'It Feels Like Being Bitten By An Ant', Behind Jokowi's Expression Terming A Vaccine Injection

President Jokowi during a vaccine injection (ANTARA-HO / Setpres-Agus Suparto)

JAKARTA - It feels like being bitten by an ant. This expression is often embedded in the injection process.

There are many people who are afraid, maybe because they were stuffed from childhood. Trembling even to tears at the sight of the syringe. People around him must calm him down. Then an analogy was spoken, it felt like being bitten by an ant.

Even when the COVID-19 vaccination, the term 'it feels like being bitten by an ant' comes up again. This term also came from President Joko Widodo when he underwent the first injection of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Experts consider the phrase 'it feels like an ant bite' means that people will not feel afraid when being injected with the COVID-19 vaccine. Long ago, President Jokowi did talk about injecting the COVID-19 vaccine as one of the government's efforts to stop the pandemic which made everything inevitably change from early March 2020.

"All vaccines are like small children when vaccinated, you know. Like being bitten by ants, claws, that's all," said Jokowi as quoted from YouTube's Presidential Secretariat during the distribution of working aid capital in December 2020.

Like Jokowi, a number of public figures who have received vaccinations, namely artist Raffi Ahmad, have also stated the same thing. This was conveyed after he received the COVID-19 vaccine for the second time on Wednesday, January 27.

"It's like being bitten by an ant. But Alhamdullilah, it's just a little sleepy, it's the same, there's nothing to do about it," explained Raffi via the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube live broadcast.

Metaphorical style message

Mu'jizah, a humanist from the Faculty of Letters, University of Indonesia (UI) responded to the expression that vaccine injection was just like being bitten by an ant. He said that what Jokowi and a number of public figures conveyed was a metaphorical style so that it seemed that the vaccine was safe and that the public did not get any effect.

"Therefore, a metaphorical style is used to compare vaccines to an ant bite," he said when contacted by VOI via text message, Thursday, January 28.

Reporting from various sources, the type of metaphor used by President Jokowi and public figures who say 'being vaccinated feels like being bitten by an ant' is a litotes which is a contradiction and is generally used to denigrate even though the fact may be the opposite.

An example of a litotes figure is 'please stop by our humble hut'. There is also what is meant by a hut in this sentence is a house.

"So it is an expression which means that people are not afraid of vaccine injections. Because the pain is just like being bitten by an ant," he explained.

Meanwhile, psychologist Kasandra Putranto stated that the statement made by President Jokowi and public figures was a form of suggestion and mindfulness theory. So that in the future, people do not need to worry about receiving the COVID-19 vaccine to stop the COVID-19 pandemic.

"This means that it is calming and states that it doesn't hurt," he concluded.