Police in North Jakarta have arrested a vaccinator who was caught on video injecting a boy with an empty syringe that should have contained the COVID-19 vaccine.
The video, which was taken last Friday and went viral over the weekend, shows the vaccinator injecting the boy during a COVID-19 vaccination drive at a high school in Pluit, Penjaringan. However, it’s apparent that the syringe plunger had not been drawn before the injection, and that the syringe was clearly empty.
The video was taken by the boy’s mother, who used the footage as proof in her complaint to the vaccination drive’s organizers. At the time, the organizers apologized and agreed to administer a proper shot to the boy.
But after the video went viral, the North Jakarta Police took action and questioned the vaccinator, a volunteer at the program identified by her initials EO, who was arrested today and confessed to giving the boy an empty shot.
“I apologize, especially to the family and the boy I vaccinated. I apologize, I had no [ill] intention,” EO said in tears today during a police press conference.
EO told the police she administered shots to hundreds of people that day.
“So it was clear it was negligence [on her part]. She vaccinated 599 people that day and she felt she was negligent for not making sure that she was carrying out her job properly,” Jakarta Metro Police spokesman Yusri Yunus said.
Nevertheless, EO was charged with jeopardizing efforts to combat a disease outbreak, and may face up to one year in prison.
A similar accusation was made against a vaccinator in Karawang, West Java last month, though in that case the medical professional denied faking the shot. Lab tests were conducted to determine if there was any truth to the accusation and the case is still under investigation as of today.
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