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Get vaccinated or lose your social aid, Indonesian government says
At a time when millions have fallen into unemployment and vaccine misinformation is rampant, the government has authorized the use of sanctions against those rejecting COVID-19 vaccination.
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A health worker holds up the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine in a vial at Jurang Mangu community health center (Puskesmas) in South Tangerang, Banten last month. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
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t a time when millions have fallen into unemployment as a result of the pandemic and vaccine misinformation is running rampant, the government has authorized the use of sanctions against those rejecting COVID-19 vaccination.
The latest revision to a presidential regulation on coronavirus vaccination regulates mandatory inoculation for people who are declared by the Health Ministry eligible for the vaccine, unless they fail to meet certain health criteria.
Those who reject vaccination may be subject to fines or administrative sanctions in the form of delays or termination of social aid and access to public services. However, given that only the poor and vulnerable are eligible for social aid the sanctions appear to single out this particular section of the population.
Despite this, vaccine hesitancy, which could hinder the national vaccine drive, has nothing to do with socio-economic status, said epidemiologist Dicky Budiman who is among several experts who oppose mandatory vaccination.
"The worsening COVID-19 conditions right now are not the fault of the people, it's the fault of the government. Tracing, testing and treatment have not been adequate and risk-communication strategies have been poor since the beginning. Don’t put more of a burden on the people,” he said.
Experts say that vaccine policy ideally should not discriminate against people, especially as a survey conducted last year by the Health Ministry in collaboration with UNICEF found that rates of vaccine acceptance in different income groups were generally equal across the board.
Read also: Only one in three Indonesians willing to pay for vaccine: Survey
