A 49-year-old man by the name of Abdul Rahim, from Pinrang Regency, South Sulawesi, confessed in a 31-second video that he had received vaccinations on behalf of 14 people.
This signifies that he received 16 shots in total, two of which were meant for himself, and he was paid anywhere from 100K to 800K Indonesian Rupiah (S$10-S$76) for each additional jab he took on their behalf.
The video in question went viral in the WhatsApp circles and was subsequently reported by Kompas. According to the news source on 20 Dec 2021, the Pinrang COVID-19 Task Force Team and the police were investigating who the “jab-for-hire” Abul Rahim was, as well as his clients.
Fourteen Too Many Jabs
In the video, Rahim also declared that there was one particular day where he received three shots in total, which led him to experience mild side-effects like “drowsiness”.
The Pinrang Police Reskirm Head, AKP Deki Marizaldi said that Rahim took two types of vaccine shots, namely Astra Zeneca and Sinovac, which left the man feeling weak afterwards. Rahim also said that he would drink coconut water before and after taking the vaccines, but he still “slept well”.
By the way, you can know more about how “healthy” coconut water or milk is with this video:
Some readers might be feeling alarmed now— Is this Indonesian man okay?
Well, excessive dosing of COVID vaccines is actually a “well-known” risk and it has happened to two elderly residents in a Queensland aged care home, who were given four times the recommended dose.
Fortunately for the two elders, and a few select patients from Germany and Israel, excessive dosages of the Pfizer-Biotech are not life-threatening, and it will only lead to localised reactions like muscle aches and pains at most.
However, such in-depth studies have not been conducted for Sinovac and Astra Zeneca, though Professor Sri Rezeki Hadinegero, the Chairman of the Indonesian Technical Advisory Group of Immunisation, will be keeping a close eye on Rahim as he remains in police custody now as a witness for the ongoing investigations.
It’s hard to say what will happen to Rahim, but COVID-19 will definitely have a hard time trying to get a crack at him at least.
Holes in the Management
The bigger problem here is the fact that Rahim had succeeded in helping replace his clients in taking the injections whilst they remained unvaccinated.
Rahim said, “I brought a photocopy of the ID card of the person who wanted to be vaccinated and then I waited at the clinic for the nurse to call the name.
“Sometimes I wore a mask, sometimes I didn’t.”
If anything, Rahim being a vaccine jockey pokes at a sore spot in the Indonesian vaccination system that stems from the lack of proper identification checks, as well as the vaccine apprehensions that underlie Indonesia.
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Criminal Charges
Since the investigations are still underway, for both Rahim and the fourteen other suspects, Rahim’s charges have yet to be determined by the police.
Moreover, Rahim’s family has revealed that the 49-year-old man suffers from mental disorders. Authorities state that he will be examined for his medical conditions.
APK Deki opines that Rahim’s motive for confessing is unclear, although it is highly likely that it was fuelled by the financial incentive since Rahim was a construction worker in Watang Sawitto District of the South Sulawesi Province, and was willing to receive any COVID-19 injection as long as he got paid.
Not to salt at any wounds, but if Rahim’s willingness to take vaccinations could be shared, I reckon that the world would be a much safer place. The authorities probably never suspected that over-enthusiasm was a problem they had to deal with beside absenteeism.
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Featured Image: Kompas