Labor Calls Paid Vaccination A Form Of Extortion To The People, Kimia Farma Postpones Its Implementation

Illustration. (Photo: Pixabay)

JAKARTA - PT Kimia Farma (Persero) Tbk has decided to postpone the implementation of the paid mutual cooperation COVID-19 vaccine which was supposed to be held from today. This delay is in line with the emergence of polemics regarding the plan.

Kimia Farma Corporate Secretary Change Winarno Putro explained that the delay was due to the high interest and questions that came in.

"We apologize that the Individual Mutual Assistance Vaccination schedule, which originally started on Monday, July 12, 2021, will be postponed until further notice," he said when contacted by reporters, Monday, July 12.

Furthermore, he said that his party was delaying while socializing paid vaccines and arranging the registration of prospective vaccination participants.

"The amount of interest and the number of questions that came in made the management decide to extend the socialization period for individual mutual cooperation vaccinations and arrangements for registration of prospective participants," he said.

For your information, previously the government planned to start selling paid vaccines via Kimia Farma starting Monday, July 12. The program runs in tandem with the entrepreneur gotong royong program which has been criticized for being slow.

Meanwhile, Kimia Farma's paid vaccination is valued at Rp. 879,140 for two doses for individuals or individuals.

However, before the opening of the paid vaccine program, various criticisms came in. One of them was the Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions (KSPI).

Indonesian workers support the government's efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic by vaccinating. However, KSPI disputed the administration of the vaccine which was paid for by PT Kimia Farma Tbk.

KSPI President Said Iqbal said he was worried if Kimia Farma's paid vaccination plan would continue. He suspects that there will be commercialization that will only benefit certain parties.

"Every buying and selling transaction in the economic process has the potential to cause commercialization by producers who produce vaccines and the government as regulators, to consumers, in this case the people, including workers who receive vaccines," he said in a written statement received by VOI, Monday, July 12.

Meanwhile, Member of the House of Representatives Commission IX, Netty Prasetiyani, considered the policy as a way to profit from the people. He also admitted that this policy had not been discussed with the DPR.

"Vaccination to overcome non-natural disasters such as pandemics is the responsibility of the state for the safety of its people. Every individual must have equal and equitable access through free vaccination. So, the paid vaccine option is like an effort to make profits by extorting the people," said Netty.