Paediatric vaccinations a 'litmus test' for Covid-19 response partnership, New Zealand Māori Council says

Tuesday, 21 December 2021

Vaccinations for children aged 5-11 will begin in time for the return to school, on January 17.

The Government’s announcement that paediatric Covid vaccinations will be available from January next year will be the perfect litmus test to see if the nation’s leaders have learned anything from the previous year’s failings, the New Zealand Māori Council says.

On Tuesday Covid-19 response Minister Chris Hipkins announced tamariki aged 5 to 11 years would be eligible to receive their first vaccination from January 17 after Medsafe approved Pfizer’s paediatric vaccinations last week.

The Waitangi Tribunal issued a report on Tuesday that the Government had breached its Treaty obligations to Māori.

The New Zealand Māori Council has been in meetings with Government officials about the roll-out designs for the past three weeks following the urgent inquiry into the Government’s Covid-19 response for Māori, which found multiple breaches of Te Tiriti in the roll-out and the traffic light system.

New Zealand Māori Council Peter Fraser says it’s time to move forward with the Covid-19 response and leave 2021’s mistakes in the past.

* Government breached treaty principles in Covid-19 response, Waitangi Tribunal finds

* Covid-19: Boy's death brings call for south Auckland children to get vaccine first

The council’s national secretary, Peter Fraser, said the ball was dropped in 2021, but hopefully the Government had learned from its mistakes and were ready to work with Māori in 2022.

“It’s really a litmus test for the Government,” Fraser said.

“We can’t get into a time machine and go back to 2021 and make it better, but we can make it better in 2022.

Covid-19 response Minster Chris Hipkins says there will be enough paediatric vaccinations for everyone by January 17.

“Things could have been a lot better, and we’re hoping this will be the wake-up call they needed. We don’t want this to fail.”

Fraser said their main concern was if supply chains failed there wouldn't be enough vaccine for all children to access their jabs, but Hipkins said that wouldn’t be an issue.

The threat of serious illness or death due to Covid-19 varies across the population. But for nearly everyone, the risk of vaccination is much smaller than the risk posed by an infection, even among groups that do well against Covid-19.

“We are fortunate that we will have enough of a supply of the vaccine when it arrives to start everybody all at the same time.

“I think this really is a good opportunity for us now to not just reach the tamariki, but also reach into some of the adults who may not have been vaccinated yet either.”

Hipkins said the Government had learned from the vaccination roll-out for adults that a different approach was needed, particularly for Māori, those who were undecided about the vaccine, and people living in remote areas.

“We know that we don’t have the vaccination rate among Māori that we want to have, we have an opportunity with the roll-out of our 5 – 11-year-olds to do things a little bit differently, to target those resources to those communities more quickly in the beginning without having to take away from anybody else.”

Specific advertising campaign would also be created to encourage whānau Māori to engage with their health providers and access reliable information to make the best decisions for their families.

Rotorua based paediatrician Dr Danny de Lore, of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, said Māori paediatricians welcomed the decision to begin vaccinations for children in January.

It was particularly important for tamariki Māori who were “likely to bare a disproportionate burden” of Covid-19 without the shield of vaccinations.

“We believe tamariki Māori have a right to be protected against Covid-19 and have a right to participate in the wider protection of their communities.”

De Lore said Māori paediatricians and health professionals had been giving the Government technical advice in the lead up to the announcement that a successful roll-out for tamariki Māori would capture the whole whānau.

Whānau needed to be provided with reliable information and opportunities to discuss their options with trusted health professionals, de Lore said.

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Whānau hauā and families with disabilities also needed to receive relevant information to help them make well-informed decisions, as well as ensure Māori had access to the usual yearly vaccination schedule, booster shots, and initial vaccinations for those who were yet to receive their first and second Pfizer shots.

“A successful programme will be delivered in partnership with iwi and Māori health providers. Including sharing of data, Māori and pacific organisations have already demonstrated that they know how to deliver vaccination programmes effectively in their own communities.

“As Māori paediatricians we are encouraged to see the Government making a commitment to by-Māori, for-Māori input, including ongoing technical and implementation communications and delivery of vaccinations.”