Covid 19 coronavirus: Teuila Fuatai - errors in NZ s first week of vaccinations
2 Mar, 2021 04:00 PM
5 minutes to read
There are no new positive cases in the community - and there are four cases in managed isolation, director general of health Ashley Bloomfield says. Bloomfield said the lack of new cases was encouraging but stressed we re not out of the woods .
There are no new positive cases in the community - and there are four cases in managed isolation, director general of health Ashley Bloomfield says. Bloomfield said the lack of new cases was encouraging but stressed we re not out of the woods .
Māori TV
Three experts with a history of challenging an inequitable health system talk to Moana about using science to survive a pandemic.
Days before the first Covid-19 vaccinations are expected to begin, three Māori health experts have answered questions about the vaccine and why some people feel anxious about immunisation. They spoke to Moana Maniapoto the host of Māori TV’s current affairs show,
Te Ao with Moana. Clinical immunologists Maia Brewerton and Anthony Jordan, as well as GP Rawiri Jansen, agreed that Māori have suffered in the past, and they understand why some may be vaccine hesitant, but said vaccines do offer an important layer of protection against the coronavirus.
Dr Talemaitoga who is part of the New Zealand government s Immunisation Implementation Advisory, has also cautioned against letting the measles vaccination programme falter again.
He said although Covid-19 vaccinations were taking centre stage, it s important to also stay on top of immunisation for measles, an outbreak of which killed over 80 people in Samoa in in 2019. We still had a huge gap in our measles, mumps rubella catch-up which should have been happening now, but which hasn t had the currency with our Pacific communities. So that s number one and we re really wanting to ramp that up.
The Ministry of Health launched its measles immunisation programme last year shortly before Auckland entered its second covid-19 lockdown, which overshadowed it.