Winning Against Covid-19

Pandemics are a part of history. About 430 BC, a typhoid fever pandemic occurred in Greece, killing two-thirds of the population.

There was also a Peloponnesian war at the time, which ended with the defeat of the Athenian army from Sparta. The pandemic saved Athena\'s face, becoming the reason for the defeat.

There was also an outbreak of Antonine (Antonine Plague) in early 100 AD with symptoms similar to smallpox or measles. The name of the outbreak was taken from the name of one of the rulers of the Roman Empire, Marcus Aurelius Antonius, who died in 169 AD due to the outbreak. One third of the population of the Roman Empire was killed, and weakened the strength of the Roman army in the territories it controlled, including Britain.

When the Cyprian outbreak in 444 AD infected the people of the British Isles, at that time, they were fighting against the people of Pikti (Pict) and Scotland. Because the outbreak had weakened the power of the British people, they asked for help from the Anglo-Saxons, to move to the British Isles. This event gave Anglo-Saxon descendants the opportunity to rule Britain from AD 600 until AD 1066.

COVID-19 army

If previously, a pandemic was present in a warring nation, COVID-19 came with a different phenomenon. Its presence even leads to a complex war, namely against COVID-19 as well as a war with two allied social forces, coronavirus infodemic and "COVID-19 hyper reality".

We are optimistic to win if we see the maximum work efforts in the collaboration between the government and the civilians, Indonesian Military (TNI), the National Police, medical teams, academics, businesses and media. It is assumed that COVID-19 in Indonesia will enter the stage of a flattened curve, referring to the slowing increase of patients in surveillance and the increase of patients who recover. Innovation and vaccines are also in the process of moving toward the finishing point.

Also read: Indonesia Unite, in Coronavirus Threat

However, fighting against the COVID-19 social army, coronavirus infodemic, is very problematic. World Health Organization director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the fight against COVID-19 would be hard without eradicating coronavirus infodemic in advance, namely misinformation about COVID-19 and distrust of the government in its mitigation.

Kompas/AGUS SUSANTO

The Communications and Information Ministry (Kominfo) in collaboration with healthcare company Halodoc is offering a free Covid-19 examination for journalists in the parking area of the Kominfo office, Jakarta, on Wednesday (8/4/2020). As many as 758 journalists took part in the Covid-19 fast test from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m.

It is not easy to fight against coronavirus infodemic because we are in the era of post-truth society, an era where the information in circulation can make a lie be a truth, and on the contrary, a truth is made to be relative. In post-truth society, information easily arouses people\'s emotion by frequently ignoring facts and data and dramatizing reality.

Also read: Ending the Covid-19 Epidemic

COVID-19 easily mutates from the socially endemic to coronavirus infodemic. The symptom is that the level of public anxiety goes up and collective fear spreads. A part of the symptom is the phenomenon of blaming each other in handling COVID-19.

The government blames the people for not being disciplined in following health protocols. On the contrary, civil society blames the government for being slow and confused in handling COVID-19.

KOMPAS/AGUS SUSANTO

Clowns resemble coronavirus disease (Covid-19) tauke a walk around in the socialization of Operation Safety 2020 by the Jakarta Metropolitan Police in the Gelora Bung Karno area, Jakarta, on Monday (6/4/2020).

Indeed, there was a moment of delays on the part of the government in detecting, namely when the Health Ministry at the end of February insisted that COVID-19 had not yet entered Indonesia. In fact, epidemiologists and biostatistics experts warned that the coronavirus had circulated in Indonesia without being detected.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, the Chinese government was scapegoated by the public. The government was seen as ignoring the eye doctor Li Wenliang’s warning about the presence of a virus similar to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The Chinese government even sentenced Wenliang for spreading false news. When Dr. Wenliang died on Feb. 7 due to virus complications, residents protested the way the Chinese government ignored COVID-19.

Also read: Herd Immunity and Prevention against Covid-19

Fortunately, the Chinese government is skillful in anticipating the spread of coronavirus infodemic with a strict censorship system for all information in the media, especially social media. As of February, at least 250 people have been sentenced for spreading false news about the coronavirus. The Chinese government mobilized the military to stop the coronavirus infodemic and balance it with information about the totality of the government in serving and building infrastructure to deal with COVID-19.

