Projection For 2021: Our Independence After Being Injected With The COVID-19 Vaccine?

ILLUSTRATION / Cyclists wearing masks crossing the HI Roundabout (DOK. ANTARA) car free day area

JAKARTA - The three million doses of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine that have been in the hands of the Indonesian government open the door to hopes that people will be free from the corona virus. The vaccines that were already in the country were imported on December 6 and 31.

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin calculated that 188 million people were prioritized in administering vaccines from a total of 269 million people. They are the age group above 18 years to 59 years.

Then, if you reduce people who have comrbid diseases, pregnant women, and patients who have recovered from COVID-19, the estimated priority for vaccination is 181 million people.

"Taking into account that 1 person needs 2 doses and taking into account WHO guidelines, then we prepare 15 percent of reserves, so the total vaccine required is around 426 million doses of vaccine," Budi Gunadi said on Tuesday, December 29, 2020.

The government has secured around 400 million doses of four types of COVID-19 vaccines from various countries. There are 5 vaccine procurement routes, namely 4 with bilateral channels and 1 multilateral route.

The COVID-19 vaccines from bilateral procurement include Sinovac, Novavax, AstraZeneca, and BioNTech Pfizer. Meanwhile, the multilateral COVID-19 vaccine will collaborate with the international vaccine organization GAVI.

First, the Sinovac vaccine. Sinovac vaccine manufacturer is a company from China, Sinovac Biotech, Ltd. Three also Sinovac vaccines have been brought to PT Bio Farma in Bandung. The total procurement agreement is 125 million vaccines. Meanwhile, the Sinovac trial in Brazil showed that the effectiveness of the vaccine reached between 50-90 percent, while in Turkey it was 91.25 percent.

Indonesia has also undergone phase three clinical trials of the Sinovac vaccine on thousands of volunteers. Clinical trial results have not been announced, due to waiting for side effects after six months of vaccination. However, so far there have been no significant side effects.

"(The results of the phase 3 clinical trial) have shown good data, related to safety aspects. It has been reported that there were no serious side effects, thus showing a safety aspect that is consistent with the results in phase 1 and 2 clinical trials," said the Head. The Food and Drug Administration (BPOM) Penny K. Lukito on Tuesday, December 30.

Sinovac vaccine arrives at Bio Farma laboratory (Source: BPMI Setpres)

Second, the Novavax vaccine. The Novavax vaccine comes from a company from the United States. The Indonesian government bought 100 million doses of vaccine. The US has just started a phase 3 clinical trial involving 30 thousand volunteers.

It is known, the results of the first clinical trial of the Novavax vaccine are said to trigger a strong immune response after injection. In addition, this vaccine is well tolerated by the body.

Third, AstraZeneca. The government plans to buy 100 million vaccines from the British vaccine company. Clinical trials conducted by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford show the production of the corona virus vaccine has an average effectiveness of 70 percent. The AstraZeneca vaccine is considered easy to distribute because it does not need to be stored at very cold temperatures.

Fourth, the Pfizer vaccine, which is produced from a joint company between the United States and Germany. There will be 100 doses of Pfizer vaccine, with 50 million doses confirmed and another 50 million still options.

British citizens were the first to receive the Pfizer vaccine. In a large, late-stage trial, the vaccine proved to be 95 percent effective at preventing disease, much better than originally anticipated.

"To ensure vaccine resilience or guarantee the arrival of vaccines, we do it from 4 different sources. Hopefully, vaccines will come gradually to Indonesia and immediately inject all Indonesian people, starting with 181 million people," said Minister of Health Budi Gunadi.

Not All Residents Want Vaccines

Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC) released the results of the latest survey related to national public trust in the vaccine and vaccination against COVID-19. As many as 67 percent of the public know and have heard the news that the government is planning a COVID-19 vaccine, while 33 percent do not.

Regarding the people's desire to get vaccines, it turns out that the majority of residents still doubt whether they are willing to be vaccinated or not. Of the respondents who knew the vaccination plan, it was found that 40 percent of them still wanted to think first about getting vaccinated, then 37 percent had agreed, 17 percent did not want to be vaccinated, and 6 percent did not answer.

This survey was conducted in the period 16 to 19 December 2020 to 1,202 respondents via telephone. The margin of error in this survey is 2.9 percent with a confidence level of 95 percent.

Vaccination simulation (Pemprov Jatim)

Can You Get Free After Vaccine?

Do vaccines really keep us free from COVID-19 forever? It turns out that until now no one has guaranteed that.

Head of the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology, Amin Soebandrio, said that until now, none of the vaccine manufacturers could confirm how long the antibodies or immunity after being vaccinated would last.

Because, according to Amin, none of the vaccine developers had data on the results of the phase 3 clinical trial for more than 6 months. "In fact, many have not finished the third phase. Not to mention, (the data) must be followed up to 6 months, up to 12 months, or more," said Amin on Tuesday, December 22.

"Once again, we are not sure at this time whether there should be reinjection. We can only know when the next injection will be done after we know how long the immune data will last," he added.

An epidemiologist from Airlangga University, Windhu Purnomo, said that it is not certain that people can release their obligation to implement health protocols after being convicted.

Because according to him, antibodies in the body after being vaccinated do not appear immediately. The immune response in the body does not appear until 7 to 10 days later.

"Be careful, because after being vaccinated, many people will immediately take off their masks. The 3M protocol was not implemented. In fact, the antibodies have not been established. It could be that he will be infected with COVID-19. Hence, the government must communicate to the public. later people will go their own way, "he added.