Indonesian man’s claim of 14 extra vaccine shots spotlights hesitancy problem as many refuse to roll up sleeves
- The man in Sulawesi, who claimed to be double-jabbed, said he was paid US$7-US$56 for each of the 14 vaccine shots he received on behalf of others.
- Vaccine hesitancy and logistics issues means less than half the population has been double jabbed. Indonesia reported its first local Omicron variant case on Tuesday.
Donald, a 56-year-old businessman from Medan on Indonesia’s Sumatra island, took his second shot of the Sinovac vaccine in July.
Last month, when a friend called him and asked if he wanted a booster, Donald (who declined to reveal his identity and asked that a pseudonym be used) decided to go for it. This was even though the Health Ministry was not officially offering booster shots to most residents.
Due to supply shortages, health care workers have been prioritised, with some 1.2 million booster shots administered so far to those who received their second jabs at least six months earlier.
Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said last month that boosters would only be made available to the general public once 50 per cent of the population had received two vaccine doses. As of Tuesday, that milestone had still not been reached, with government figures showing that about 110 million – or some 41 per cent of the population – had received two jabs.
Donald got his booster shot at his friend’s office, where a nurse arrived with a cooler bag full of what were purportedly leftover vaccines from a puskesmas, or government-run community health centre.
“She said that they had been rejected by local residents,” Donald said.