As the Covid-19 death toll rises, the dangers of smoking is showing up in the country
Jakarta/Hong Kong — In a country with one of the developing world’s worst Covid-19 fatality rates, public health experts see a link between the new coronavirus and an old hazard: tobacco.
Nearly two-thirds of Indonesian males 15 and older smoke, and with its large population, the country has been one of the tobacco industry’s last big growth markets. Now, as the coronavirus death toll mounts, Indonesia illustrates the dangers of a permissive public health approach to smoking — and a reliance on tobacco industry tax revenue — amid the outbreak of a virus that turns especially deadly when it reaches the lungs.
The link is not entirely straightforward. In Greece, the only country where smoking is more prevalent than Indonesia, the coronavirus outbreak has been mild, with fewer than 3,000 cases, though nearly 6% of patients have died. Still, the government has made scant efforts to discourage tobacco use, and a pack of cigarettes can be bought for as little as $1. In January, the government raised the excise tax on cigarettes, and four months later agreed to delay tax collection from the tobacco companies as part of an economic stimulus package.
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