Minister Of Health Terawan Underestimates Corona Virus In Today's Memory, January 27, 2020

Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto announced the first corona patient in Indonesia on March 2, 2020. (Between/Sigid Kurniawan)

JAKARTA Memories of today, four years ago, January 27, 2020, Minister of Health (Menkes), Terawan Agus Putranto underestimated the corona virus (COVID-19). Terawan thinks that the transmission of the corona virus is not as big as that of the world. The Indonesian people are asked not to panic.

Previously, the corona virus was detected for the first time in Wuhan City. The transmission was fast. The world situation initially refused to panic. Some of them actually underestimated the dangers of the virus from Wuhan. Anticipation of the incoming corona virus was not carried out.

The excitement hit the whole of Wuhan, China at the end of December 2019. News related to the new type of acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus became the estuary. News of the spread brings panic throughout China, then the world.

Hazardous coronavirus outlets fill news pages everywhere. New problems arise. The virus, which was later known as COVID-19, was detected as starting to spread outside China. Asian countries such as South Korea (South Korea) and Singapore are starting to get unlucky.

However, not all countries immediately fortify themselves to take anticipatory steps. Some countries in the world actually underestimate the corona virus. Some think that the corona virus only causes ordinary flu. There are also those who think that corona is a Chinese trick.

Another assumption is that the corona virus will not be contagious in Muslim-majority countries. This assumption arises because the corona is considered a punishment because the Chinese government has wronged the Uighur Muslim group. In fact, the corona virus does not recognize religion.

The problem is, the corona virus does not look at religion. Wuhan residents are not only adherents of Tao or atheist-communist, there is an official note about Muslim Hui Wuhan who died due to the corona outbreak. The Muslim population of Hui Wuhan alone is almost two percent of the total population of 11 million, they have four main mosques in Wuhan.

When the corona virus spreads globally, it is clear that the corona virus does not care about religion. Many Muslim-based citizens such as Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt, Turkey and beyond are also affected. Previously, several Islamic-oriented online media spread the fake news (fake) of Turkey as a Corona virus-free country, "explained Azumardi Azra in the bookRagam Perspective Impact of COVID-19 (2021).

The lack of concern for the corona virus was initially not only shown by the superpower of the United States (US) under the control of Donald Trump. Indonesia, which in fact is a Muslim-majority country, also underestimates it.

The narrative was even made directly by Minister of Health Terawan on January 27, 2020, or a few days after the city of Wuhan was in a regional quarantine (lockdown). Terawan said that the corona virus was not as excited by the media. The transmission rate is actually small and there is nothing to be afraid of.

The Indonesian people were asked not to panic. The attempt to underestimate it spread to other state officials. Many of the officials who have underestimated the corona virus. In fact, some joked that the corona virus would not be able to enter Indonesia because of convoluted licensing. As a result, the government argued against the transmission of the corona virus.

On January 27, the Minister of Health, Terawan gave a statement at the Ministry of Transportation's Office. Of the 1.4 billion population there, at least two thousand (who were affected by the Corona virus). Two thousand out of 1.4 billion are like what."

"Therefore, don't panic, don't worry. Just enjoy, eat enough, On the same day, the President expressed his optimism that the virus was not detected in Indonesia. Unfortunately, the statement was not accompanied by serious efforts to carry out the test," said Wijayanto and Didik J. Rachbini in the book Democracy in the Digital Era (2021).