Health Hoaxes Are More Dangerous When The Government Gets To Produce Them: The Other Side Of Lois' Case

Photo illustration (Source: Antara)

JAKARTA - The police have decided not to arrest Doctor Lois Owien for the alleged case of spreading fake news or hoaxes about COVID-19. However, the legal process continues. Police called Lois's narratives dangerous. Is it true? Why are health hoaxes dangerous?

Although not detained Lois status is still a suspect. The police decided not to arrest Lois because they were considered cooperative. The assessment was delivered directly by the Director of Cybercrime, Bareskrim Polri Brigadier General Slamet Uliandi.

"The person concerned has agreed not to run away. Therefore, I decided not to detain the person concerned, this is also in accordance with the concept of the National Police towards a just Precision."

In this case Lois Owien is accused of Article 28 paragraph (2) in conjunction with Article 45A paragraph (2) of Law Number 19 of 2016 concerning Amendments to Law Number 11 of 2008 concerning Information and Electronic Transactions and/or Article 14 paragraph (1) Law Number 1 of 1946 and/or Article 14 paragraph (2) of Law Number 1 of 1946 and/or Article 14 paragraph (1) and Law Number 4 of 1984 and/or Article 15 of Law Number 1 of 1946 regarding the Criminal Law Regulations.

Lois' statement which is called a hoax

One of Lois' most widespread statements was about the cause of death of COVID-19 patients. According to Lois, instead of being caused by a virus, the victims died because of over-administration of drugs.

"The post is that the victims who have died from COVID-19 are not due to COVID-19, but are caused by interactions between drugs and the administration of six drugs," said Head of the Public Relations Division of the National Police Public Relations Division, Kombes Ahmad Ramadhan, to reporters on Monday, July 12.

The statement was uploaded by Lois on various social media, namely Instagram and Twitter. And according to the police, Lois admitted that the statement he made was not based on solid research.

"All suspected opinions related to COVID, he admits are personal opinions that are not based on research," said the Director of Cybercrime at the National Police, Brigadier General Slamet Uliandi in his statement, Tuesday, July 13.

In fact, according to Slamet, Lois deliberately built an opinion about the COVID-19 outbreak even though she knew that she could not be held accountable for her opinion. "There are assumptions that he builds, such as death due to COVID due to drug interactions used in treating patients."

Lois Owien (Source: Special)

The statement not only caused controversy. Police said Lois interfered with the government's program to contain the disease outbreak. Meanwhile, the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) asked Lois to clarify.

"An Indonesian doctor, as a citizen in a democratic country, can have views on medical science. However, he should only convey scientific views and views on medical practice in a suitable and appropriate forum for that. Namely in a limited forum, namely the medical and health forum. and not in public forums irresponsibly," said IDI in a statement.

IDI also claimed to have monitored a number of Lois' social media. According to IDI, there are many activities on Lois' social media accounts that are not in line with the oath of Indonesian doctors. According to IDI, all of Lois' statements can harm the public interest.

"Given that the public interest during this pandemic becomes very important, it is recommended to the authorized or interested parties, including family, friends, and relatives to take preventive steps. Because remembering what Dr. Lois did could harm the public interest so that the potential for dimension of violation of law," was written in a statement signed by the General Chair, Dr. Daeng Faqih, SH. MH.

Health hoaxes and their dangers

Chairman of the Presidium of the Indonesian Anti-Defamation Society (Mafindo) explained that health hoaxes are one of the most dangerous types of disinformation today. In addition to being the most fertile, health hoaxes also have a major impact on people's behavior in dealing with pandemic health crisis situations.

Since the pandemic began in early January 2020, the circulation of health hoaxes has continued to increase. Mafindo data in 2020 recorded that the distribution of health hoaxes reached 37 percent of the total 2298 hoaxes found. Before 2020, most hoaxes were often dominated by political hoaxes.

"And health hoaxes during this pandemic are very dangerous hoaxes because they can harm many people by being able to make people make wrong decisions in critical situations," Aji told VOI, Tuesday, July 13.

Photo illustration (Source: Antara)

Mafindo also noted that there were more than a thousand hoaxes related to COVID-19. Aji also explained a number of 'trigger words' or 'trigerring words' to see what narratives are most often used in the distribution of health hoaxes during this pandemic.

"How many trigger words are there. This means that if there is a COVID hoax with this narrative, it will usually go viral very quickly. One of them is hospitals and health workers, they are doing business for this pandemic," said Aji.

In addition there are also "narratives that say the person who died was not COVID-19 but drugs in hospitals, such as azythromicin."

"That's what makes people afraid to go to the hospital. Some even died because the hospital was too late to be treated because previously they were consumed by hoaxes so they didn't want to be taken to the hospital immediately," said Aji.

Hoax from the authorities

Former Minister of Health Terawan (Irfan Meidianto/VOI)

Furthermore, Aji highlighted the authorization in the hoax. This means that a hoax will have a greater impact when it is submitted by an authority, in this case the government. This is also crucial to understand. We know how many state officials have contributed to spreading hoaxes, especially at the beginning of the pandemic.

We know how the former Minister of Health (Menkes) Terawan Agus Putranto challenged Harvard University who predicted the presence of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia. For months the Indonesian government denied the presence of COVID-19 in Indonesia.

All the ridiculous attitude shown by Indonesian officials. We recorded this in the BERNAS article entitled Recording History on Indonesia's Response to COVID. "The chaos of people's behavior in a pandemic is very likely to be closely correlated with circulating hoaxes," said Aji.

In the following days there was a eucalyptus necklace touted by the Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Syahrul Yasin Limpo as an antidote to the corona virus. The urgency of health hoaxes in Indonesia is more worrying because it is also produced by the government.

"Because our society is a hierarchical society, a hoax statement that comes out of a community leader, religious leader, official is certainly not the same as leaving the ordinary community because the impact will be greater," Aji said.

"If we look at the problem of the COVID-19 hoax, then we must look at it comprehensively. It is not biased. The problem is the combination of confusing government public communications, especially at the beginning of the pandemic."

"Added by the polarization of society which is divided between the pro-science camp and the denial camp. The level of public literacy, both digital literacy and health literacy, is not good," he concluded.

*Read other information about COVID-19 or read other interesting articles from Diah Ayu Wardani, Ramdan Febrian, Rizky Adytia Pramana, Wardhany Tsa Tsia, and Yudhistira Mahabharata.

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