Hoaxes On Social Media Make West Sumatra Residents Refuse Vaccines, Governor: Do You Want To Use It, What Else?

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JAKARTA - The Governor of West Sumatra, Irwan Prayitno, stated that news about vaccines circulating in the community, especially on social media, were often hoaxes. This makes people refuse to take the COVID-19 vaccination.

"There is a lot of information that needs to be straightened out about this vaccine, so that people do not get misleading information," he said in Padang, as reported by Antara, Thursday, January 21.

He emphasized that the COVID-19 vaccine is one solution to solving the pandemic problem so that people become immune from exposure to the virus and reduce the rate of spread of the virus.

"For example, if we don't want to be vaccinated, what else will we continue to use? Will this continue to be unproductive in our activities," he said.

According to him, related to the discussion about vaccine content, MUI has declared halal.

"Then who else has the right to call it halal and haram if not MUI, if MUI has declared it lawful, then we will," he said.

He found that on social media there were those who stated that the vaccine contained haram, even though the one who conveyed the information was neither cleric nor ulama.

"This is what I do not understand, it is not the experts who speak," he said.

He invited experts, stakeholders and all parties to work together to rectify misinformation about vaccines.

Then regarding the security, BPOM has also stated that it is safe so that the conditions for circulation are sufficient.

Regarding things that are not perfect about vaccines, he said it would be better if what is currently there is done as a form of effort to stop this pandemic.

Irwan also shared his experience of having to undergo a swab test up to 39 times to ensure that he was not exposed to COVID-19 so that his family, closest people and staff members were not infected.

"I go out of the house every day to meet the community, every week to Jakarta. Once vaccinated, I don't need to have a swab test every now and then, because I'm tired too," he said.

Therefore, he invited all parties to support the vaccine program so that the pandemic could stop so that activities would return to normal, even though the community continued to apply health protocols after being vaccinated.