Observer: Not Lockdown Is The Solution To The Pandemic, But Communication

President Jokowi (PHOTO VIA ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Observer Emrus Sihombing, admitted that he was concerned about the COVID-19 case that had hit Indonesia for more than a year. The reason is, until now there have been no signs or indicators that convince COVID-19 will end at a certain time in the country.

"However, the lockdown has not been an effective solution to COVID-19 with the geographical, economic, and socio-cultural conditions of the Indonesian people", Emrus told VOI, Tuesday, August 3.

According to him, the solution to stop the spread of COVID-19 is that the entire community must be the front line against the virus by providing "weapons of war" through communication that raises awareness, forms attitudes, and changes in behavior according to strict health protocols.

"Managing the government's public communication handling COVID-19 must be the main thing, not to be taken as secondary and must be done upstream", he said.

As a priority, Emrus continued, among others, the allocation of communication costs must be at least equal to the cost of procuring vaccines. In addition, he said, President Jokowi should immediately appoint someone directly under him to lead the government's public communications

Mainly from a reliable communicator who mastered the concepts, theories, management, and axiology of communication and also has a communication professional in the public sphere.

If communication is not a priority in handling COVID-19, according to Emrus, it will certainly experience obstacles to raise awareness, shape attitudes, and change behavior in the community. In fact, he said, these three things are very important.

"With poor public communication, at some point in the future, we may be in a pandemic trap, as an epidemiologist said when we were living together on a leading news television station in the country a few days ago. This happens because it will cause problems that are increasingly difficult to parse and handle", he said.

On the other hand, Emrus continued, if the government's public communication is managed with good management principles to overcome COVID-19, then downstream problems (tracing, testing, treatment) will certainly be more controlled and COVID-19 cases will be significantly reduced.

"In the end, we can escape the pandemic. Of course, the sooner the better", said Emrus.