Doubtful Effectiveness, DPR Asks Government To Stop Importing Sinovac Vaccines

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JAKARTA - Member of Commission VII DPR RI, Mulyanto, asked the Government to evaluate the effectiveness of the Sinovac vaccine that has been used in Indonesia. If not, then the government must stop the import of vaccine raw materials from China.

The reason, he said, was that several countries such as Malaysia and Thailand had stopped using the Sinovac vaccine and switched to vaccines with better efficacy. In fact, China itself, which is the producer of Sinovac, is even known to buy Pfizer vaccines made in the United States. WHO said the efficacy of the Sinovac vaccine was only 51 percent, while BPOM said 65 percent. This figure, according to Mulyanto, is smaller than the efficacy of other brand vaccines.

Meanwhile, in the midst of the ongoing vaccination program in Indonesia, there was a spike in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, many positive cases even though they have been vaccinated.

"So it is very natural that we doubt the effectiveness of the Sinovac vaccine. Economically, this is not optimal with the budget that we spend on importing vaccines. So, the government needs to immediately stop importing this vaccine," said Mulyanto, Friday, July 23.

The PKS politician assessed that the Government must be able to ensure that the vaccines used so far are effective in tackling COVID-19, especially Sinovac. If it is deemed ineffective, then the Government should immediately replace it with another, better brand. "We don't want the large budget to buy imported vaccines to be wasted. Therefore, the government must stop the import of this Sinovac vaccine, until a comprehensive evaluation result is obtained," said Mulyanto.

Even if it is required to import, he continued, the selected vaccine must be of high quality and high level of efficacy. "After all, the budget provided by the state for vaccine procurement is not small," said Mulyanto. and rely on only one vaccine brand. In fact, there are many better vaccine brands in the world. "Don't be impressed by the government being subservient to the interests of certain parties in purchasing this vaccine. The government must think about and prioritize the safety of the people. If people see it now, the government is like being dictated to by an imported mafia," said Mulyanto. Previously, it was known that on July 22, 2021, the government had brought in 8 million doses of Sinovac vaccine raw materials. From this 29th shipment, the government received a total of 123,500,280 doses of Sinovac vaccine raw materials.

This raw material or bulk vaccine will be processed by PT Bio Farma before being distributed to the public as a finished vaccine.