Covid-19: Alienating half a million unvaccinated Kiwis won't help the vaccine roll-out, health provider says
Tuesday, 2 November 2021
If the nation wants to boost vaccination rates, society cannot alienate the unvaccinated, a health provider says.
There are more than 500,000 people across the country who are yet to receive a first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, according to Ministry of Health statistics.
By ethnicity band, the majority are European/Other at 317,544 followed by 159,810 Māori, and 42,183 are Pasifika, as of October 31.
The Asian community has surpassed the 100 per cent mark, tracking at 100.8 per cent of the population receiving their first vaccination according to the Covid-19 vaccination rate map.
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Vaccinations are increasing slowly but, to keep up momentum, Ngā Miro Health Centre manager Glenda Raumati said those who are vaccinated must not alienate the unvaccinated.
She, alongside DHBs, health providers, vaccination centres, and community leaders, has been working for months to enable access, build up trust and share information with people who are yet to be vaccinated in a bid to protect the community from Covid-19.
It’s draining, frightening, and can be hard work, Raumati said, but she's not giving up trying to help make the choice to take the vaccine an easy decision, and neither should the vaccinated.
A second mass vaccination event on Saturday drew in hundreds of people to Hopuhopu Sports Grounds, near Ngāruawāhia, with a “significant number” turning out for their first vaccine, Raumati said.
Led by Waikato Tainui with the support of the Ngāruawāhia-based Ngā Miro Health Centre, more than 480 people were vaccinated, most of whom were Māori and rangatahi, she said.
Wynae Tukere, 54, more commonly known as Aunty Ku, was welcoming people at the event, asking each car what drove them to get their vaccinations.
“There’s a bit of them and us because there’s a lot of kaumātua saying, you can’t come to the house,” Tukere said.
It was this divide on a larger scale that was becoming a growing concern for Raumati.
Ministry of Health figures show almost three out of five people unvaccinated were below 35 years old.
Raumati said that group had been given the least amount of time to get vaccinated, getting the green light on September 1, so have had the most time to be susceptible to misinformation.
Alienating the unvaccinated wouldn’t help the vaccination effort, she said.
“We have to find a way to talk about them like they're still valued people in our society.
“People will do it in their own time, I know it’s a hōhā [nuisance] for us, but it’s just the way it is.
“We just have to let them make that decision and get vaccinated.”
However, she had seen a change in perspective from people in her rohe.
The vaccination event beat its previous record of 300 jabs, which gave her optimism that people were coming around to getting vaccinated.
“It’s probably not that they’re unvaccinated because it’s a conscious decision, they probably just haven't done it yet.
“It felt like they turned a little in their thinking, there’s been a shift in our people’s attitude towards getting vaccinated.
'Maybe we have turned a corner with our people’s readiness to be vaccinated.'
Maioha Panapa, co-leader of Ngāti Rangatahi, an online pro-choice vaccination campaign, was also at the vaccination event.
She said it was great to see so many people coming through, but knew there were people who were still wary of the vaccine.
She said she was concerned that they will be marginalised and rejected from their communities and family.
“I had a conversation with one of my whānau about working alongside someone who’s not vaccinated. They’re now thinking, why should I have to be in a work environment with someone who isn’t vaccinated?
“Creating that kind of anxiety around employment and social gatherings, that's creating an effect towards people what aren’t yet vaccinated.”
The shift from the Government’s Covid-19 elimination strategy to a highly vaccinated population means that when the nation opens up, there will be unvaccinated people in the community who need to be accepted by society, Panapa said.
Her campaign would begin working on positive communications to help the vaccinated accept the unvaccinated.
“This is something we will have to live with as elimination is no longer possible in our current stats,” Panapa said.
“We need to create positive comms of how we can show whānau what their reasoning is and, ‘This is how you can safeguard yourself while socialising.’”
Panapa said the best thing vaccinated people could do was take a step back and give unvaccinated people time to come to their own conclusions, even though that can be frustrating.
“[The unvaccinated are] being inundated with information. We need time to reflect on what we know now, what might come, and where we see ourselves in the bigger picture.”