January 25, 2022
Rollout inequalities threaten Māori lives
Māori Covid data analyst Dr Rawiri Taonui is urging the Government to appoint a vaccination monitoring group for tamariki.
Preliminary data from Auckland’s five to 11-year-old vaccination rollout shows tamariki Māori are getting their shot a half the rate of non-Māori and Pasifika children.
That’s despite the efforts of Māori and other health providers to close the vaccination gap for over-12s from 23.2 per cent in mid-September to 10.3 per cent.
That leaves 17.6 per cent of Māori aged over 12 unvaccinated and particularly vulnerable to the hyper-infectious Omicron variant.
On last Sunday’s numbers, Māori uptake of boosters at 18.9 per cent of the eligible over-18 population is also well behind the national average of 27 per cent.
The 105,000 Māori who’ve been vaccinated since November 1 will not qualify for the booster shot until March or later.
Dr Taonui says this is too late to avoid Māori communities being devastated by Omicron, and he wants the qualifying period immediately cut to three months.