Fear widens the gap between vaxed and unvaxed
With The Great Vaccination Race in full flight, and almost 85 per cent of Kiwis having received their first dose, it’s the final metres to the finish line before Christmas that will be the hardest.
Until now, the Government has utilised the carrot strategy to entice the hesitant to get vaccinated. That was best exemplified by last Saturday’s gloriously hokey Vaxathon, a wonderful snapshot of New Zealand in the raw, which managed to achieve an eyewatering 130,000 vaccinations in one day.
Since then, numbers have fallen off, reiterating how near, yet how far away, the 90 per cent goal will be.
With 20 per cent of New Zealanders in August declaring they wouldn’t get vaccinated, the fact that 85 per cent have is a victory, but it also underlies the difficulty of reaching that crucial last 5 per cent.
Yesterday’s Government announcement outlined the stick strategy, with 90 per cent vaccination targets across district health boards and, confusingly, a trafficlight system replacing the level system. However, it also clearly signposts that the most reluctant will inevitably hold the least reluctant to ransom.
And, despite all the soothing words from professionals about entering into ‘‘loving, meaningful and understanding conversations’’ with the vaccine-hesitant, out in the real world fear is driving both sides into fraught decisions and even more fraught discussions.
Businesses and wha¯ nau are increasingly facing each other across the opinion divide, with the jabbed calling out the hesitant to rattle their dags because they aren’t prepared to have them in their homes and businesses if they choose to remain unvaccinated.
What’s certain is that Delta will present the ‘‘My body, my choice’’ brigade with the stark reality they’ll catch the disease as it rages in Auckland and Waikato.
Thames Mayor Sandra Goudie this week became the poster-child for the anti-vaxxer’s discombobulated arguments – and fury on both sides. The former MP, known to be trenchant in her views, declared that she wasn’t taking the Pfizer shot, but didn’t declare why, instead preferring the Novavax vaccine, which is due to arrive in the country next year.
What’s more, she questioned why Ivermectin, a de-worming drug, wasn’t available. Goudie declared that she was ‘‘supporting freedom of choice’’.
What she didn’t say, but what’s equally true, is that that choice includes the ‘‘freedom’’ to get the disease. On the streets of Thames, potential voters were blunt in their assessment of Goudie, calling her irresponsible.
Among the hesitant, the spotlight this week was on Ma¯ ori. They’ve been left behind, both in the consultation phase and jab phase. With 44.6 per cent of all
Ma¯ ori fully vaccinated, compared to the national rate of 65.9, it’s rangatahi (young people) who are proving the hardest to reach. They make up more than 56 per cent of the Ma¯ ori population, with only 21 per cent fully vaccinated. Getting them to 90 per cent will be a herculean effort.
Ministry of Health research shows the main barriers causing rangitahi hesitancy are: a lack of understanding of the vaccine’s safety; what the lockdowns are achieving; lack of knowledge about the perceived dangers of Delta; and misinformation from anti-vaxxers.
Much has been rightly made of the ministry rolling out the vaccine on an age basis, locking in inequities that placed Ma¯ ori once more at the back of the bus.
Health Minister Andrew Little was feeling the burn over the issue when he named and shamed Taranaki and Taira¯ whiti health boards for failing Ma¯ ori when it came to vaccination. It’s called deflection. If you’re in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, simply shout, ‘‘The baddie isn’t me, he’s over there!’’
Of course, Little had his own motivation for calling them out: highlighting DHBs as being the ‘‘problem’’ is useful when the ‘‘solution’’ is overhauling the health system that’s going to see all 20 DHBs scrapped.
And, as anti-vaxxers continue to make their presence known, first in Auckland, then in Wellington at the investiture for new GovernorGeneral Dame Cindy Kiro, what’s evident is that the vaccine rollout has shattered our Team of Five Million into dozens of ideological pieces, with the small but noisy anti-vaxxers the hard-core, infecting their views on the fearful, using the usual misinformation highways and byways.
In the same way that the 1981 Springbok tour brought this country to its knees, those who do – or don’t – choose to vaccinate will increasingly divide us, making the holy grail of 90 per cent even more difficult to attain. Reaching that figure means going door-to-door, having long conversations, listening actively to fears, working alongside those with concerns and questions. Because when the magic 90 is reached, Aotearoa will be divided between the vaccinated and not-vaccinated, courtesy of the vaccine passports that are due to be rolled out next month.
For the vaccinated, it will mean entry into the New Normal; festivals, bars, restaurants, travel. For the unvaccinated, a life constrained, which for some of the strongest holdouts may be reason enough to finally get jabbed.
As Delta cases rise daily, they should reflect on Ashley Bloomfield’s words: ‘‘It’s becoming increasingly clear that Covid is a disease among the unvaccinated.’’