March 07, 2021
Message, messenger and media key to Maori Covid vax campaign
A member of Māori pandemic response group Te Rōpu Whakakaupapa Urutā is rejecting suggestions there could be vaccine hesitancy among Māori.
He says that’s dialling down expectations of Covid-19 vaccine campaign and setting it up to fail, rather than looking at well-resourced and targeted programmes run by Māori providers which have achieved more than 90 percent uptake.
He expects to see information communicated well, designed with Māori in mind and delivered on trusted media like Māori radio and television.
"It's really possible to identify Māori expertise to carry that message and those will be the ones who are trusted in our community so the message, the messenger and the media, those are the three things in my view, let's get a great campaign going," Dr Jansen says.
More than 14,000 managed isolation, border and port workers and their bubbles have been vaccinated so far, with frontline health workers next and planning well advanced for the wider roll out.
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