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Doctors panicking over public distrust following fake vaccine fiasco
Doctors are panicking over declining public trust following the naming of three doctors as suspects in the counterfeit vaccine case, going as far as spinning out a conspiracy theory.
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A man shouts angrily at Harapan Bunda hospital in East Jakarta on July 15 during a mass protest over fake vaccines used in the hospital in the past years. (The Jakarta Post/Dhoni Setiawan)
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octors are panicking over declining public trust following the naming of three doctors as suspects in the counterfeit vaccine case, going as far as spinning out conspiracy theories.
The naming of the three suspects, as well as the revelation that 14 hospitals and eight clinics, mostly in Bekasi and East Jakarta, has put immense pressure on the reputation of doctors in Indonesia, according to Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) chairman Ilham Oetama Marsis.
Following the revelation, angry parents have been flocking to the named hospitals and clinics, with violent altercations reported in at least three hospitals. According to Ilham, the anger is misguided, because doctors and hospitals are actually the victims.
“Doctors, other health practitioners and healthcare facilities are the victims of the people who produced the counterfeit vaccines. There’s not a single regulation that says doctors are responsible for the medicine used in hospitals,” he said.
It is the government who should ensure that no fake vaccines are distributed to hospitals, Ilham added, pointing out the government’s failure to ensure the availability of genuine vaccines in Indonesia.
Furthermore, Ilham suspected that there were parties who had purposefully tried to destroy the reputation of doctors in Indonesia through the fake vaccine case ahead of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), which envisions the region as a single market, thus allowing the free flow of goods, services, investment and skilled labor. (ags)
