JAKARTA Social media was shocked by the plan for a clinical trial program for the tuberculosis vaccine or tuberculosis M72 TB. Netizens are worried that the Indonesian people will be used as rabbits for the vaccine trial.
News that Indonesia is one of the countries that will be tested for the TB vaccine emerged after President Prabowo Subianto received a visit from Microsoft founder and The Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta on May 7, 2025.
During the meeting, Prabowo and Gates discussed efforts to eradicate a number of infectious diseases, including polio, malaria, and tuberculosis.
And, Indonesia is a test site for a new tuberculosis vaccine or tuberculosis vaccine. This vaccine candidate is named M72. Through The Gates Foundation, Bill Gates funded the development of this TB vaccine. Apart from Indonesia, other countries that are also participating in clinical trials of this TB vaccine are South Africa, Kenya, Malawi, and Zambia.
However, the emergence of Bill Gates' name in the vaccine trial caused a polemic. People are worried that side effects may only be felt in the future, until Indonesia's potential becomes a guinea pig.
"How come, how come the Indo people want to be guinea pigs," wrote the account on X.
Other netizens even encouraged the government to test this vaccine first.
"My advice is that the President, Vice President, Minister, DPR, and all subordinates are vaccinated. Later, if it is safe, it will be new to the people of Indonesia," wrote another account.
Indonesia, along with other countries, uses the Bacllus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine, as part of a basic immunization program for TB prevention. The vaccine, which has been found since 1920, has proven effective in protecting children from the form of heavy tuberculosis. However, its effectiveness in adolescents and adults is very limited.
Chairman of the Honorary Council of the Indonesian Lung Doctors Association Tjandra Yoga Aditama said Indonesia and the world need a new TB vaccine, because the BCG vaccine is mainly only for children, preventing heavy TB deaths due to TB in children.
"So it is very appropriate to make a new vaccine which is much more effective," said Yoga.
Professor of Pulmonology at the University of Indonesia, Erlina Burhan, said that Indonesia needs this new vaccine as a form of prevention to reduce the number of cases.
Please note, Indonesia is the country with the second highest number of TB cases in the world after India. Therefore, Indonesia faces a big challenge in controlling this epidemic.
In 2025 Global TB Report recorded 1.09 million active cases and 134,000 deaths from TB each year. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health's records in March 2025 stated that at least 889,000 people were affected by tuberculosis.
The death rate from TB reached 14 people per hour. Based on data from the Ministry of Health, the distribution of cases reflects a gender-based and age-group gap, with 496 thousand cases in men, 359 thousand women, and 135 thousand children.
The success of treating TBC drug resistance (TBRO) in Indonesia is also still far from the global target of the World Health Organization (WHO) of 80 percent.
Data in 2022 shows the success rate of TBRO treatment only reached 51 percent, lower than the previous claim of 58 percent. The drug-sensitive TBC (TBC SO) treatment program is relatively more successful, with a success rate of 85 percent by 2022, approaching the WHO target of 90 percent.
Regarding netizens' concerns about Bill Gates' new TB vaccine, dr. Arifianto, Sp.A confirmed that there was no difference regarding the clinical trial of the TBC vaccine sponsored by Bill Gates, the clinical trials of the COVID vaccine that had passed, pneumokokus vaccines, cervical cancer, and all other vaccines, as well as clinical trials of all drugs. That's the standard.
"Vaccine clinical trials are mediocre. Nothing special or worrying," said the man who is familiarly called the Apin doctor, on his Instagram account.
This vaccine is called M72/AS01E. We shorten it to the M72 vaccine. The goal is to become an effective vaccine to prevent people from becoming sick with TB. The information is very transparent. It's easy for us to get on the internet," he added.
Doctor Apin also explained that every clinical trial, both drugs and vaccines, goes through three stages or phases before it is declared appropriate to be given to the wider community.
The clinical trial (clinical trial) is gradual. If the previous phases were declared not to have passed, then they would not have entered the next phase. The clinical trial of the M72 vaccine in Indonesia is currently phase three," explained dr. Apin.
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This means that they have passed phases 1 and 2. It has been declared safe and provides sufficient immunity in phases 1 and 2, when tested on a number of thousands of research subjects," he continued.
Meanwhile, Tjandra Yoga Aditama said that there should have been three parties who were open so that the vaccine clinical trial program was accepted by the public.
"One, explained by the government what really happened. Second, it was also explained by the parties conducting the research," said Yoga.
"Hospitals or universities please explain what happened," he continued.
Yoga said that other parties who need to be open to the public are experts who understand the context of clinical trials of vaccines.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
