Hadi Pranoto Claims To Find Herbal Medicines For COVID-19 Antibodies, Epidemiologist: Such Infodemics Are Dangerous

Illustration of hoax news (memyselfaneye / pixabay)

JAKARTA - Epidemiologist from Australia's Griffith University, Dicky Budiman spoke about the claims of Hadi Pranoto's COVID-19 herbal medicine. According to him, the claims made by Hadi Pranoto are an example of an infodemic and this is dangerous for people who are currently fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

"All claims that are not based on scientific studies are included in the infodemic category. And this is dangerous because it will affect some people who do not have critical reasoning power. That's why WHO calls infodemics the second enemy apart from viruses," said Dicky to VOI, Monday, 3 August.

Infodemics in the community, continued Dicky, will make prevention programs or efforts to control COVID-19 in a country or in the world become ineffective. So, the claim made by Hadi Pranoto, he considered, must be challenged by the government together with experts.

"Because the success of the COVID-19 pandemic control program also depends on an appropriate and effective risk communication strategy. Among other things, straightening out any unfounded news in the community," he said.

Furthermore, he emphasized that the community must be continuously given education. The goal is that they are not easily influenced by all kinds of infodemics in the form of hoaxes and claims of this kind.

Moreover, Dicky explained that conveying scientific facts, especially regarding COVID-19, which is classified as a new disease and not widely known, is not enough to just use a press conference without scientific basis. Because, any claim or claim against a disease affecting the human population must have a scientific method.

Furthermore, every scientific method must be published in a trusted scientific journal. There are several trusted scientific journals, one of which is the Journal of the American Medical Associaton (JAMA).

"So if it is published in a journal, it means that it has gone through a peer review mechanism. So the claim statement has been verified by a credible and independent expert so that it can and is worthy of being published in scientific journals and becomes a reference for all scientific citizens and scientists in the world," he explained.

"Outside the mechanism, it means that it is a one-sided claim and cannot be used as a scientific reference," added Dicky.

Harry Sufehmi, founder of the Indonesian anti-slander society (Mafindo), previously mentioned this infodemic. He said, the term infodemic is currently global because it worsens the situation amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Because, infodemics are often fatal because they cause casualties.

"This infodemic can be fatal enough to cause casualties. For example, information about drugs is a hoax. So if you are careless, it's okay if you get it, you just have to give garlic, even though it's actually a hoax," said Harry as quoted from the Kominfo website.

Previously, Hadi Pranoto in an interview with musician Erdian Aji Prihartanto alias Anji on the YouTube channel talked about the herbal antibody for COVID-19. The video was uploaded on Friday, July 31 and made the netizens excited.

In the video that lasts about 31 minutes, Hadi claims to be a professor. He claims to have found an antibody herbal medicine that can cure COVID-19 in a matter of 2-3 days. In fact, the drug has distributed its findings to a number of regions in Indonesia, such as Java, Bali and Sumatra.

Hadi also claimed that these herbal medicines could cure thousands of patients affected by corona. He also admitted that he had produced thousands of bottles of herbal medicine.

However, Hadi said, there were constraints in terms of budget and costs in the production of these herbal medicines. Because of that, he asked for the help of people who were able to help him.

"Small people, adults, pregnant people and so on, thank God, until now my friends can feel the medicinal properties. As a country that has a large natural wealth of herbs and we can take advantage of the interests of society itself to strengthen antibodies," said Hadi, in a video interview. with Anji.