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'Long road' to herd immunity even with COVID-19 vaccination
Indonesia began its vaccination program on Wednesday using Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech's CoronaVac vaccine, which would be used on the largest share — or some 65 million — of the targeted 181.5 million Indonesians.
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Test run: A medical professional at a community health center (Puskesmas) in Tapos, Depok, West Java, administers a vaccine during a COVID-19 vaccination simulation on Oct. 21, 2020. (JP/P.J.Leo)
T
he government has high hopes for achieving herd immunity against COVID-19 through its ambitious vaccination plan, but experts say it might take years and wider inoculation coverage for that to happen, especially without sufficient containment efforts.
Indonesia began its vaccination program on Wednesday using Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech's CoronaVac vaccine, which would be used on the largest share — or some 65 million — of the targeted 181.5 million Indonesians.
The country has received 3 million ready-to-use doses of the vaccine and 15 million bulk doses and expects to receive another 107 million bulk doses produced by state-owned pharmaceutical firm Bio Farma gradually until next year.
But how well the vaccine will help the country's fight against COVID-19 has led to concerns over piecemeal information on the vaccine's efficacy in trial settings.
Brazil has said the vaccine was 50.4 percent effective based on final interim data, down from 78 percent announced days prior. The figure is just slightly over the World Health Organization's minimum rate of 50 percent to be eligible for emergency use. In Indonesia, interim data showed a 65.3 percent efficacy rate, although spokespersons from both Bio Farma as Sinovac's partner in Indonesia and the Indonesian Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) did not disclose more detailed data upon request from The Jakarta Post. Turkish officials, meanwhile, reported 91.25 percent efficacy.
Read also: Indonesia allows emergency use of Sinovac vaccine
But irrespective of the vaccine and its efficacy, achieving herd immunity in 15 months — as targeted by President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo — is impossible, according to experts.
