Cracks in Covid communication

The latest Covid-19 outbreak in Auckland has exposed cracks in the Government’s communication strategy, offering a timely lesson as it prepares for awider vaccine rollout against the virus.

Officials aren’t getting the message across with young people and some community groups. Students have said Covid-19 messages are too old, too long, and too Pākehā.

And, there are apparent contradictions in official communications, with the Government’s own ‘‘Unite against Covid-19’’ page casting doubt on the prime minister’s claims that aworker at KFC Botany broke the rules when she was required to isolate.

Mixed signals from authorities provide an opening for alternative views to step in, posing a threat to the unity that has so far helped New Zealand sidestep the worst of the pandemic.

Epidemiologists say New Zealand is in a position to roll out its vaccine programme strategically: building awall around the most vulnerable communities first by inoculating border workers and their families, and then extending the ring around South Auckland, where many managed isolation facilities and border workers are based.

But if it doesn’t get its communication strategy right, there’s a risk it could win the battle but lose the war: failing to vaccinate enough people tomake it difficult for the virus to spread.

South Auckland councillor Efeso Collins says it could be harder than the Government thinks because of strong anti-vaccination sentiment in the area. There has been a communication gap between health officials and his community for a long time, he says.

‘‘The bureaucrats have to let this go. They will cost us the war if they don’t let go of this now.

They’ve got to let go of this power and trust the community to get the information to our households,’’ he said on RNZ.

A deadly measles outbreak in Samoa in 2019 highlighted the tragic consequences when there is a lack of public trust in vaccination. Samoa had already been a target for anti-vaxxers, but a 2018 incident in which two Samoan nurses wrongly administered m mr vaccines to babies who subsequently died provided fertile ground for their messages to take hold.

Even in the virus-ravaged US, vaccines face some pushback. On Tuesday, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops urged Catholics to avoid taking the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine and to choose alternatives from Pfizer or Moderna instead because Johnson & Johnson used cells derived decades ago from an abortion to create the vaccine. But foetal tissue from abortions has been essential to scientific research for decades.

Destiny Church leader Hannah Tamaki has already stated on social media that she will not receive the Covid-19 vaccine, in a post in which she also defended the decision she and partner Brian Tamaki made on Saturday night, to flee Auckland hours before the snap lockdown curfew.

Some students in the latest cluster, which was based around a high school, broke isolation rules because the message didn’t get through.

An answer, according to communications experts, could be getting young people involved in the design process: asking what media they’d find clear and engaging, and what they’d likely share with friends. ‘‘The Government has been using quite a top-down messaging strategy, which naturally doesn’t sit particularly well with a group of people who are used to creating and sharing their own messaging,’’ Anna Rawhiti-connell, a social media consultant, said.

The Government has been using quite a top-down messaging strategy.