JAKARTA: Safety will be the priority for the Covid-19 vaccination programme that is waiting for approval from the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) in Indonesia.
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The initial launch planned for the second week of next month may be delayed, but Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said the government would stick to the rules for the sake of safety, said the Tempo.co portal.
Luhut said the vaccine was available in the country, but BPOM had yet to approve it for emergency use, pending regulatory procedures on safety.
Luhut, who spoke at the National Resilience Institute, said President Joko Widodo had stressed to him about prioritising safety and the need to remain guided by rules.
“The president said safety is No. 1,” he said at the institute.
Joko had instructed that the vaccination programme not be conducted in a hurry and that the programme needed to be vetted through the published results of clinical trials.
Luhut said he was recently in Yunnan, China, where he led a delegation from the country, and was surprised to see a majority of the people were no longer wearing face masks.
He said Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi had offered to get him a vaccine injection, but he declined, stressing that he was bound by the Indonesian government rule that has yet to approve the vaccination programme.
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The Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) too emphasised the importance of the availability of safe and effective vaccines.
In a letter to the Health Ministry, according to Antara News, IDI chairman Daeng M Faqih, praised the government for prioritising the vaccination programme for medical workers.
He highlighted the importance of ensuring that the safety, effectiveness, and immunogenicity of the Covid-19 vaccines were established before they were administered to Indonesians.
Daeng revealed how other countries had exercised caution when it came to Covid-19 immunisations by waiting for more published data on the results of phase 3 clinical trials.
The trials for China’s Sinovac vaccine, for instance, would have been conducted on 9,000 volunteers in Brazil, but the results would have been published soon after 15,000 volunteers had been vaccinated, he said
This showed that, apart from its significance in conquering the disease, the vaccination programme must not be conducted in a hurry, he said.
-NSTP