Public Waits for Transparency
The spread of Covid-19 is not just alarming but also frightening, especially when public information is not delivered promptly, completely or clearly. Instead of preventing panic, it only makes the situation worse.
Apparently the coronavirus patient who was being treated at a hospital in Bogor, West Java, has died, although some have recovered from the deadly pneumonia-like illness called coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
Agatha, 36, a private employee, relayed the information she got via social media. Although it was unconfirmed, the news inevitably caused public concern.
Agatha has been relying on information she gets from social media to increase personal vigilance, and has begun to avoid crowds. She is still concerned, however, because she had visited a friend at the Bogor hospital.
The policies of each country are different, but every time there is a new cluster.
"I was afraid, but there has been no more information from the government. Nurses and doctors have been isolated, haven\'t they? They only treat coronavirus patients," he said.
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This kind of information has been circulating widely to fill the vacuum that the government’s lack of transparence has left behind. Although a special spokesperson has been who provides information once or twice a day on all matters related to Covid-19, the information from the government has been very limited. Generally, the information concerns the number of confirmed cases and their age and sex, and about the patients who have recovered from the disease.
The public should have access to information on the whereabouts of people in self-isolation and their residential address. When asked why Indonesia did not provide information on the Covid-19 outbreak like other countries, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said on Friday that it had taken a more restricted approach to public information to avoid causing public unrest and stigmatizing patients after recovery.
"The policies of each country are different, but every time there is a new cluster, the rapid response team will immediately be set out to prevent further spread," Jokowi told the press at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten.
Even though Indonesia has its own policies, national laws and regulations call for transparency in a public health emergency. Articles 154 and 155 of Law No. 36/2009 on health clearly states that central and regional governments must regularly announce the types of infectious disease that could potentially lead to an outbreak, including any “hot zones” of transmission.
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The Indonesian government is withholding information that citizens need to build awareness.
Eventually, the public panicked when it emerged that several people had died from the disease. The information has been confusing. The government\'s unpreparedness in controlling the spread of the disease became apparent when many people came down with flu-like symptoms, including fever and cough, but were turned away from hospitals when they visited to get tested, even those who had recently returned from abroad or had direct contact with people who later tested positive for Covid-19.
Verifying whether the information was correct or wrong was difficult.
Political communication lecturer Hendri Satrio of Paramadina University said that the lack of transparency contributed to the public’s unpreparedness and mass hysteria. The problem was that the government had wasted time by not preparing for the worst-case scenario. As a result, it was scrambling to deal with the outbreak as the number of infected increased sharply.
Consequently, the public filled the information vacuum by resorting to social media posts and other online sources. Verifying whether the information was correct or wrong was difficult.
Hendri, who is also the founder of the KedaiKopi Survey Institute, said that a KedaiKopi survey on 3-4 March 2020 involving 483 respondents and a 4.46 percent margin of error indicated that 66 percent of respondents still trusted the government. However, only 50 percent believed that the health facilities in their areas were adequately prepared to manage the Covid-19 outbreak.
In such a situation, Hendri said, the government should not only issue public health advice, but also provide advice on what to do if family members start showing symptoms of Covid-19.
Even if the hospitals didn’t have enough isolation rooms and the public had been advised to implement self-isolation, the public still needed to know what self-isolation really meant. The same applied to the matter of a lockdown: the government should clearly explain what a lockdown actually entailed. This would prevent referral hospitals that were treating patients, suspected cases and people under observation from feeling overwhelmed.
Public policy lecturer Gitadi Tegas Supramudyo at Surabaya’s Airlangga University said that all this showed that the government’s decision-making process lacked a strong basis in an analytical approach to map out which policy instruments were relevant. As a result, each sector made partial, reactive and uncoordinated policies.
However, the chairman of the Accelerated Covid-19 Managemet Task Force, Doni Monardo, denied this. During a press briefing on Monday in Jakarta, Doni recognized a need for volunteers to help disseminate information about Covid-19 down to the community unit (RW) and neighborhood unit (RT) administrative levels to increase public awareness about the disease. This way, people would heed the government’s call to avoid crowds and practice social distancing.
Although it might not have as high a mortality rate as diseases like dengue fever, Covid-19 could be fatal and presented an obvious danger to public health.
"I, as the chairman of the task force, need help from the public, especially from the media and [people] who regularly use social media to enhance the public’s understanding towards strengthening unity against our invisible enemy, a virus, that nonetheless has a visible impact," said Doni.