#herd immunity

‘Blessed’ Homecoming and Indian Setback

It is an amazing turnaround initial praise won over the progress toward herd immunity turning chaotic in just a short time due to “herd ignorance”. The alarming spike in coronavirus cases in India should serve as a prompt reminder for our country in the face of Lebaran (Idul Fitri). It is also worth pondering whether promoting local tourism is justifiable while we prohibit mudik (Idul Fitri exodus). One large crowd is prevented, but another is encouraged. We need to adopt an attitude of protecting our own safety. Let us look at India, which is now in the spotlight of global concerns. This country of 1.393 billion people is big in many ways and this time it is related to the coronavirus. India began vaccination rollout on January 16, 2021 and as of early March, 18 million people had been vaccinated. At one point, more than a million jabs were given daily, which is a world record. The ambition was that it expected to be able to vaccinate 300 million citizens in just seven months. The ambition and the following vaccination progress drew praise from various parties, including many circles in Indonesia.

Vaccine-induced and Natural Immunity

Which is more effective, immunity that is induced by vaccination or immunity acquired after being infected with Covid-19? This question is important to raise after Covid-19 has exceeded the positive rate of a million, triggering the government to take the pandemic more seriously. Vaccination is being intensified. The first phase for healthcare workers is under way and will soon be followed by the next group of priority recipients. The government also imposes public activity restrictions (PPKM), with several provinces applying micro-scale PPKM, which are watched over by the Public Order Agency (Satpol PP), the National Police and even the Indonesian Military. This indicates the government’s greater awareness of mobility restrictions as an important pillar to prevent the spread of infection besides increasing testing and tracing. We certainly should not ignore the criticism of some epidemiologists about the presence of data on millions of affected people that are claimed to be hidden.