The anti-science, anti-vaccine movement seems to be gaining ground in Indonesia, with the latest tragic example being eight private, religious-based schools within the special region of Yogyakarta rejecting a Ministry of Health’s program to administer MR (measles and rubella) vaccinations to their students.
According to the head of Yogyakarta’s Ministry of Religious Affairs, Lutfi Hamid, the eight schools, consisting of elementary and middle schools in Bantul, Sleman and the region’s capital city of Yogyakarta, rejected the vaccines for various reasons, one of which was that the vaccines used for the immunization are considered haram (there is a conspiracy theory amongst some Muslims that vaccines contain ingredients derived from pigs and are thus forbidden to Muslims – this has been thoroughly debunked).
Lufti said another reason cited by some of the schools is that people are already naturally immune and thus don’t require vaccines.
“They think that even without immunization, humans are already immune,” Lutfi said as quoted by Kompas.
Lutfi said his department was still trying to communicate with the schools to convince them of the importance of the MR vaccine, new versions of which are needed because the virus continues to evolve. He said he was also trying to reassure them that the vaccines did not contain any haram ingredients.
“I think nowadays, everything is done transparently so that they can trust that there are no haram ingredients so we can assume everything is being done in a lawful and religious way,” Lutfi said.
Yogyakarta Governor Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X himself asked the region’s Health Department to approach the eight schools. He said if any of the schools could prove with evidence that the vaccines were indeed haram, then he would allow them to reject them, but otherwise he said he expects all educational institutions in his region to implement the immunization program.
