Govt backdown on jabs-for-sale move after public backlash News analysis

Indonesia has scrapped a controversial plan to allow anyone to pay to be vaccinated against Covid-19, after a public outcry.

State-owned pharmaceutical firm PT Kimia Farma, with the government's backing, had offered to sell two doses for $82 in a scheme that was supposed to have been available from Monday.

President Joko Widodo "firmly ordered" that the programme be shelved for good following the public response, Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung said in a statement yesterday. "All vaccines shall remain free as had been conveyed by the President previously," he added.

Last December, Mr Widodo promised that vaccines would be free for Indonesians, and launched the national vaccination drive on Jan 13 with a target to inoculate more than 180 million of them. The aim was to achieve herd immunity by next March for the world's fourth most populous country of 270 million people.

The vaccines were to be provided under either the national vaccination programme, or a private scheme funded by private and state-owned firms for their staff known as Gotong Royong.

As the second wave of infections fuelled by the highly contagious Delta variant took hold in the country, the government on July 5 revised the Gotong Royong scheme to allow individuals to pay for their own vaccination.

This essentially allowed Kimia Farma to go ahead and sell the Sinopharm vaccine at 879,140 rupiah for two doses. The public, who learnt about the plan at the weekend, became enraged, forcing the company to backtrack.

Civil organisations questioned if the government or private corporations were trying to profit from the pandemic.

"There could be some business groups hiding behind a government policy and using Kimia Farma to make money for themselves," said executive director Haris Azhar of human rights advocacy group Lokataru Foundation. "They are taking advantage of the current panic for vaccines and the push to get people inoculated as one of the ways to overcome the pandemic," he told The Straits Times.

Kimia Farma's price might seem minuscule for some Indonesians, but not so for the 27.55 million, or 10.19 per cent of the population, who, according to World Bank figures, live on less than US$2 (S$2.70) a day. The pandemic has already put many out of work, and social assistance by the state is insufficient.

University of Indonesia political and economic analyst on global affairs Beginda Pakpahan said a government was constitutionally bound to protect its people's health. "Vaccines are certainly a visible form of protection given by the government to its people."

Mr Achmad Sukarsono, associate director and lead analyst for Indonesia at specialist risk consultancy Control Risks, said the recent spike in cases, which hit a record high of 56,757 on Thursday, was "the result of haphazard, reactionary policymaking that continuously starts from the interests of the elite few, instead of the need of the target population".

The Kimia Farma proposal was yet "another rushed policy", he said. "It's kind of below the belt because the government has promised (the vaccines) to be free for the masses," he added.

The government addressed the brouhaha belatedly, yet again demonstrating its lack of competence in communicating in a transparent manner and building public trust. State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir on Tuesday said the vaccines for sale were of a different brand from those used in the national drive and were not from foreign donations. They were procured with corporate funds and loans.

The national vaccine drive relies on Sinovac, AstraZeneca and Moderna, while the corporate scheme uses only Sinopharm.

Lokataru Foundation's Mr Haris, however, slammed the government for prioritising the economy over public health, saying this was due in part to the fact that the Cabinet was largely made up of business people, some of whom had been tasked with tackling the pandemic.

He added that with cases soaring, the President should consider bringing in experts from nations with better management of the pandemic, like Singapore, New Zealand and the US, to work with local epidemiologists.

Others like virologist Ngurah Mahardika were less critical of the government's approach, saying that it allowed individuals to buy vaccines to achieve herd immunity as soon as possible.

Saddled with a limited budget and a huge population, it was unrealistic to expect the government to fund the entire vaccination drive, Professor Mahardika said, adding that those with the means to pay should be given that option. "It doesn't matter who pays for the vaccine as long as the vaccination coverage target can be reached as soon as possible," he told ST.

Allowing individuals to pay for their shots does not mean taking vaccines away from the poor, he said. "Those who are not able to afford it can always wait for the free ones allocated by the government."