Measles campaign ‘a failure’

WELLINGTON: National has branded the Government’s twoyear $20 million measles catchup campaign as a failure that cannot solely be blamed on Covid19.

Figures show from the Government’s 300,000 target, about 23,500 people received the jab which makes up only 7% of its vaccination target between the ages of 15 and 30 years old.

National health spokesman Dr Shane Reti said the programme was doomed to fail from the start with promotional material taking three months to arrive.

Covid19 was not the major reason the programme was not successful, he said.

‘‘It certainly had an influence but it is not the key factor. The key factors to this campaign are delayed promotional material, yes Covid, $8 million of vaccines being allowed to expire and then a complete distraction of health reforms resulting in a very, very poor return for the taxpayer,’’ Dr Reti said.

The data showed only 28 Maori in Tairawhiti received the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination during the Government’s twoyear campaign.

Those numbers were very concerning, Dr Reti said.

‘‘We know there were thousands in this target group . . . this programme actually received specific funding for equity adjustment, particularly to target Maori and yet in Tairawhiti, a highrisk area, 28 people over two years — that is a failure.’’

More than 2000 people caught measles in the 2019 outbreak and 700 were hospitalised.

Immunisation coverage at 6 months of age has fallen in New Zealand from a high of about 80% in early 2020 to 67% by June 2022, and as low as 45% for Maori.

The Government could have reached more people if they gave the MMR vaccine alongside the Covid19 jab, Dr Reti said.

‘‘It eludes me why when that information was available, why when we had 15 to 30yearolds receiving the Covid vaccine, why we didn’t join them together and so these are the sorts of things we would have done in our hands to make sure we got a much better result for people so they could be protected from measles and for the taxpayer so that their hardearned money could get a really good health outcome,’’ Dr Reti said.

RNZ has approached Health Minister Andrew Little for comment.