Criticism of Mori’s vaccine equity program returns to Seymour

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ACT chief David Seymour’s public sharing of a priority vaccine code for Mori is shameful and disgusting, and undermines efforts to improve health outcomes in Mori and the Pacific, doctors and politicians say .

Actor David Seymour Photo: Rob Dixon

Seymour released a written statement this morning with an image attached displaying priority access codes, which allow residents of Mori and the Pacific to receive the vaccine at sites in Whnau Ora without having to book in advance.

“The virus does not racially discriminate, so the deployment should not either,” the statement said. “Access to vaccination has been the same for people of all ethnicities. If fewer Mori are vaccinated, it cannot be an access problem, but this government decision implies that the Mori are struggling to to make a reservation.”

However, the virus discriminates. The New Zealand Medical Journal found that after controlling for age and underlying conditions, Mori and Peacekeepers are 2.5 times and 3.06 times more likely to be hospitalized for contracting Covid-19 than other ethnicities.

Researchers have estimated the risk of death for Mori from Covid-19 to be at least 50% higher than European New Zealanders and infection rates are also significantly higher as vaccination rates have languished.

Auckland GP Dr Rawiri Jansen was on the government’s vaccination expert group and said Seymour’s decision to share the code was “actually very unnecessary and quite harmful”.

“I think it’s shameful, it’s really disappointing. I think it shows complete disregard for our efforts to improve the immunization program to reach Mori who happens to be the weakest vaccinated population in the country, and Husband is the most at risk population in the country from Covid. “

Dr Jansen – who is also the director of the National Hauora Coalition, a clinical network of 57 GP practices – said the immunization program needed a lot of improvements to work well for Mori.

“The reservation system has worked well for people with data plans on their phones and personal computers with fiber optics. People who have been able to work from home have gasoline in their cars. All of these things work very well for a certain part of our population.

Photo: LDR / Stephen Forbes

“But if the only car you have is being used by an essential worker who is going to pile up the shelves of grocery stores and really has trouble finding time to be able to get to the vaccination center, and is having trouble with the reservation system, and struggling to understand the message coming from the center, I think we can understand why the vaccination program has not worked well for Mori.

“We are working diligently to try to steer it towards fairness and one of those ways will be to have booking codes that help Mori get to the places that prioritize them and get them through the system as efficiently. as possible.”

He said the shift to Whnau Ora and Mori organizations having control over their own deployments had a fantastic effect on vaccination rates.

“The more Mori organizations we have involved in the delivery, the more Mori intelligence we involved in messaging to Mari communities, the more we involved the Mori media there, we saw the number of Mori vaccinations double in the two last few weeks.

“Absolutely sensational. Acceptance of vaccines is increasing and we can do this job – and I think we have to be absolutely determined to get the best outcome for the Mari communities and for all of Aotearoa.”

Seymour dismissed the idea that he was dividing, pinning that term on government instead.

“For the government to start categorizing and identifying people purely on the basis of race rather than need is a huge mistake. It divides, it infantilizes some New Zealanders and infuriates the rest, and we believe such a move can only lead New Zealand to a worse place in the long run, ”he said.

“Wanting people to be treated equally, regardless of their ethnicity, is the opposite of racism.

“There is absolutely nothing wrong with all New Zealanders knowing what the government is doing … the alternative is for the government to continue to pursue divisive policies and this is much more damaging for New Zealand. long-term.”

He said people who did not use Mori using the code would undermine racial discrimination, and “if that undermines racial discrimination, it is worth doing.”

Instead, ACT would have focused on the faster roll-out of the vaccine, he said.

“What we would have done is partnered with a whole range of business and civil society organizations to expedite delivery. Here’s one thing that could have helped, most people trust them. GP… GPs have been outside of this vaccine rollout all along. ”

However, it doesn’t help that the healthcare system is also biased against Mori.

The head of Te Whnau o Waipareira – the commissioning agency of Whnau Ora that announced the no-booking code policy – John Tamihere was a leader of the Mori party and Minister of Labor, and suggested that Seymour try just to score political points.

“We have a nanny here who passed away three days ago… Delta’s first death. [Seymour], he has no respect, none.

“We’re way behind on immunization rates – way behind, just rock bottom. access to immunization rates that he takes for granted.

John Tamihere at the Te Whnau O Waipareira Covid-19 Vaccination Clinic. Photo: Twitter / Te Whnau O Waipareira

“I’m done with guys like him who use our brown political football to advance his own interests in our Covid environment.”

He said that many non-mori visit walk-in vaccination centers,

“What we need to do is design different approaches to onboarding and design our employees to have the same equality rights. That’s what it is and this person willfully sabotaged, in one of the most difficult times of our time, Mori’s ability to get vaccinated. “

Te Pti Mori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said she was disgusted by Seymour’s decision.

“It’s about taking a focused approach in a real time of crisis to eliminate inequalities, restore some balance and most of all get back to focusing on the whole team, you know, protecting the nation.

Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, co-leader of Pti Mori Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

“What we really have is a situation that was not designed by Mori and luckily incredible vendors like Waipareira… have been on the front lines from day one and have found ways to fix this.

“Look, I’m just disgusted with David. He never surprised me to be really honest, but he hit an all-time high today.”

Seymour’s claim that access to immunization had been the same for people of all ethnicities was also invalid.

“Where I live, in the south of Taranaki in Ptea, our average income here is $ 19,000, our nearest urban area is an hour and an hour and a half away… refuel my car for travel two to three hours to get vaccinated “. So these are real lives. These are lives that daily compromise on what is important.

“Just because he can’t see it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”

In a statement, Green Party President Te Mtwaka, Dr Elizabeth Kerekere, said Seymour’s decision was based on a racist narrative and was totally unacceptable to him as an MP and party leader of the to do.

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