JAKARTA - Spokesperson for the COVID-19 Vaccination of the Ministry of Health, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said that vaccines as a trigger for comorbidities are a wrong perception among the elderly.
"Why then does the vaccination coverage not run according to our expectations, there is still a misperception from the elderly that it is said that their age should not get the vaccine because later there will be more side effects," said Siti Nadia, quoted by Antara, Thursday, October 21.
Nadia said that vaccination for the elderly is still a challenge that needs to be resolved immediately, because of the total 21.5 million vaccination targets for the elderly, currently only 7.8 million people have received the first dose and only 4.9 million people have received the second dose.
"This means that only 33 percent received protection from the first dose of vaccination. If the complete dose was only 22 percent," he said.
Nadia said that vaccination for the elderly had started in early April 2021 as a group that was included in the priority scale.
"The priority of vaccination for the elderly is that we know that they have a very high level of susceptibility to death and serious illness. For that we will try after their health workers are in the second stage together with public service providers," he continued.
Another factor that triggers the slowdown in vaccination achievement among the elderly is the formation of perceptions of information related to hoaxes. One of them is related to comorbidities that cannot be vaccinated.
"In fact, we know that people who have comorbidities should be prioritized for vaccines," said Nadia.
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