VACCINATING INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES
VULNERABLE REMOTE COMMUNITIES ARE BEING TARGETED IN THE JAB ROLLOUT, WRITES JANE HANSEN
DONNELLA Mills fears Covid-19 represents a loaded gun to her fellow Indigenous Australians. As chair of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, she says vaccination is a key priority.
There are 143 Aboriginal community-controlled health organisations with more than 500 clinics currently trying to get jabs in Indigenous arms with the help of the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
Given what has happened to the Navajo and Amazonian indigenous people, where Covid has cut a devastating swathe, NACCHO knew it could do the same in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population and worked to close off many vulnerable communities that have remained Covid-free.
“We were able to use the powers in the biosecurity act to shut our remote communities,” Ms Mills said.
But Covid will eventually come, she added.
“When I think of the devastation in other First Nations, particularly the Navajo, that footprint, that traditional passage of law, language, culture and custom, it just stops,” Ms Mills said.
“So it is why we must, if we have questions, go to our doctor. We have to protect our longevity in the country, 60,000 years and we must keep going strong.”
And getting vaccination rates up in the far-flung communities is vital.
Some of the lowest rates are in Western Australia’s north, region with only 10.8 per cent fully vaccinated. Rates across all Indigenous communities are lower than all other groups across the board.
One key hurdle in the Indigenous vaccine rollout was the change in advice from the Australian Technical Advisory Group to recommend over-60s get AstraZeneca and Pfizer for those under 60.
“It has impacted all of us because the stock (of Pfizer) wasn’t available and so not only did we have to shift to Pfizer, Pfizer requires different ways of control, it requires refrigeration, so it wasn’t just the vaccine that we needed, we also needed the infrastructure around support holding the vaccine,” Ms Mills said.
But some communities are doing exceptionally well.
“Shout out to Northern Territory mob Maningreda; they did over 65 per cent of their population over four days, and in the Kimberley they’ve had two pop-up vaccination clinics and they have done in excess of 250 vaccinations each day. We have to get as close as possible to 100 per cent because of the
SHOUT OUT TO NORTHERN TERRITORY MOB MANINGREDA – THEY DID OVER 65 PER CENT OF THEIR POPULATION OVER FOUR DAYS DONNELLA MILLS
fact we have 2.3 times the burden of disease than nonIndigenous Australians.
“Some of our services have been going door-to-door if we identify there may be an elder who can’t get to a clinic. We are reaching out and finding ways of bringing it to them.
“Our estimation of first dose to 80 per cent is the end of October, but we want to be as close to if not at 100 per cent and we hope to get there by the end of the year.”
Another hurdle has been vaccine hesitancy, and the anti-vaccine movement has targeted the Indigenous population with scare tactics.
“It has been so challenging, there has been such a direct intentional move to put this anti-vax narrative out there, and what we’ve had to do is face that front-on and make sure we keep communicating with all of our mob and identifying leaders in the community and encourage them to keep coming to speak to us,” Ms Mills said.
“And we are making sure we get our elder leadership, our sport people, the trusted people to be able to make sure they are communicating with family.”
Infectious diseases epidemiologist at the University of Queensland’s Poche Centre for Indigenous Health Professor James Ward fears the worst is yet to come for his fellow Indigenous people. “I feel like the cases are increasing, and as cases increase, hospitalisation and ICU admissions will increase and ultimately deaths will increase,” Prof Ward said.
“Vaccination is paramount to protect from further deaths. (We must) get our population up to a significant level of vaccination coverage before Covid comes in to their communities.
“If we have pockets of populations at less than 80 per cent, we will be in dire consequence because those communities, if Covid comes in to those who are not vaccinated, it will spread like wildfire,” Prof Ward said.
Wilcannia in NSW, population 700, was exposed to Covid on August 13 and within a month more than 100 people had caught the virus.
“Wilcannia tells many things. It was a town already with a high burden of chronic disease and previously reported as one of the towns with the lowest life expectancy and really shows how inequities can play out in a pandemic,” Prof Ward said.
So far, there have been few deaths in the Indigenous population. “There have been three Covid-related deaths among our community and the three were unvaccinated,” Ms Mills said.
“The most important message is if you have concerns, if you are worried, and so many of us are, you have to go and yarn to your Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation or your doctor and put those questions to a trusted source,” she said.