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Ministry says no cover-up in fake vaccine case
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Demanding justice: Teti Utami, the mother (right) of 9-month-old Irsyad Fachr (being cradled), displays the document of his immunization at the Harapan Bunda Hospital in East Jakarta on Friday. Irsyad is apparently unable to sit because of an abnormal growth blamed on his alleged exposure to a fake vaccine given by the hospital. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
T
he government denied allegations that it attempted to cover up fake vaccine cases, saying the health authority had shown its willingness to confront the issue in its handling of similar cases in the past.
Health Ministry spokesman Oscar Primadi acknowledged that in previous similar cases, perpetrators had faced the law.
“The Drug and Food Monitoring Agency [BPOM] has found similar incidents many times in the past. Cases like this come and go. Perpetrators were punished, other new criminals have come back,” he said Saturday.
Oscar added that the recent fake vaccine case had attracted nationwide attention probably because it was larger than previous cases.
In addition, he said the Health Ministry was certain none of its employees was involved in the distribution of the fake vaccines.
Minister Nila F. Moeloek revealed on Thursday at a hearing with the House of Representatives the names of 14 hospitals and eight midwife clinics that allegedly administered fake vaccines. They are mostly in Jakarta and West Java.
The revelation instantly triggered anxiety and anger from parents of toddlers who were vaccinated at those health facilities.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo called on the public to calm down and await solutions from the Health Ministry. “The public needs to calm down because this is not a problem of the past one or two years. This [fake vaccine] issue dates back 13 years,” the President said.
Meanwhile, the National Police’s Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) director Brig. Gen. Agung Setya said the police had done their jobs well in uncovering the fake vaccine case.
Agung said the investigation that uncovered the fake vaccines was the police’s own initiative, and it began before reports from the public came in. Separately, National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar said this the first fake vaccine case handled by the police.
“I don’t know about other cases discovered by the Health Ministry,” Boy Rafli said over the phone.
Marius Widjajarta, Indonesian Health Empowerment Foundation (YPKKI) chairman said during a talk show on Saturday that he received a report in 2014 from a private clinic in Central Jakarta about fake BCG vaccines with different expiry dates on the label and vial.
He said the fake vaccines were provided by the public health office with the code “Health Ministry” attached. This has raised speculation that vaccines provided by the ministry were also not safe.
Previously, lawmakers have speculated that the case might involve pharmacists working at hospitals or ministry staff. They argued that it was impossible for the ministry to not know about the distribution of fake vaccines since it had been going on for such a long time.
The National Police have said they would take the possible involvement of government personnel into consideration in their investigation.
“Everyone involved, no matter who they are, will be arrested. However, we have to work based on facts, not speculation,” Boy Rafli said.
The government has formed a task force to probe the case involving the ministry, BPOM, the National Police and the Indonesian Pediatrician Association (IDAI) to ensure that all relevant cases are resolved.
The National Police on Friday named 23 suspects in the fake vaccine case, including six producers, nine distributors, two bottle collectors, one person involved in labeling, two midwives and three doctors.
Kuntjoro Adi Purjanto, the chairman of the Association of Indonesian Hospitals (PERSI), urged people to calm down, saying that, according to their research so far, none of the fake vaccines had harmful contents.
“As far as I know, the fake vaccines were either filled with intravenous fluids or the same vaccine at a lower concentration. In short, the effect will be the same as if people were not given vaccines,” he said. (win)
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