hoaxes on social media is still coupled with fake news about the covid vaccine in the WA group. The easy way to share information on the chat application actually backfired because it could spread hoaxes about the Corona vaccine. Sadly, the ones with the most hoaxes are family WA groups, due to limited knowledge or the type of members who share frequently.
One of the hoaxes about the Corona vaccine is the news that this vaccine contains a chip. Even though it is clear that vaccines contain liquid and cannot be infiltrated by solid objects such as chips. Meanwhile, the next hoax is that the vaccine is rumored to contain dangerous substances, even though many people have been injected and are in good health.
The spread of hoaxes is very annoying because it can make a lot of victims. When there is one person who is eaten by a hoax, he can spread it and eventually more and more people are affected and flock to anti-vaccine. Whereas when there are anti-vaccine groups like this, it can thwart the formation of group immunity and eventually the pandemic will end at some point.
Therefore, we must ward off hoaxes about the Corona vaccine so that no one becomes the next victim. The reason is, the spread of vaccines (especially on social media) is too fast so it must be eradicated. Don’t let a line of two lines of hoax can harm a lot of people, because they don’t want to be vaccinated and eventually die when they get Corona.
The easiest way to prevent hoaxes is to report accounts that often share fake news about the Corona vaccine to Facebook or Twitter, so that these accounts can be frozen, because they are caught spreading hoaxes. The social media manager also doesn’t like it when hoaxes are spread because it can tarnish their good name.
Another way is to report it to the cyber police, so that action can be taken on who is the mastermind behind the social media accounts that spread hoaxes. He could face a sentence of 2 years and 9 months, in accordance with Article 390 of the Criminal Code. Hoax spreaders should be punished severely because their actions harm other people, even threaten the lives of many people, because they fail to get protection from vaccines.
The spread of hoaxes must be eradicated because it is very dangerous. It is true that at first glance fake news or photos about the Corona vaccine are only pictures or a few ordinary paragraphs. However, the effect is dangerous because it causes many people to refuse to be vaccinated and as a result, herd immunity fails to form.
The public must be aware of the spread of hoaxes about the Corona vaccine that are widely occurring in cyberspace. Remember to filter before sharing, so you don’t get caught and end up spreading fake news.
)* The author is a contributor to Pertiwi Institute