CITIZEN JOURNALISM

Testimonials from Joining LaporCovid-19 Volunteers

By Firdaus Ferdiansyah

Very Interesting!!

Maybe that's the first thing you say when you join reportcovid19.org -Even to this day I still often mutter to myself about the conditions inside. Whether it's the work climate, or even about the data that is the daily bread of the volunteers who drivereportcovid.org. I'm interested in joining reportcovid19.org When my area, namely Tegal City, became one of the cities declared safe with zero cases, that actually made me doubt it. At that time, I often read narratives about data differences or data oddities in the data held by the BNPB COVID-19 Task Force. Nevertheless, of course I would be very happy and grateful if there were no more new cases in Tegal City.

I started moving on May 19 2020 - that's more or less visible from the regional data input traces with 3 cities/districts provided by the Volunteer Coordinator Mba Cici. 2 from the Riau Islands Province, namely Karimun Regency and Bintan Regency and Metro City in Lampung Province. On May 31 2020, I added 4 regions from North Sumatra Province which I monitored for inputting data, namely Serdang Bedagai Regency, Simalungun Regency, North Tapanuli Regency, and Toba Samosir Regency, so in total there are 7 regions which I monitor every day.

I think it's only been going on for 2 days reportcovid19.org , I just realized there was something not right regarding COVID-19 data in the area. Seeing developments at WAG, I think I'm not the only one experiencing this. Almost all mobilizing volunteers have their own findings and problems.

This time I want to tell you what I realized in finding several data problems regarding COVID-19, especially data on ODP, PDP and positive cases in the regions.

The first is that there is no special mechanism for reporting COVID-19 data nationally so that each region has different perceptions in reporting data about COVID-19 to the public through website or official account each of them. It is not surprising that we have different displays on our respective websites, and what is interesting is that there are differences in data between the city/district government and the provincial government. Differences like this can be seen from various regions, and have not happened just once or twice.

Second, not all local governments go through this websiteeach of them did it updates every day. This certainly makes it difficult for me to try to update every day. Maybe it looks like trivial, However, you can imagine how less comprehensive the government is when conducting studies, especially regarding epidemiology, without including complete data.

Several other findings, such as what I tried to find, were in the Tanah Bambu area, South Kalimantan, where on May 19 it was reported that there were 209 active ODP, 2 active PDP, 47 positive COV, 5 recovered. The next report, namely on May 21, there were 97 active ODP, 1 active PDP, 100 positive for COV, and 5 recovered. This creates a data anomaly where the ODP difference, which is 106, cannot be clearly identified considering that the positive difference is 53 and the active PDP difference is only 1.

Or my other findings in the Barito Kuala area, South Kalimantan; On May 14, it was reported that there were 17 active ODPs, 1 active PDP, 42 positive COV. The next report, namely on May 15, there were 12 active ODPs, 1 active PDP, 50 positive for COV. This creates a data anomaly where the ODP difference of 5 is too little compared to the positive data difference of 8. The other 3 people appear out of nowhere (or are actually cases that have not been detected)

Without reducing my sense of humanity, I do not mean to only consider COVID-19 patients or deaths as just statistical data. However, far more than that, this data should be used as a benchmark in developing and making policies by the government to determine the next strategic steps based on trust in science. Handling the COVID-19 pandemic based on trust in science certainly has a high level of success, as shown by the Taiwanese government which has a Vice President who is also an epidemiologist.