Task Force Hopes Herd Immunity Is Formed Due To The Vaccination Program

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JAKARTA - The COVID-19 Task Force (Satgas) expects herd immunity or immunity of Indonesian people to be formed due to the vaccination program.

"So there is indeed the possibility of herd immunity being formed, either through vaccination or naturally formed due to being infected with a virus. Of course we hope that our herd immunity is formed due to the vaccination program and not due to infection," said the Clinical Microbiology Specialist and Member of the Health Handling Division and the Task Force Expert Panel. Handling COVID-19, Budiman Bela in a talk with the theme "What's wrong with COVID-19 in Europe?" quoted by Antara, Thursday, December 2.

He said that if herd immunity was formed due to infection, one of the risks would be serious illness or death.

"It will be very detrimental to the community, detrimental to the family and so on," he said.

Therefore, the Task Force hopes that the community will participate in the vaccination program, and not be picky about the type of vaccine.

"Those who have not been vaccinated may be due to one reason or another, either because they are in doubt or because they have comorbidities or the doctor recommends not to be vaccinated," said Budiman Bela.

He said that Messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein-based vaccines have started to be recommended by several countries because they are considered to provide partial protection through the formation of specific cell responses that trigger the formation of antibodies.

However, he continued, it is possible that those who have received the inactivated virus-based vaccine also provide protection.

"I urge the public not to choose vaccinations," he said.

Based on data from the COVID-19 Task Force, as many as 97,318,649 Indonesians have received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Thursday (2/22/2022) at 12.00 WIB.

Meanwhile, as many as 140,885,229 people have received one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. The government targets 208,265,720 Indonesians to receive two doses of COVID-19 vaccine so that group immunity can be formed.