'It's worse than the adult rollout' — Māori child vaccination rates lag as Omicron cases rise

Thursday, 17 February 2022

Tamariki aged 5 to 11 are able to get a kids' version of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine, to help protect them against the virus.

Vaccination rates for Māori children are well behind the rest of the country, despite the Government promising to do better.

Just 27 per cent of Māori children between 5 and 11 years old have had their first jab, compared to 51.6 per cent of non-Māori, according to Ministry of Health data released on Tuesday.

Māori health advocates say vaccinating kids at school and shortening the waiting period between jabs could reduce the disparity.

“This is not just bad, it's worse than the adult rollout,” Dr Owen Sinclair (Te Rarawa), a paediatrician at Waitakere Hospital in Auckland, said.

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Dr Owen Sinclair is “disappointed” that the errors made in the adult vaccine rollout that resulted in racial disparities have not been addressed.

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“Myself and my Māori colleagues are definitely upset this has happened, we spent a lot of time advocating for equitable rollouts to occur.”

The Government agreed Māori children would be prioritised for vaccinations after a Waitangi Tribunal hearing in December which found the Government’s Covid-19 response breached Treaty obligations to Māori.

But Sinclair said the lessons haven't been learned from the adult vaccine rollout, when Māori rates lagged behind other groups.

“The approaches that have gone on haven't really addressed the problems that occurred in the adult rollout, and that is access,” he said.

“The plan is still for Māori families to go somewhere and get it done. It didn't work in the adult rollout, and it doesn't work now.”

Sinclair said if vaccinations were taken into schools the disparity would disappear “very quickly”.

Dr Rawiri Taonui says the advice of Māori has been ignored by the Government and placed children at risk.

“The thing that may save everyone is, that at 2 o’clock today I know where every [eligible] child in New Zealand is – they're sitting in a school,” he said.

“But there seems to be this great reluctance to actually use that process.”

Data researcher Dr Rawiri Taonui (Ngāpuhi, Te Aupōuri, Ngāti Maniapoto) has contributed to a Ministry of Health Māori under-12 years Vaccination Working Group.

“During December and early January, when we had much lower case numbers than we saw last year, we had this window of opportunity to act, and the Government hasn't done enough,” Taonui said.

“Now the risk is we’re going to be inundated with not only lots of Māori cases but lots of cases amongst our tamariki.”

He said he was “disappointed” the Government did not follow the advice of Māori.

“There definitely has been consultation, but there has been no co-design,” he said.

“Some of the suggestions that have come from Māori in the group, most of the important ones, have not been picked up on.”

Taonui said the Government was advised by Māori to reduce the period between child vaccinations from eight to three weeks and to start vaccinating children in schools.

“Looking after our tamariki is going to be a really major challenge, particularly in remote regions like Northland and the East Coast where they live some distance from primary healthcare,” he said.

Spokeswoman Rachel Mackay said the Ministry of Health was engaging with the education sector, district health boards and providers to look at the best way to vaccinate tamariki.

“This has already seen some schools operating as community vaccination sites. We also continue to look at different models that involve kura and schools,” she said.

Mackay said it was recommended that the two paediatric vaccinations for children were completed at least eight weeks apart, but the time between doses can be shortened to a minimum of three weeks if needed.

“For example, if the child is starting significant immunosuppression treatment. The ministry recommends that this is discussed with the child's doctor,” she said.

She said the ministry was “strongly focused” on improving vaccination uptake by Māori.

“We are also delivering vaccination through models such as marae-based clinics, community vaccination centres, mobile units travelling to rural locations, festival events and workplace programmes,” she said.

'This is what our whānau-centred approach is all about, with vaccinations being locally designed, regionally led, nationally supported and delivered by Māori for Māori in the community.'