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Private vaccination may risk equal access in Indonesia's COVID-19 response
While private inoculation might reduce the burden on the government, experts have cautioned about its possible disruption to the government's free inoculation program and the risk to equal access.
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New line of defense: A health worker receives a COVID-19 vaccine at Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital in Central Jakarta on Jan. 14, a day after Indonesia began its mass vaccination program, with health workers given top priority. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
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n intern doctor at a community health center (Puskesmas) in Central Java, one of the COVID-19 hardest-hit regions, is waiting anxiously for her turn to receive the vaccine she needs to protect her when treating patients.
Some hundreds of kilometers away, in Jakarta, a woman -- heavily touted on social media as the “Crazy Rich Jakartan” after the hit Asian-American movie -- got her shot at a Puskesmas in the city after reportedly presenting a letter claiming that she was a support staffer at a drugstore. Her colleague later revealed that the woman was the former’s business partner in running the drugstore, kompas.com reported. Deputy Jakarta governor Ahmad Riza Patria said that unlike drugstore staff, owners were not listed as health workers eligible for the prioritized vaccination. This prompted a public furor and an investigation.
The clash of the two worlds once again presents Indonesia, particularly amid mounting global competition to secure vaccines, with concerns that people most at risk when infected could end up last in the immunization line, especially as the government is mulling a private vaccination scheme.
The intern doctor, who previously had spent months working at a hospital, said that without the vaccine’s protection, she feared the worst-case scenario, contracting the virus, as some of her fellow interns have experienced. An administrative error had delayed her inoculation schedule and she now expects to receive the vaccine alongside military and police personnel -- who will be prioritized for vaccination after health workers.
"I hope to receive the vaccine soon, so I can do my job without worry,” the young doctor, who wishes to remain anonymous, told The Jakarta Post.
Read also: Data issues cast shadow over vaccination drive
Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin met Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chairman Firli Bahuri on Thursday to discuss good governance in the private vaccination scheme, a guideline for which is currently being finalized by the ministry. Budi said it would include a maximum price for the vaccine and the rollout of the program might have to wait until after health workers, the elderly and public workers were all inoculated.
