Deciphering the Meaning of One Life

KOMPAS/AGUS SUSANTO

Funeral officers bring the coffins of patients with the Covid-19 protocol at TPU Pondok Ranggon, East Jakarta, Tuesday (12/6/2020).

Until now, there has not been any disclosure of COVID-19 case data in the form of analytic presentations, namely with categorization and classification, which gives an early indication of the hierarchy of affected regions and the main causes of the undulating number of cases and mortality rates in an area.

Both the exposure by the authorities and the narratives made by the mass media still depart from the regional hierarchy based on the number of cases and the number of COVID-19 patients who die per province.

The highly administrative hierarchy of the government certainly does not describe the hierarchy of the problem and map of the source of the problem precisely at the national level or that is specific to certain regions. For example, which regions indicate the existence of problems with government capacity, which are significantly influenced by the character of the community, which are affected by the population migration pattern, which are influenced by geographical location or variations in combinations of some of these. In the future, after this pandemic ends, analytic mapping will be useful to improve strategies for managing public affairs.

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The compilation of an appropriate hierarchy and map of the problem is actually also useful for optimizing mitigation of the current COVID-19 outbreak. By continuing to use the current form of presentation, an increasing number of people will be mistaken in imagining the map and hierarchy of problem that occurs. The comparison of the number of cases among provinces, for example, raises the perception that provinces that have more cases are worse off than provinces with fewer cases. More than that, the placement of the provincial hierarchy based on the level of the COVID-19 pandemic effect based on the number of cases, and not on the number of patients who die, already becomes a truth in the general view of the level of severity or success in blocking the spread of COVID-19 in each region.

Using a case measure to compare with the number of those who recover does give value to see the success rate in mitigating the infected patients. However, do not forget, the measure of the loss of life is much higher in weight compared to the parameter of the number of cases or the rate of those who recover. The number of fewer cases and the higher rate of patients who recover cannot be given a higher weight than the number of dead patients, which is greater than the number of cases and the number of those who recover. The good and bad values for a collection of cases in a country or region should be more determined by the value of a human\'s life. In the Western world, let alone human life, the life of an animal that is being threatened will be a priority to be saved by the government and society.

Read also: Covid-19 Outbreak Not yet Under Control

The number of cases and the number of COVID-19 patients who die in the United States, which is far above the average of all countries in the world, cannot be used as a basis for assessing that the US is the country experiencing the worst problem in the world due to COVID-19. Based on the ratio of patients who die to the population of each country, the position of cases experienced by the US can only be seen to be worse by comparing it to those experienced by the Netherlands, Canada, Brazil, Mexico and Germany. The problem suffered by the US is not worse than Belgium, Britain, Spain, Italy, Sweden and France. The ratio of the number of COVID-19 patients who die to the population in the US is indeed quite high, namely one person dies in 2,700 residents. However, the ratio of patients who die to the population is much higher in the six European countries the writer mentioned earlier. In Britain, for example, the ratio of patients who die is one for every 1,623 inhabitants.

Asia is the lowest

With the measurement of the ratio of patients who die to the population, Asian countries are at the lowest position affected by the spread of COVID-19 ,despite the early emergence of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China. This is in the condition that remote countries in Africa or Latin America are not included. If sorted according to the ratio of patients who die to the population, three ASEAN countries, namely Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar, should be rated as the safest countries from COVID-19. Vietnam and Cambodia have recorded zero patients who died. In Myanmar, as of June 9, there were six patients who died. However, based on the ratio to population, the number of patients dying in Myanmar "is only" one for every 9 million population.

Kompas

Medical workers at the Duren Sawit Community Health Center (Puskesmas) in East Jakarta, take photos together after administering rapid and swab tests on sellers at Perumnas Klender Market on Friday (29/5/2020). More than 50 sellers underwent testing. Similar tests conducted last week found 50 sellers had COVID-19. The Indonesian Market Sellers Association recorded that 233 sellers had tested positive for COVID-19 nationally, of which 19 died.

Next, Asian countries that are quite successful in resisting the COVID-19 pandemic based on fatalities are Taiwan, Thailand, and Jordan, with the ratio of the death to population being 1 out of 3,400,000 people in Taiwan, 1 to 1,196,000 residents in Thailand, and 1 for 1,100,000 residents in Jordan. Meanwhile China, as the place of origin of COVID-19 in December 2019, can be said to be quite successful in controlling the spread of this virus. The number of patients who died in China is one for every 300,000 residents. With this ratio, the death toll in China is not worse than in Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, South Korea, India and Indonesia. In Australia, the ratio is one for every 245,000 inhabitants, in Singapore and New Zealand almost the same, respectively one for 228,000 and 222,000 residents.

Provinces with the worst impact

With the ratio of the death toll to the population in each province, the good and bad value of the impact of COVID-19 in each province cannot be represented by the number of cases or deaths among the provinces in Indonesia.

However, Jakarta still occupies the position of the province with the worst impact because the ratio of the number of cases and death toll to the population of Jakarta is indeed the highest with a mortality ratio of one person to 19,400 residents. Based on that measure, too, the second province is not East Java, although the number of COVID-19 patients who died was 575 as of June 12, but South Kalimantan with the number of COVID-19 patients who died reaching one to 36,200 inhabitants. Next, North Sulawesi with a death toll ratio reaching one to 48,000 people, North Maluku with a ratio of one to 56,000 inhabitants and East Java in the fifth position with a ratio of the number of patients who died reaching one to 69,000 inhabitants.

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Central Java and West Java are not even included in the group of the top 10 provinces. West Java, although the total death toll until June 12 reached 161 people and Central Java 103 people, the ratio of patients who died to the population in each of these provinces is 304,000 and 335,000, respectively. Meanwhile, South Sulawesi with 110 patients who died, the ratio is one person to 80,700 residents. This places it as the sixth-highest province with the worst impacts. The next four provinces according to the worst affected value based on the ratio of patients who died to the population are West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), Banten, South Sumatra and West Sumatra. The ratio of the number of patients who died to the population for each of these five provinces is one for 161,000 residents in NTB, one for 171,000 residents in Banten, one for 180,800 residents in South Sumatra and one for 189,000 residents in West Sumatra.

Individuals and community groups who initially disobey the directives of the government will then realize that life is immeasurable to any amount of money when those who die are their own family members or when they themselves are affected by COVID-19.

The hierarchy of the affected provinces based the ratio of COVID-19 patients who die to the population does not have to be a single indicator in mapping the impact of transmission of this deadly virus at the global or national level. However, if giving meaning of one life for a family, surely this parameter will be given a dominant weight in the calculation of aggregate value scoring. Individuals and community groups who initially disobey the directives of the government will then realize that life is immeasurable to any amount of money when those who die are their own family members or when they themselves are affected by COVID-19.

With the mitigation oriented to saving every life, by itself, ordinary people will be easily reminded about the various factors that can make cases happen to themselves or their families. Meanwhile, the authorities and academics just need to explore various other factors that are significant and relevant for each region in the country of Indonesia, which is very diverse and whose process of governance development is still incomplete.

KOMPAS/TOTOK WIJAYANTO

Andrinof A Chaniago

Criticizing in a too high a tone without mapping the problem and arranging the problem’s hierarchy correctly is not a wise way. To leave speculative judgments, we should start by mapping the overall problem precisely on the basis of or oriented to the value of one life.

Andrinof A Chaniago, Public Policy Analyst and Lecturer in the Department of Political Science, the School of Social and Political Sciences (FISIP), University of Indonesia