Nusantara Vaccine Controversy, IDI: Don't Cut Protocol Nationalism

Illustration (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - The Executive Board of the Indonesian Doctors Association (PB IDI) requested that the development of Nusantara Vaccines still prioritize the protocols and procedures set by the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM). The development of the COVID-19 vaccine must not only promote a sense of nationalism or goodwill.

"Procedures and protocols (vaccine development, ed) must be adjusted. Don't just think of good intentions, nationalism then never mind, the protocols are met. It can't be," said PB IDI Chairman Daeng M Faqih in an online discussion broadcast on YouTube, Saturday, 17 April.

He emphasized, of course, all parties agreed to encourage domestic production of the COVID-19 vaccine. However, what is currently being criticized is the procedure and protocol of the vaccine developed by the former Minister of Health (Menkes) Terawan Agus Putranto.

"This is a matter of procedures and protocols that we talk about, we discuss actually. So let's focus on the correct procedures and protocols in vaccine development," he said.

So far, IDI is also not interested in the idea of nationalism embedded in the Nusantara Vaccine. The reason is that this dendritic-based vaccine is not the first time in Indonesia.

Moreover, the vaccine does not come from the country as previously claimed by various parties. "So come on, if we want to be honest, be open," he said.

"So what we are highlighting is not nationalism, good intentions, but what we are highlighting is protocol. ... This protocol in Indonesia which assesses only BPOM," he added.

The Nusantara Vaccine is getting more polemic after a number of political figures and officials joined the volunteer phase II clinical trial at the Gatot Soebroto Central Army Hospital, Jakarta, Wednesday, April 15 In this stage, the vaccine volunteers will take a blood sample and process it for 7 days to then be injected back into the body.

Even though this vaccine has not received the approval of the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) to continue. The reason is that there are several conditions that have not been fulfilled in vaccine development, namely Good Clinical Practical, Proof of Concept, Good Laboratory Practice and Good Manufacturing Practice.

Not only that, the next problem is that the antigen of the Nusantara vaccine does not come from an Indonesian virus but from the United States, where the genoric sequence and strain of the virus are not known.