DPR: The Government Does Not Appreciate Research For The Nation's Children, One Of Which Is About The COVID-19 Vaccine

Gedung DPR (Irfan Meidianto/VOI)

JAKARTA - Member of Commission XI DPR RI Anis Byarawati assessed that the Indonesian government does not respect the research of the nation's children. This was expressed by Anis in a discussion on Democracy Dialectics with the theme "COVID-19 Vaccine: Problem or Solution?" cooperation between the Parliamentary News Bureau of the Republic of Indonesia and the Coordinator of Parliamentary Journalists at the DPR RI Media Center, Thursday (23/7/2020).

"This is evident from the budget allocation for strengthening research and development in the country, which annually is still below 0.8 percent of the country's total gross domestic income," Anis said as quoted by the DPR website, Saturday, July 25.

He explained that the research budget in Indonesia this year is only IDR 1.37 trillion. This figure is still much lower than last year, IDR2.01 trillion. In fact, we also look at the last few years, this year's research budget is among the smallest since the last 4 years.

This PKS faction politician compared the budget for COVID-19 vaccine research in a number of countries. The United States, for example, has spent up to 1 billion US dollars or around Rp. 16.3 trillion to produce more than 1 billion vaccines.

Then, the UK invested 65 million euros or IDR 1.1 trillion to engage in global research to find a vaccine for COVID-19. The British government also said there were 8 possible corona vaccines being developed.

In fact, India through the Serum Institute spent funds for COVID-19 reaching 100 million US dollars or around Rp1.6 trillion, which is estimated to provide the vaccine for one year even though it will not be effective. Meanwhile, France has budgeted an emergency fund of 50 million euros, or around Rp.880 billion, specifically to find a vaccine against this corona virus.

"Meanwhile, Indonesia, with a positive number of COVID-19 as of July 6, 2020, reached 64,958 cases, the budget for the SARS cov 2 virus vaccine discovery center was only Rp35 billion, even getting a discount of Rp1.4 billion. This budget is much smaller than the video competition grant. innovation in the new normal order of Rp. 168 billion, even though the budget allocation does not necessarily accelerate the handling of the impact of COVID-19, "he said.

Anis revealed that in fighting COVID-19, the presence of this vaccine is important. Because several prevention methods have been carried out such as washing hands, wearing masks, the existence of PSBB but it is not yet effective and cannot be fully controlled. And, restoring public health is the spearhead of handling COVID-19. Because without adequate health care, we can slip into the abyss of uncertainty

Therefore, he hopes that the government will carry out many evaluations, including in placing budget priorities in this pandemic situation. He reiterated that our country needs to have vaccine sovereignty.

That is, the discovery of this vaccine is considered a secret. The secret is how we can produce ourselves and the nation's children are able to do it. And it all requires a large enough research fund. Therefore Anis was reminded again, don't let the government get the wrong priority in determining the budget for this pandemic.