The Government Will Remove COVID-19 Funds, How Will Red And White Vaccine Research Continue?

Illustration of Red and White Vaccine research. (Photo via ANTARA FOTO/Dhemas Reviyanto)

JAKARTA - The government will remove the budget for handling COVID-19 in the 2023 budget. This policy clearly has an impact on efforts to deal with COVID-19, which is currently not over.

One of them is the Red and White Vaccine research. This was conveyed by the Principal Researcher of the University of Airlangga's Red and White Vaccine, Dominic Husada.

He said the Red and White Vaccine research should be carried out until next year. Because, he continued, it takes 12 months to research a vaccine.

This research is threatened with having to finish sooner because of the government's policy. However, the research team at Airlangga University is still waiting for an official letter from the ministry or the authorities in charge of financial matters for vaccine research.

"Because we have to modify and contact this subject for notification," said Dominic, as reported by Antara, Wednesday, August 17.

Dominic said, the Red and White Vaccine developed by Unair since May 12, 2020, has now entered phase 3 clinical trials in the form of a second injection on 4,005 human subjects. Evaluation will be done after a month of the second injection.

In addition, the research team also accelerated vaccine clinical trials for the use of the first booster or booster dose. Dominic hopes that all stages of research on the inactive virus or attenuated virus platform vaccine can be completed on schedule by the end of 2022.

"Hopefully, if next year is not possible, by the end of this year most of the important data will have been obtained," he said.

To note, all authorities related to the sustainability of the Red and White Vaccine research will be determined by the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) based on the results of reports submitted by the research team on a regular basis.

A number of assessment indicators include safety factors and can increase antibody levels to fight COVID-19, so as to protect the public from serious illness and even death from COVID-19.

"With the current situation, it is unlikely that (the research) will pass by the end of this year," he said.

Meanwhile, the abolition of COVID-19 funds in the 2023 budget was stated by Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto, Tuesday, August 16, yesterday.

The presentation of the 2023 APBN Bill on the health budget does not show the allocation of funds for COVID-19. This is different from 2022, which is still given an injection of Rp. 82.4 trillion.