"Change the game plan" - that's the demand from the National Urban Māori Authority as it lobbies the Ministry of Health and Auckland district health boards to urgently prioritise Māori and Pasifika vaccinations and vaccinators.
NUMA chair Lady Tureiti Moxon says the pivot is essential as Tāmaki Mākaurau battles its Covid-19 outbreak, where half of new cases are affecting Pasifika due to transmission at a church service.
“Māori and Pasifika service providers should be at the forefront. Instead, they are listed among a whole lot of providers on the Ministry of Health and district health board vaccinations sites,” Moxon says.
Māori are 50 percent more likely to die from Covid-19 but are the least likely to be fully vaccinated against the virus. So far 197,000 Māori have been vaccinated, while 1.4 million non-Māori have been vaccinated.
Today Auckland Mayor Phil Goff called for the region to get priority in the vaccine rollout as the city battles its outbreak, particularly given areas south of Auckland have seen no new cases and were moved to alert level 3 last night.
'Radically reprioritise'
Moxon agrees vaccination supply needs to prioritise Tāmaki but that communication efforts must radically reprioritise Māori and Pasifika.
“In the government’s multi-million dollar communications machine – we don’t even feature. Māori health providers are invisible. Our people need to know where we are and how they can access us. We are never going to be part of the solution if we’re always being kept at the bottom, as an option.” Moxon says.
A $39 million package was created to support Māori healthcare providers deliver the Covid-19 vaccine and an extra $2 million was set aside for the Immunisation Māori Communications Fund.
Te Ao Māori News asked the Ministry of Health on August 10 how much of the fund had been spent but is yet to receive a response.
Despite what she says is lack of adequate government messaging, Moxon praised Māori health providers running "a no-barriers: no groups, no age restrictions, no sign-ups" approach to vaccinating.
“One whānau is better than none,” she says.