Reasons For Protested Cinema Opening, COVID Task Force: Differences In Fair Opinion

Illustration / Pixabay

JAKARTA - Spokesperson for the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, Wiku Adisasmito, considers it natural that there are parties who disagree with the reason for opening a cinema because it is claimed to increase body immunity. This difference of opinion is considered reasonable because COVID-19 is being experienced for the first time around the world

"Differences in opinion are natural during this pandemic because we are all learning about what we can do to maintain safe conditions for COVID-19 and also be able to carry out productive socio-economic activities," Wiku explained in a YouTube broadcast of the Presidential Secretariat, Thursday, August 27th.

Wiku made clear his statement that watching movies on bioksop can increase immunity. "We need to convey it so that there is no misunderstanding," he said.

Immunity according to Wiku forms the body's resistance to disease. A happy mental condition, he said, has the potential to increase immunity or reduce stress levels in the body.

"So, things like this need to be considered in the context of understanding immunity. In the context of a pandemic, we have to maintain high immunity," said Wiku.

Wiku admitted, there are many ways to keep immunity high. The easiest way is adequate rest, adequate exercise, and maintaining nutritional intake.

"There are so many activities that can be done, not only watching at the cinema, but also watching movies at home, and also being able to do other activities. The choices that can be made by the community are left to the community. What is clear, must be safe from COVID-19," he explained.

Previously, a number of health experts disagreed with the reasons for opening bioksop during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of them, an epidemiologist from Australia's Griffith University, Dicky Budiman regarding Wiku Adisasmito's statement that watching cinema activities can increase body immunity.

According to Dicky, this statement has no scientific literature. "Regarding immunity, watching movies has been linked to a pandemic. I haven't found any literature that strengthens that argument," said Dicky.

According to him, there are more important things for the government to do than opening cinemas on the pretext of making people happy. According to him, controlling the pandemic by conducting isolation and changing behavior is more important at this time, especially since the number of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia is still fluctuating.

Moreover, in the human body, happiness is only a small part of the elements that affect the human body. "So the element of psychology, happiness is only a small part of the elements that affect immunity," he said.

"It does not mean that when happy people will avoid the disease COVID. There is no proof. The happiest country in the world, Scandinavia is also experiencing Covid. In fact, Sweden which is in the top 10 (countries with the highest level of happiness, ed) has a high mortality rate. So the basis is not right, "he added.

Furthermore, Dicky also assessed that the reopening of this cinema is vulnerable to becoming a new cluster of the spread of COVID-19. This concern arises because people in Indonesia do not comply with health protocols to prevent transmission of this virus and the coverage of testing for individuals in Indonesia is still inadequate.