August 09, 2021
Vaccine rules relax for family shots
The co-chair of Māori pandemic response group Te Rōpū Whakakaupapa Urutā says it’s time to get the whole whānau immunised.
Dr Rawiri McKree Jansen says with the more infectious delta variant looming, the best defence is high vaccination rates – as well as maintaining vigilance and safe practices such as staying home when you’re sick.
He says Māori vaccination rates haven’t been as high as they should have, probably because of poor messaging and confusing booking systems, but he’d like to see whānau ignore the booking system and turn up together to be vaccinated.
"So the age group thing has come down to 55 but last Thursday the ministry explicitly said if you have somebody in the eligible group, so now 55 or over, in hour household, the whole household can get vaccinated now. That's the first sensible thing for quite a while but it's important because if nanny's living with us, we should have all of us vaccinated. That protects nanny," Dr Jansen.
Dr Jansen says while anti-vaccination messages may have taken hold among some Māori already suspicious of the health system, elsewhere people are responding positively when they hear of friends and whānau who have already had the shorts.
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