Afternoon Talk with FEB UI Series 5: “The Impacts of the Pandemic, Learning from History”
Nino Eka Putra ~ FEB UI Public Relations Officer
DEPOK – The Demography Institute at the Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Indonesia (LD FEB UI), joined the 5th Afternoon Talk with FEB UI webinar entitled “The Impacts of the Pandemic: Learning from History” on Tuesday (2/6/2020).
The keynote speaker at this event was Turro Selrits Wongkaren, Ph.D., head of LD FEB UI, Dr. Bagus Takwin, lecturer at the Faculty of Psychology, UI, who is also adjunct researcher at LD FEB UI. The webinar was moderated by Dr. Dwini Handayani, chair of the Master’s Degree Program in Population and Labor Economics (MEKK), FEB UI. The online event was attended by 1,400 people from various circles across Indonesia.
Dr. Beta Yulianita Gitaharie, acting dean of EB UI, in her opening remarks said that a pandemic is an epidemic occurring over a wide area and affecting a large number of people. History shows that 20 major pandemics have occurred since the 2nd century AD. In the past, pandemics like the one occurring today were considered the “curse of God”. Speakers at this webinar will explain whether or not pandemics are the “curse of God” or how advances in technology and science could alter the perception.
Turro Selrits Wongkaren, the first speaker, explained the impacts of the Spanish flu pandemic. The Spanish flu was a very large pandemic that occurred globally, affecting 500 million people (a quarter of the world’s population) and causing around 40-50 million deaths. It occurred in three waves, in the spring of 1918, the fall of 1918, and the winter of 1918-spring of 1919. The pandemic plunged the world economy into recession in the short term, followed by rapid economic growth in the medium term in the 1920s.
Unlike the pneumonia and flu pandemics that broke out in different times, the Spanish flu hit people in the productive age group. In addition, the cohort analysis shows a negative impact on those born in 1918-1919 with lower education and wages, higher probability of becoming poor, and higher rates of disability at age 61.
“Meanwhile, demographically, there are three stages in a pandemic. First, the mortality and morbidity rates are high, coital frequency is very low. Second, mortality and morbidity rates decrease while coital frequency and the probability of pregnacy is low, partly due to marital dissolutions (husband or wife dies of pandemic). Third, the birth rate starts to increase due to compensation for death, but only briefly, because after that fertility starts to decline,” said Turro.
Meanwhile, social conditions cause a deterioration in trust, especially among migrants, and there is a tendency of gender bias, namely smaller allocation for girls. In Indonesia, the Spanish flu caused about 4.3 million deaths in Java while the vaccine was only widely discovered around the 1940s. “Therefore, the Spanish flu has something in common with Covid-19, in that they affect various aspects of our lives and new normal aspects (social or physical distancing),” Turro concluded.
Bagus Takwin, the second speaker, said that the current economic crisis triggered by Covid-19 is expected to have an even worse impact on mental health because of the pressure on individuals and society is greater and multiplied. In addition to the threat of infection that causes anxiety and panic, the grief of losing a loved one and the economic impact are an additional blow.
Meanwhile, psychologically, a pandemic can affect seven aspects, namely emotional, cognitive, behavioral, health, socio-cultural, inequality and inequality, and politics. Psychologically, an economic crisis can incease the prevalence of alcohol and drug use, suicide (death, trial and ideation), use of mental health services, and health inequality.
“Therefore, improving mental health services, introducing a strong social protection policy, managing behavior, and instilling an adaptive mindset through communication facilitated by the government, are measures that must be taken to deal with the problems. On the one hand, more specific and comprehensive research in the Indonesian context needs to be carried out, including applied research on the measures that need to be taken to prevent mental health problems as an impact of Covid-19 and the accompanying economic crisis,” Bagus Takwin concluded. (hjtp)
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