Successful COVID-19 Vaccination, Erick Thohir Performance Appreciated By The Community

Minister of SOEs, Erick Thohir. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

Poltracking released a survey of public satisfaction with the Minister's performance, on Thursday 8 December. SOE Minister Erick Thohir became Minister with the highest percentage of satisfaction with Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto.

Communication observer Fatimah Ibtisam views this survey as an instrument that can describe the impact of government performance on the interests of the community. According to him, one of Erick's performances that is felt by the community is related to the COVID-19 vaccination program.

"From various achievements, one of the performances that should be appreciated by the Minister of SOEs is the massive COVID-19 vaccination movement," said Fatimah Ibtisam in her statement.

Fatimah explained that around 230 million Indonesians are targets of the COVID-19 vaccination program that has been running since 2021. At that time, the vaccination program still seemed very difficult, even impossible, especially with Indonesia's geographical conditions. There are many pessimistic comments about this vaccination program. However, Erick Thohir and the entire COVID-19 Task Force were able to carry out their duties.

"Erick Thohir has prepared the COVID-19 vaccination plan in 2020. At that time he was appointed as the Chief Executive of the COVID-19 Task Force. In collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the end of 2020 the vaccine was available to the Indonesian people. At that time, Indonesia was one of the initial countries that received the vaccine," said Fatimah.

Not only that, Erick is also considered successful in preparing vaccine support, namely a technology-based system that brings together public data, health, and vaccinations, which is then realized with the PeduliLindung application.

Erick Thohir also encourages research and research on COVID-19 vaccinations, especially those carried out by SOEs engaged in the health sector to develop the original Indonesian vaccine, IndoVac. And by the end of 2022, the IndoVac vaccine has started to be distributed.

"The readiness of logistics and technical readiness in the field is also considered by Erick Thohir. Moreover, tens to hundreds of thousands of people are vaccinated every day spread across various regions. With high discipline, within a year, the COVID-19 vaccination program shows good results and continues," said the observer from the University of Indonesia.

Currently, the achievement of phase 1 vaccine reaches 86.85 percent of the total population of Indonesia and phase 2 vaccines is 74.32 percent, while booster vaccines (dose 3 and 4) continue to run.

Although there are shortcomings and challenges in implementation, Fatimah said, the vaccination strategy can be said to be a bright spot in efforts to deal with Covid-19. According to her, this success is certainly inseparable from the role of various parties. These include health workers, scientific and research experts, application developers, various elements and community organizations, the school and teachers, security forces, and the central and local governments.

"Erick Thohir is one of the government figures who is committed and confident in the vaccination program. In addition to collaborating with various parties and elements of society, Erick is also open, transparent in opening up data and vaccine program plans, and willing to receive input. One of them is about the paid vaccine plan which is finally changed to completely free," he said.