VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Indonesian government is immediately about to carry out a third dose of vaccination or booster vaccine aimed at health workers.

Indonesian Health Ministry on its official website ensured the third shot or booster for health workers. It also said there is a study that ensured the third shots will be safe.

According to the Indonesian Ministry of Health, the reason to carry out additional vaccination in stages and setting priorities is to look at the situation and condition of the Indonesian state where it is urgent for a booster vaccine to be carried out as soon as possible to protect the health workers as one of the front- lines.Earlier, President Joko Widodo affirmed that the health workers are highly exposed to Covid-19 infection despite being already vaccinated. Facing the infected patients as well as the virus require the health worker to get a booster shot.

Certainly, we support Indonesian government's effort. But, WHO's recommendation about unequal vaccination for all people because of vaccine shortage also needs to be a concern. WHO believed until now, there are countries with vaccination less than 1 percent of their population. The Health Ministry's Vaccination Spokesperson dr. Siti Nadia Tarmizi explained that the WHO recommendation is prioritizing the public.

The third shot or booster for health workers aims to increase their immunity as the frontline in handling higher Covid-19 cases. Yet more importantly, the public must realize how important vaccination is without being picky about the vaccine variants. It is considering that all imported vaccines used by Indonesian government have passed the Drugs and Monitoring Agency clinical tests and are registered at the WHO. Therefore, the quality and safety can be guaranteed.