It Turns Out, 24.3 Percent Of Children Who Are Willing To Be Vaccinated Have The Reason For Being Able To Go To Face-to-face School

Illustration-School children receive vaccines in East Java (Photo: East Java Provincial Government Public Relations)

JAKARTA - The Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) conducted a survey regarding the implementation of the COVID-19 vaccination for children aged 12 to 17 years. The survey was conducted on 86.298 school children.

KPAI Commissioner for Education Retno Listyarti said, out of more than 86.000 children, as many as 88.2 percent said they were willing to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Then, 8.5 percent of children expressed doubt. Then, 3.3 percent of children refused to be vaccinated.

In fact, 1 in 4 children or 24.3 percent of children who are willing to be vaccinated have a reason so that they can participate in face-to-face learning (PTM) at school.

"The reasons respondents are willing to be vaccinated include 47.3 percent stating that they want a vaccine so that their body has antibodies, 24.3 percent stated that they can immediately take part in PTM because distance learning (PJJ) is currently difficult to understand", Retno said in a statement, Tuesday, August 17.

"The rest, as many as 28.4 percent of respondents stated other reasons, for example, because they were persuaded by their parents, felt this was an obligation, so they could travel anywhere, and there were those who stated that they should continue to receive social assistance from the government", she continued.

Meanwhile, in children who are not willing to be vaccinated, 36.7 percent expressed concern about the effects of the vaccine. Then, as many as 15.3 percent felt they did not need to be vaccinated because the important thing was to implement health protocols.

Then, 10 percent of them have comorbidities so that they cannot be vaccinated medically, 8 percent are unsure of a particular vaccine brand, 15 percent believe that if a child is infected with COVID-19 the symptoms are mild and sometimes even asymptomatic, 8 percent feel that being vaccinated does not guarantee themselves. did not catch COVID-19, and 7 percent were not allowed by their parents to get vaccinated.

Retno also said that of those who said they were willing to be vaccinated, only 35.9 percent of children were lucky to get the vaccine, while 64.1 percent of them had not been vaccinated.

"Of the 64.1 percent who have not been vaccinated, 57.4 percent of respondents stated that they have not been vaccinated because they have not had the opportunity to get the vaccine. Perhaps this data illustrates that there is a problem of vaccinating children that have not been evenly distributed in various regions in Indonesia", explained Retno.

It is known that this survey was conducted from August 3 to August 9, 2021, using the Google Form application. Participants/respondents consist of education levels of SD/MI, SMP/MTs, MA/SMA/SMK, including special schools (SLB).

As for the regions from which the participants came from 34 provinces in Indonesia, students from overseas Indonesian schools (SILN) were even joined.