By: Andy Setyo ) *
The government continues to take various ways to reduce the spread of Covid-19. From 2020, PSBB has been carried out twice. In addition, there is also a behavior change socialization program, so that people are aware of and still comply with health protocols. The goal is that they are self-disciplined to comply with health protocols.
The government is currently focusing on the Covid-19 vaccination program and the Enforcement of Restrictions on Community Activities (PPKM). In this program, the Government has also budgeted a special vaccination fund that has exceeded 74 trillion rupiah to vaccinate all Indonesian people in stages. However, the presence of hoaxes in the community can thwart this vaccination program. The government and society need to collaborate to fight hoaxes so that Indonesia can quickly get out of the pandemic.
In Indonesia, the anti-vaccine movement is strengthening based on belief. This condition certainly makes people uneasy and becomes a concern for people who easily believe, then participate in disseminating it without confirming the truth. In fact, the procurement, distribution and administration of these vaccines have been strictly regulated by the government. So, the Covid-19 vaccine is guaranteed safe to be given to the public.
Vaccination is a solution for people to protect themselves and their families to reduce the rate of transmission of the Covid-19 virus in Indonesia. If hoaxes are not handled seriously, of course it will make a number of parties worried and it will be even more difficult to end this pandemic because it will influence public opinion so that they do not want to receive the vaccination.
Recently, the government has been actively vaccinating the public. However, many hoax stories were found related to vaccination from irresponsible parties with the aim of attacking the government.
Many interest groups also take advantage of the national vaccination program as material for hoax news. They seemed to be competing to create turbidity in the calm, flowing clear water. Social media is supposed to be used as literacy media to convey good and informative news but nowadays it has been widely misused to spread hoax news.
The rapid development of technology through the internet should be used to access valid and referenced information, but this development is misused by irresponsible people as a means of spreading hatred, provocation, and hoaxes. Meanwhile, hoax news is news, information and important messages that have been engineered in such a way and spread in the media, especially on social media.
Regarding hoaxes, one of them is the suspicion that the AstraZeneva vaccine caused blood clots in some people. So that several countries have suspended the use of AstraZeneca vaccines, such as Thailand and Denmark. In fact, the Indonesian government through the BPOM and the Ministry of Health have ensured that the vaccines to be used in the community have gone through development stages and a series of rigorous tests, so that their quality, safety and effectiveness are guaranteed and meet international standards.
Therefore, the community is expected to support and make Covid-19 vaccination successful by preventing and fighting hoaxes related to vaccination through positive campaigns on social media. The campaign on social media is aimed at disseminating information that contains the benefits of the importance of Covid-19 vaccination, as well as warding off the hoax of Covid-19 vaccination that is widely spread among the public. Therefore, education related to vaccines must continue to be intensified so that the public is not consumed by hoaxes, so that the government’s efforts to suppress the spread of Covid-19 can be successful .
The people should appreciate the government’s efforts to deal with the spread of Covid-19 and avoid hoaxes that can cause counterproductive things, so accelerating the handling of Covid-19 is difficult to achieve. Now is the time with co hoaks and negative content related to policy kesehata protocol n .
*)The author is a contributor to the Cikini Press and Student Circle
