COVID-19 Spokesperson Denied Children's Vaccine Causes Stroke: False News Or Hoaks

JAKARTA - Government Spokesperson for COVID-19, Dr. Reisa Broto Asmoro, emphasized that the news that said vaccines could cause stroke was false and untrue information or a hoax.

"The Ministry of Communication and Informatics has clarified the information and it is indeed false news or a hoax. There is no link between stroke and childhood vaccines," said Reisa in Jakarta, quoted by Antara, Monday, November 8.

Previously, information circulated in the form of screenshots from social media accounts abroad that explained that stroke in children was a side effect of vaccination. Reisa ensured that even though the screenshot explained the information using English, the information was certainly not true.

Reisa reminded the public to be critical in receiving information about COVID-19 that is spread on social media, especially from untrustworthy sources of unofficial information.

"We have to anticipate that the news we get is valid or not, true or not," said Reisa.

He directed the public to check the covid19.go.id or kominfo.go.id page to find out the truth of the information regarding the corona virus. Reisa also invited parents not to hesitate to vaccinate their children with COVID-19 as an effort to protect themselves from the corona virus. He said the Indonesian Food and Drug Administration (BPOM) had issued an emergency use permit for the Sinovac vaccine for children aged 6 to 11 years, as well as children aged 11 to 17 years.

On a different occasion, Spokesperson for the COVID-19 Vaccination of the Ministry of Health, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said the government plans to work with schools to vaccinate children aged 6 to 11 years.

"Possibly for children aged 6-11 years, these are school children, we will cooperate with each school. We know that there is a 'child immunization month' in schools every year, so we will use this mechanism later,” said Nadia.