This situation presented positive energy for citizens to stop coronavirus infodemic and obey government policies, especially regarding social restrictions and use of masks.

The ability of big data to regulate human and logistical flow had reduced the anxiety of citizens. There were 10,000 active military personnel, 4,000 of whom were military medical personnel who were directly involved in handling COVID-19. This situation presented positive energy for citizens to stop coronavirus infodemic and obey government policies, especially regarding social restrictions and use of masks.

The prolonged coronavirus infodemic will threaten national security. It can also attack international security if there is an interstate attack. This almost happened when the Chinese and United States governments were looking for scapegoats. The Chinese government suspected COVID-19 was part of a US conspiracy to infiltrate the virus into China. On the contrary, the US accused the Chinese government of deliberately creating the coronavirus and COVID-19 genetic engineering to get a vaccine so that it benefitted the Chinese economy.

Fortunately Trump and Xi Jinping are cooling down. Both of them communicated with each other and agreed to join forces to fight against COVID-19.

KOMPAS/HENDRA A SETYAWAN

Medical workers take a rest on the sidelines of a drive-through rapid test post at the Rawa Buntu Community Health Center in South Tangerang, Banten, on Wednesday (8/4/2020). The rapid test is an attempt by the government to find out the number of people who are likely to be exposed to a new type of coronavirus, Covid-19.

COVID-19 hyper reality

Another dangerous COVID-19 social army is the COVID-19 hyper reality. Referring to the perspective of hyper reality from Berger and Luckman (1967), COVID-19 hyper reality can be interpreted as a super ideal imagination that is demanded from the government in handling COVID-19. The idea is mixed between objective and subjective opinions. What is dangerous is when it is based on the clash of various differences in political interests that already exist, with the aim of creating the instability of the government\'s political power.

The existence of a COVID-19 hyper reality leads to the formation of public perception that political and economic social instability will occur in Indonesia due to the failure to deal with COVID-19. This becomes a source of more widespread anxiety and fear.

Also read: Covid-19 Handling Command Strengthened

Hyper reality encourages people to do irrational things, one of which is panic shopping or increasing social unrest among workers/laborers and poor communities because they think about their fate.

In order to get a picture of the condition of public anxiety, we can see the results of the Kompas survey, which showed that 43 percent of respondents claimed to be very worried and 55 percent were worried, the rest answered that they were not worried and did not know (April 6). If the level of worry gets higher, it will certainly trigger stress and affect with collective immunity.

Getting rid of the COVID-19 hyper reality requires proportional synergy between the government, the community, the private sector, TNI, National Police, medical teams, academics and the media. Each of them needs to actively deliver objective and optimistic opinions to the public that the government and the Indonesian people will be able to solve the coronavirus like other countries that have succeeded in overcoming it.

This is all good news and can reduce public anxiety.

Government efforts to build healthy good governance to face the pandemic is getting better. There are guidelines for implementing the large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) policy. There is also a regulation in lieu of the law (Perppu) No. 1/2020 on State Financial Policy to regulate strategic steps to overcome the people\'s economic shocks and their recovery. Personal protective equipment for the medical team is increasingly available. This is all good news and can reduce public anxiety.

It is like playing a game, to win against COVID-19 and social coronavirus infodemic and COVID-19 hyper reality , always united (AAL) and always attacking (ALLCC) strategies in one direction are needed, namely to stop the chain of transmission of COVID-19; not looking for other scapegoats for each other instead.

Also read: Religion as a Way Against the Outbreak

The tit for tat (TTF) strategy is used to get out of the dilemma of who is at the forefront. All parties must be the vanguard, especially the wider community, not just the medical teams. If there are community members who are not following government directives (social restrictions, wearing masks, etc.), or forwarding incorrect information, then click the tit for tat. Give them strict sanctions. Indonesia will surely win!

Dwia Aries Tina Pulubuhu, Professor of Sociology and Rector of Hasanuddin University