On April 1 2024, a few days ago I was grateful and heartened because I received the MURI Record as Author of the Most Articles about COVID-19 in the Mass Media. The charter was handed over directly by Mr. Jaya Suprana at the Indonesian World Records Museum in Jakarta.
In my conversation with Pak Jaya Suprana, I conveyed three things that encouraged me to write various articles in this mass media. First, when COVID-19 was becoming our main health problem, among my friends and environment, as well as the wider community, there were many questions about this disease, and there was even inaccurate information circulating. Therefore, I write about various aspects of COVID-19 according to developments from time to time, with the hope that it can become a source of information for the public. Basically the material I write is based on three sources. Firstly from WHO, based on my experience working at WHO for 5 years, the studies are always very in-depth and involve world-class experts, so the results can certainly be justified. The second source is medical and health scientific journals published during the COVID-19 pandemic, and also recommendations from other well-known organizations such as the United States Center for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC), CDC from several other countries and international organizations such as GAVI, CEPI etc. The third source of writing is of course from within our own country, both clinical experience in the field and official publications from the Ministry of Health, medical professional organizations (IDI, Indonesian Lung Doctors Association - PDPI where I am Chair of the Honorary Council, etc.).
The second thing that prompted me to write these articles was because quite a lot of fellow journalists contacted me and asked about various aspects of COVID-19, especially if there were any new developments, an increase in cases, a new vaccine, a new variant, etc. So, I packaged this explanation to my fellow journalists in the form of an article so that more people can access it. The third thing about why I write so much is because I have long enjoyed writing articles in the mass media. I remember that in 1980, I had just graduated as a doctor and was placed in a community health center in Riau (which at that time could not be reached by road) so I started writing and it was published in a national newspaper (the title of the article was Insomnia), I was very happy as a young doctor at that time.
On this occasion I would like to thank my fellow journalists and editors who published my articles, which were then recorded and appreciated in the form of this MURI Record. We hope that our efforts to provide health enlightenment to the wider public will have some impact on improving the nation's health status.
Prof. Tjandra Yoga Aditama
