Indonesia becomes the first country in the world to have decreed mandatory vaccinations on its citizens.
LifeSite News reported that the country's presidential order demands forced vaccinations on 181 million Indonesians. The order also stipulates that it would impose fines and would deny social aid to its citizens for non-compliance.
The country's capital, Jakarta, became the first region to implement the president's vaccination campaign. It has imposed fines of 5 million Indonesian Rupiah for those who would not comply, as well as a warning that government benefits would be denied. The other 33 provinces have yet to carry out the order.
Ahmad Riza Patria, the deputy governor of Jakarta, warned those who would not take the vaccine.
"If you reject it, there are two things, social aid will not be given, (and a) fine," Patria said.
However, Dr. Febi Dwirahmadi of Australia's Griffith University articulated her doubt on the vaccine.
"Social trust is absent. People are still questioning whether this is safe for the elderly, or pregnant women," Dwirahmadi said.
In addition, Usman Hamid, director of Amnesty International Indonesia, also criticized the government for its strict implementation of the order.
"A blanket mandate on vaccination, especially one that includes criminal penalties, is a clear violation of human rights," Hamid stated.
The country's vaccination program will run in four phases. Deutsche Welle said that the first two phases already started on Jan. 13. The first batch comprised the health workers and support staff. Public workforce would form the second phase, including public workers at ports and stations, electric and water companies, banks and other employees providing community services.
Critics of the country's forced vaccination program may have a sensible reason for their concern.
The health ministry of Israel, through the data released by Dr. Hervé Seligmann and engineer Haim Yativ, revealed that during a five-week vaccination period, Pfizer's mRNA experimental vaccine has killed 40 times more elderly people "than the disease itself would have killed." On the younger group, the number reportedly constitutes to death rates of 260 times than the virus would have killed in a given period.
The Israeli data also showed that "those vaccinated and above 65, 0.2 percent ... died during the three-week period between doses, hence about 200 among 100,000 vaccinated. This is to be compared to the 4.91 dead among 100,000 dying from COVID-19 without vaccination."
Further, Seligmann and Yativ also stated that the "estimated numbers of deaths from the vaccine are probably much lower than actual numbers as it accounts only for those defined as COVID-19 deaths for that short time period and does not include AVC and cardiac (and other) events resulting from the inflammatory reactions."
As of March 3, Indonesia has vaccinated 2,104,967 of its citizens. While 1,076,409 have already taken their second vaccinations.
President Joko Widodo himself received the first shot of the Sinovac Biotech Ltd. vaccine on the first day of the country's vaccination program.
"We need to do the vaccination to stop the chain spread of COVID-19 and give health protection to us and the safety to all Indonesian people. It will also help accelerate economic improvement," Widodo stated.
