TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The United Indonesian Doctors Society (PDIB) chairperson Dr. James Allan Rarung strongly argues that the government’s decision to loosen the constraints of the COVID-19 large-scale social restriction (PSBB) could manifest into herd immunity.

The loosening the doctor refers to is the government’s latest decision to let citizens that are aged 45-years old and under to return back to work activities.

“For sure the side effects of herd immunity for a weak individual within a population can lead to illnesses or worse, death,” said the doctor to ANTARA on Sunday, May 17. “Herd immunity generally is risking a certain group of population to be exposed to the virus to [naturally] create an antibody.”

He also said that hopes to improve a society’s immune system will eventually reduce the number of new COVID-19 infections and curb the spread of the virus. However, to reach that goal, the percentage of having a population be immune to the virus is roughly 70 percent with the rest being prone to the side effects of the practice.

Despite this, he believes that the government has thoroughly calculated why the sub-45-year-old workforces were permitted to resume normal work activities.

However, he said a stricter “safety net” taking the form of followup actions must be enacted following the PSBB relaxation.

The doctor also reminded that the government must be prepared to quickly handle the age demographic that has shown symptoms of infection through a series of coronavirus tests as the relaxed social restriction will increase the possibility of infected people not showing symptoms.

The doctors association leader reminds the government to not bear the cost of COVID-19 tests to the carriers as doing otherwise would only worsen the situation.

ANTARA