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Download AudioWhānau Ora Commissioning Agency chief executive John Tamihere says the tamariki Covid vaccination programme is in disarray – and he blames outgoing health Ministry head Dr Ashley Bloomfield.
Dr Bloomfield told Radio Waatea that while Mr Tamihere twice took the ministry to court over the release of data on unvaccinated populations, there was a lot of work done behind the scenes to allow those data to be used.
But Mr Tamihere says by the time Māori providers got the data they needed, Māori communities were totally fatigued with the Covid response.
“When you’re trying to perpetrate another enforced vaccination programme they’d had enough, so we missed our opportunity, and they’re only one bloke to blame. Him, and his mates,” he says.
Mr Tamihere says providers are concentrating on getting through the current wave of Covid cases and winter illnesses, and they’ll go hard over the summer to catch u with vaccinations for a range of diseases.
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